The world's basic income movement came to Toronto in August — and we caught it all on film. Our BIEN Congress 2026 video series is rolling out now.
In August, the global basic income movement came to us. The Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) held its 25th International Congress at Toronto Metropolitan University, and for four days in August the city was the centre of the basic income world — researchers, organizers, and policy minds from across the globe, trading evidence and strategy on how regular, unconditional income for everyone actually gets built.
UBI Works was in the middle of it. We co-hosted the Congress with the Basic Income Canada Network, and we put our own stamp on the week with two events open to everyone — not just Congress delegates. And because we believe moments like this belong to the whole movement, not just the people in the room, we brought cameras. That footage is now becoming a video series on our YouTube channel, and this post is your guide to it.
Watch everything in order on YouTube: BIEN Congress 2026 — the full series
On the eve of the Congress, we hosted our Toronto Basic Income Meetup at Electric Mind in the CBC Building — and it turned into one of the week’s highlights. Ken Yang of UBI Works and Common Wealth Canada opened a night of remarks from the Honourable Senator Kim Pate, the Senate’s strongest voice for a guaranteed livable basic income and sponsor of Bill S-206; Dr. Guy Standing, BIEN’s co-founder and one of the world’s most influential basic income economists; and Chris Ford, CEO and Managing Partner of Electric Mind — our generous venue host.
In the closing conversation of the night, Floyd Marinescu, founder of UBI Works and Common Wealth Canada, sat down with Dr. Guy Standing to ask why he feels more hopeful about basic income after decades of advocacy — on the movement’s growth, South Korea’s momentum, and the case for paying everyone dividends from the wealth we share: the commons, land and natural resources, even digital data. If you only watch one video in this series, make it this one.
How will people receive an income when work is no longer the primary way our economy creates and distributes value — even without mass technological unemployment? Ken Yang of Common Wealth Canada and UBI Works presents a framework for true, enduring household economic security in the post-labour economy: transfer-based income guarantees as the bridge, broad ownership of capital as the destination - so that the gains of technology are broadly shared.
Premieres October 20.
Could the land wealth driving housing unaffordability help fund a guaranteed basic income? Floyd Marinescu and Liam Wilkinson of Common Wealth Canada and UBI Works explore how returning community-created land value to the public could raise household incomes while tackling the forces that make housing expensive — drawing on policy modelling for British Columbia to show how it reduces poverty, benefits renters and mortgage holders, and encourages more housing construction.
Premieres October 27.
Ken Yang hosts Dr. Nam-hoon Kang — Professor Emeritus of Economics at Hanshin University, co-founder of the Basic Income Korea Network, and Vice Chairman of South Korea’s Presidential Commission on Basic Society — for a presentation and discussion on common wealth dividends: how land value, carbon, and renewable energy revenues can deliver income to citizens, sovereign wealth funds as a vehicle for AI dividends, universal versus income-tested designs, and Korea’s Sunlight & Wind Pension dividend program.
Premieres November 3.
We closed the Congress the way it should end: with film. Bootstraps — ten years in the making, from Emmy-winning filmmaker Deia Schlosberg — followed eleven households through a multi-year basic income experiment. On August 22 we co-hosted the world premiere at Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, featuring two episodes, remarks from Senator Kim Pate and Floyd Marinescu, a Q&A with filmmakers Deia Schlosberg and Conrad Shaw and participant Corine Olarte, and a special announcement from the Income to Support All Foundation and Comingle.
Momentum is real right now. Senator Pate is advancing Bill S-206 in the Senate. Municipal councils from Halifax to Peterborough are voting for basic income. South Korea is building AI-dividend policy at the national level. And the conversation about who owns the gains from AI is only getting louder — here and everywhere.
The Congress in Toronto was four days of that movement in one room. Now it’s on film, and it belongs to you.
Watch the full series — and subscribe, because this rollout continues through the fall: youtube.com/@UBIWorks
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