Premier Kathleen Wynne is hopeful a landmark pilot project that would give some of the province's poorest residents a guaranteed minimum income will be in place next year.

In her most detailed comments yet on a measure introduced in Finance Minister Charles Sousa's Feb. 25 budget, Wynne said the poverty-reduction proposal comes from "a real concern around the way social assistance works in Ontario."

"What we want people to do is build up capacity in their lives so they can be successful," she said in an interview with CBC Radio in Kitchener-Waterloo broadcast Thursday.

To that end, the government is designing a test program to be conducted in a yet-to-be-determined Ontario community that would guarantee a minimum living income regardless of a recipient's employment status.