math is clear. 33 million Canadians collecting a basic income is prohibitively expensive.

I see, you're making the same assumption many others are that this is a true basic income scheme where everybody gets cut a cheque, while it's in fact a guaranteed minimum income scheme, essentially rebranded welfare.

This isn't a free-money-for-all, it would be similar to welfare payments here, only for those who earn nothing or almost nothing. There are no real barriers to entry to welfare here except being willing to live very poor, and maybe some generally undeserved social stigma.

IMO it should not be socially taboo to ask for this assistance if you have no other income, and bureaucracy costs could actually be minimized with a solution like this. We don't need to pay bureaucrats to create a barrier to entry to last resort assistance for the very poorest. As long as costs don't explode and I don't think they would, I think it's a perfectly reasonable way to strengthen the social safety net.

Not everyone can be a productive member of society, there are many people who either can't find work or aren't able to work for a vast range of reasons. I wouldn't need this myself but I think it has positives that make it better than classical welfare for those who have no income, for whatever reason. As long as there's still a strong financial incentive to choose to work if thats an option for you, I think it wouldn't be anywhere as bad as you think.