Basic-income model is already here By: Wayne Simpson Save to Read Later My colleague Evelyn Forget has argued forcefully that the time is right for a basic income (”Canada can afford a basic income,” March 3) and draws a parallel with our universal health-care plan developed a half-century ago. Opinion My colleague Evelyn Forget has argued forcefully that the time is right for a basic income ("Canada can afford a basic income," March 3) and draws a parallel with our universal health-care plan developed a half-century ago. Medicare is a popular but distinctly different social policy, however, and there is a more recent popular initiative that provides a better model to build on when the time is right: the National Child Benefit Initiative.