Canada's largest province, Ontario, experimenting with giving poor people a basic income with no strings attached

    Canada's largest province, Ontario, is experimenting with giving poor people a basic income with no strings attached.

   The three-year study will test whether this basic income is better than current social welfare programmes.
   Randomly selected participants living in three communities in Ontario will be given at least 16,989 Canadian Dollars a year to live on.
   Ontario Premier, Kathleen Wynne, said it is time to be bold in figuring out how to help society's most vulnerable.
  Ontario is not the only one trying this policy out. Finland recently launched its own trial in January, and the Scottish government has expressed interest.

The idea has the potential to reduce poverty and cut out red tape.

  Ontario's pilot project will roll out in Hamilton and Thunder Bay this spring, and Lindsay this fall.