06/16/2026
An excellent article written by Susan Hartley, member of the PEI Working Group for a Livable Income. The ACSW is proud to work alongside Susan and others on the critical issue of income security.
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COMMENTARY: An equitable society is a secure society
By Susan Hartley
Susan Hartley is the editor of Global Voices for Peace: An Introduction to Peacebuilders and the Hope They Bring.
In my September 2025 commentary in The Guardian, Security starts at home, I challenged decision-makers in our federal and provincial governments to recognize that, as they strive to make our country more secure in the face of threats to our sovereignty and economy, they must pay attention and address the structural and institutional inequalities within our society that contribute to a lack of security and stability.
We hear almost daily about plans for increased spending on militarization, defence and border control in response to external threats, yet we hear less, if anything, about the threat that comes from the increasing income gap or about any plans to make systemic changes to how we care for the most economically — and therefore socially — vulnerable or disadvantaged in our communities.
While writing about the humanitarian crisis in Sudan recently, former Canadian foreign minister, Lloyd Axworthy, stated, “Human security begins with a simple idea: the safety of states depends on the safety of people.”
He advocates for a renewed human security foreign policy, one that applies the ‘responsibility to protect’ doctrine wherein the international community has a duty to respond to crises and threats of crises through peaceful means.
The research in Peace clearly indicates that the same reasoning and logic applies to building resilience within our country’s boundaries and ensuring that people are safe, secure, and free from the structural and systemic violence inherent in the levels of poverty, homelessness and inequity in our society. Our governments have a duty and responsibility to protect locally and internationally.
As I stated in my commentary of September, here in P.E.I. we have a policy proposal on the table that will take us a long way toward building security at home and throughout the whole country: basic income guarantee. The P.E.I. Working Group for a Liveable Income has been the driving force for BIG for the past 22 years. The group has worked with advocates across Canada to develop this fully costed proposal. Through BIG, resources are distributed more equitably and the right for all people to have their basic needs met is actualized.
This proposal is in the hands of the P.E.I. provincial government and the federal government. It is ready to move forward, and has the support of economists, politicians, and the broader community.
P.E.I. BIG demonstration
Moving forward with the P.E.I. BIG demonstration project, which will eradicate deep poverty, waits for political will, direction from our premier and prime minister, and an understanding by decision-makers that a guaranteed basic income is a critical tool in a nation’s security plan — the recognition that they must not just consider defence measures, but consider how every person in Canada is doing.
The threat to our social safety nets and expenditures aimed at increasing the well being of people living in Canada is real and affects a significant portion of our population on a daily basis.
By tackling income inequity, food insecurity, and housing insecurity we can create a fairer, more secure and more peaceful country, and reduce the threats that emanate from a society that does not care for all members. We just need to look south of our border to a country where inequity grew along with a promise of equity that was never realized to see what happens when these threats are ignored.
Policy such as BIG transforms the structures and systems that currently sustain poverty in our country and a country that eradicates, or at least significantly decreases, poverty is a securer and more stable society.
To restate the challenge I put to all of us previously: Imagine how much more secure and resilient our communities and our province would be if everyone had their basic needs met through a guaranteed income, and if everyone had the opportunity to flourish. We have the research; we have the evidence; we have the means: basic income guarantee. We all have a role in creating a secure society: speak to your MLA and your MP — they know about the P.E.I. BIG proposal; you might want to remind them.
Susan Hartley, PhD (psychology) is a global peace scholar who lives in Georgetown Royalty, P.E.I., and is a member of the P.E.I. Working Group for a Liveable Income. This is the second article in a series of commentaries prepared by members of the working group. The first was published June 9.
