[1][2] However, the project was terminated early by a newly elected Progressive Conservative government, and the final payments were made to participants in March 2019.
[4][5] The communities served by the pilot project included Hamilton, Brantford, Thunder Bay and Lindsay.
[7] 10 months after the Liberal administration started distributing payments, the early cancellation of the project was announced (in August 2018) by the Progressive Conservative government.
[8][9] Minister of Children and Youth Services Lisa MacLeod said the decision was taken due to high costs, and because ministry staff indicated that "the program didn't help people become 'independent contributors' to the economy.
"[6][8] McLeod added that the project did not align with the government of Doug Ford desire to move people from welfare to jobs.
Ending the study early will make it difficult to gather conclusive data regarding the research goal of determining "what happens when low-wage, precarious workers receive a financial top-up.
[11] Other journalistic reports tended to focus on non-entrepreneurial participant outcomes contributing to personal stability, such as augmenting disability payments, paying for education and student loans, purchasing new eyeglasses while remaining in a low-paid museum job, paying for transportation costs (such as bus fare to work rather than walking for an hour and a half), and purchasing necessary items like fresh produce, hospital parking passes, "winter clothes they couldn't [previously] afford and staying warm", etc.
They undertook qualitative interviews with a small sample of project members who specifically wished to articulate their reflections on receiving basic income.