8 Free Things To Do In The Kawartha Lakes

PHOTO BY ERIN SMITH PHOTOGRAPHY

Award-winning journalist Roderick Benns spent more than two years with one key purpose – using advocacy journalism to get leaders across Canada talking about the potential of a basic income guarantee.

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1. Ken Reid Conservation Area Offers several loop trails that lead through forests, meadows, and wetlands. Includes the popular floating boardwalk that winds through MacLaren Creek Wetland. During the summer you can spot red bellied snakes, snapping turtles, and leopard frogs.

2. EarlyON With many locations in Kawartha Lakes, including Lindsay, Fenelon Falls, and Bobcaygeon, these fully equipped, child-based learning centres for infants to age six even have free toy lending libraries. 3. Kawartha Lakes Public Libraries Offers many free programs for kids. Craft and Storytime programs, Lego, and special programs and events for kids throughout the year and including during March Break. 4. Lindsay Seniors Association Has many programs for adults 50 and over, from knitting, tai chi, art, carpet bowling, Bingo, pool, Scrabble, euchre, shuffleboard and more. 5. Victoria Recreation Corridor The Victoria Recreation Corridor is a rail trail that stretches from Lindsay to Kinmount 55 km in length. The trail is used year-round for hiking, horseback riding, cycling, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and snowmobiling. 6. Bobcaygeon Swing Bridge Built at the locks it was originally constructed in 1921, and remains an important part of the landscape of the community. Just a short distance from the locks and very popular with tourists. 7. Kawartha Lakes Boys and Girls Club This institution is well known and yet has more programs for children, youth, and families than people realize. Programs and participation is free for lower income families and affordably priced for all. For a full list of programs see their website.

8. The falls at Fenelon Falls The lock and waterfalls are located right downtown so it’s very accessible to restaurants and stores. A beautiful place to sit and enjoy nature, complete with a park and washrooms. Even better in the summer but great to see year round.

BASIC INCOME IN LINDSAY How it might transform our community and usher in a new era of social policy in Canada.

It has been two years since Fresh Fuell opened its doors in downtown Lindsay with a vision to provide fast, healthy food for people on the go. Like with most small businesses, it wasn’t a slam dunk right away for owners Luis and Leanna Segura, despite the enthusiastic response of the community. There are overhead costs like rent and supplies. There are employee wages to consider. All of this happens before they even get a chance to pay something to themselves. So money is tight for the Seguras, who also have a young family of four to feed. When they heard how Ontario was going to test the merits of a basic income policy in Lindsay and two other communities in Ontario, they realized that despite perceptions that business owners are well off, they might even qualify. They were right. By 2018, the Seguras were approved to begin receiving a basic income guarantee from the Province to help make ends meet. “People think because you’re a business owner you’ve got it made,” Luis tells The Lindsay Advocate. “But if you look at what you’re making, you make less than what you’re paying you’re employees sometimes.” In order to participate in the pilot, individuals must be: • 18 to 64 years old (for the entire duration of the three-year study) • living in one of the selected test regions (like Lindsay) for the past 12 months or longer (and still live there) • living on a low income (under $34,000 per year if you’re single or under $48,000 per year if you’re a couple) A basic income guarantee ensures everyone an income that is sufficient to meet their basic needs and live with dignity, regardless of work status. It’s a way to ensure no one ever drops below (or at least near) the poverty line. The Province has been signing people up who are currently on Ontario Works or the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), but more commonly it’s the so-called ‘working poor’ who are qualifying to sign up – even small business owners like the Seguras.

About 70 per cent of the people living in poverty in Canada are working – but just not enough to stay out of poverty. Game Changer Mike Perry is Executive Director, City of Kawartha Lakes Family Health Team, as well as the chair of the Lindsay and District Chamber of Commerce. He was also chair of the Kawartha Lakes Food Coalition last year and led lobbying efforts to get Lindsay chosen for the pilot. Perry believes that the basic income pilot is “going to be a game changer here.” “It’s really going to help people – it’s an incentive to get out of the welfare trap. I see it as a trampoline.” He envisions a wide variety of people benefiting, from people on social assistance, to students from Fleming College’s Frost campus, struggling farmers, and new small business owners – like the Seguras – who are trying to find their footing. “There is a definite need” in Lindsay for basic income, Perry says, with the town’s income levels sitting at below the provincial average. “Lindsay is going to be poked and prodded and analyzed,” he adds, “so we have a responsibility to make sure this goes well.”

