Halifax council votes to send letter to feds in support of basic income, despite concerns from Andy Fillmore, Trish Purdy (www.halifaxexaminer.ca)

submitted 1 month ago by ryper@lemmy.ca to c/halifax@lemmy.ca

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The article is behind the Halifax Examiner's paywall for now, but they have a section about it in today's free Morning File (it's not in the headline there).

But before debate even started on Morse’s motion [to send the letter], Coun. Trish Purdy asked for a point of order, saying issues around guaranteed basic income aren’t under municipal jurisdiction.

Mayor Andy Fillmore supported Purdy’s point of order, saying any decisions about a guaranteed basic income are up to the federal government with assistance from the provinces.

Fillmore pointed to section 70 of Administrative Order (AO) One that says “a motion in respect of a matter which is not within the jurisdiction of the Council shall not be in order.”

Municipal solicitor John Traves said while Fillmore is correct about the point of order, if two-thirds of councillors want to disregard the rule, they could do so.

Objecting because of the rules. OK, sure. But:

Purdy doubled-down, saying she wants council to always focus only on issues under municipal jurisdiction.

“What are we now? The giver of all magic money to all people?” Purdy said.

Still, she said while she doesn’t support a basic income, she thinks it will become a reality because of artificial intelligence (AI) in the labour force.

“I’m going to resist it until the very end,” Purdy said. “I have so many red flags about this.”

Purdy said if her children needed money, she’d tell them to go get another job.

“You get three jobs, you get five jobs. You don’t sleep; you make money, you save it, and you figure it out,” Purdy said. “That’s where I come from with these things.”

Fillmore said he does support universal basic income (UBI), adding he has attended and spoken at the BIG-NS conference in the past when he served as the MP for Halifax.

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[-] ryper@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Purdy's website says she expected to graduate with her Master of Divinity last year. I don't know if she actually graduated, but studying for that seems like the kind of thing to ought to make someone stop telling people to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2026

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