Resolution in $200M Ontario basic income class action could take ‘years’: lawyer
Global News
A lawyer from Toronto law firm Cavalluzzo LLP is representing thousands in a class action alleging Ontario breached the terms of a contract it entered with participants.
The lead counsel in a class action seeking millions for the early cancelling of Ontario’s basic income pilot admits it could take several more years before there’s any resolution to the matter.
Cavalluzzo LLP lawyer Stephen Moreau says the province agreeing to hand over $320,000 to cover legal fees on Tuesday “towards the other side” appears to hint there isn’t any obvious settlement coming soon.
“This began five years ago. How long will it take? Possibly more years,” Moreau said.
In 2019, four Lindsay, Ont., residents who were enrolled in the pilot filed the $200-million class action against the Ontario Progressive Conservative government over the cancellation.
The lawsuit alleges a “breach of contract” after the previous Liberal government introduced the $150-million, three-year pilot in April 2017.
In late March, a judge certified the class action.
“They were allowed to cancel it early,” Moreau admitted. “They just had to pay the contract price … and that was to continue the program or not continue the program and make the payments that they had promised these people.”
Moreau says the next step will be the discovery process in which he expects to get copies of all of Ontario’s documents “to see on the inside” what the Conservatives were thinking when they ditched the initiative in 2018.