In fact, out of the 4,000 participants, who will be invited to participate, 1,000 will be from the Hamilton/Brantford area and another 1,000 will be from Thunder Bay. However, 2,000 participants will be invited from Lindsay, making it a vital part of the Ontario pilot to test behaviours, work patterns, health and mental health outcomes, housing stability, educational attainment, and how the community as a whole may benefit. Many community leaders have stepped up to lend their support to the basic income pilot. Chief John Hagarty, Lindsay’s forward-thinking police chief, says he believes “that people need hope and an opportunity to succeed.” That’s why Hagarty is a strong supporter of basic income for Lindsay. Without that sense of optimism, it can result in too many forms of escapism, he says, including the abuse of legal and illegal substances. “This harms them, their families and most importantly their children who often get caught in a cycle of hopelessness,” the chief says. “I think the basic income pilot is a step in the right direction to help some break that cycle.” Dr. Bert Lauwers, the progressive CEO of Ross Memorial Hospital, told a crowd at a recent basic income policy conference in Lindsay that allowing poverty was a social policy choice and that he hoped basic income would help change that. He noted that we spend way too much time and money on acute care instead of the social determinants of health, which are essentially the living conditions that we experience. “We have to re-purpose our economy to put human beings at the heart of our society,” Lauwers told the crowd, pointing to the better health outcomes of the more egalitarian Nordic nations.

Basic Income and the Business Community Mike Perry estimates that the basic income pilot will generate $50 million in local spending in the community by the time it’s complete.

He believes that basic income will be good for the local economy because the people that need the money most will be able to spend more on what they need for themselves and their families, most doing so locally at small businesses.

As well, he says it will only serve to increase the profile of Lindsay and the Kawartha Lakes and “enhance our influence with the provincial government in terms of advocating for what we need municipally.”

Perry, who was also named Lindsay’s ‘Citizen of the Year’ recently, says the more people “who see all we have to offer here in our area,” the better.

This includes “the environment, the food and shops, the people, the lack of traffic,” all great for attracting tourism, business and new residents, he says.

Perry notes that having the basic income program here, along with increased media, gives the town more time on a provincial stage.

He has no patience for people who dismiss the pilot on grounds of either cost or that no one will work.

“My first response is ‘how’s the current system working for you?’ because I can tell you no one likes the current system.”

Perry says to imagine if Tommy Douglas, Canada’s founder of Medicare, had given up because it sounded too hard or too complex to set up.

“We may never have had universal health care.”

Perry also points out that “no one is getting rich on basic income.”

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“You can still go out and earn income – and that’s an incentive. Go get active in the labour force. Everyone I know of who has a low income wants to work,” he says.

Perry notes there is an equal responsibility for basic income policy architects to never give up on creating good, sustainable jobs.

Participants currently receiving child benefits, such as the Canada Child Benefit (CCB) and the Ontario Child Benefit (OCB), will continue to be eligible to receive them during the pilot. The hope is that a basic income will support people to begin or continue working, or to further their education.

WHAT BASIC INCOME means to you

Students While student loans and grants help pay for tuition, books, and some living expenses, a basic income guarantee ensures that someone who decides to go to school (or go back to school) will not be penalized for trying to improve their lives.

Employers Employers who can only offer part-time work should feel more secure that the difference for employees is made up with a basic income and that their employees are then more stable in their lives. Stable, content employees make for a more stable workplace. A basic income would also ensure more people have more money to spend. People who earn lower incomes inevitably need to spend most of their money, and they do so locally for the things they need.

Employees Many employees are stuck in so-called ‘precarious’ work – contract jobs or temp jobs, seasonal employment, or part time, usually without benefits. The unpredictable hours can take a toll on people’s lives and on family life. Basic income can help here. Dead-end jobs with poor working conditions aren’t likely to be supported any longer, at least not without better levels of compensation. This tips the balance of power back some to employees in an era of decreased unionization.

Unemployed For people who are laid off from work, a basic income provides a clear safety springboard for them to not only avoid poverty and the kind of traps that come with our current social assistance model, but to spring into new opportunities.

Entrepreneurs and Creatives A basic income could have a meaningful impact on a person’s chance of success in choosing to become an entrepreneur, start a social innovation enterprise, or pursue a talent as a writer, actor, or other creative worker. It would reduce the amount of risk an individual incurs.