2024-25
If it seems as if we only just shared our 2024 Annual Report, that’s not entirely inaccurate. It’s been nine months since we published our last annual report, and yet, we managed to fit a year’s worth of work in that time.
At last year’s AGM, we launched a campaign urging the City of Toronto to renew their commitment to a fully funded Poverty Reduction Strategy. Poverty is an all-encompassing beast; it is intricately tied to the affordable housing crisis, low incomes that have not kept apace with inflation, worsening labour conditions, growing inequality, and the opioid poisoning epidemic; meanwhile low- and moderate-income communities are disproportionately impacted by the disinvestment in social services, climate change, and trade wars. We knew that tackling such a wicked and amorphous problem would require a range of approaches, looking at both short-term needs and long-term solutions.
We introduced a panel series, in which we invited community leaders to discuss tangible policy solutions. We kept up with our annual City Budget work, in which we both appealed to City Hall to fund key poverty reduction programs and services, and provided resources and information to support the general public in getting engaged in the budget process. We launched Fighting for our Future: Child and Family Poverty Report Card, Toronto 2024, a comprehensive report which revealed that Toronto has once again claimed the unfortunate distinction of being the child poverty capital of Canada and outlined critical policy solutions.
We are proud of our accomplishments, and we have celebrated some impressive collective wins—like the City’s expansion of their Student Nutrition Program after months of our advocacy efforts, or advancing policy to crack down on bad faith renovictions—but at every step we are aware of just how much work there is to do to keep advancing equality and a more livable Toronto for all.
We were kept especially busy with two snap elections. On January 28, while we were in the midst of our annual City Budget work, a provincial election was called for February 27. Our team sprung to action, creating fact sheets, hosting workshops, and providing other resources so that voters could make an informed decision. No sooner had that election wrapped up than a federal election was announced, and the work continued. Of course, democracy doesn’t begin and end at the ballot box, and when City Council introduced a bylaw that would restrict where people could protest, we took action in defense of democracy at every step (you can read more about that in our Year in Review). The bylaw unfortunately passed, although it is less restrictive than any other municipality in Canada—thanks to our collective action. SPT is committed to continuing to work to protect our Charter right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. We know that many social justice wins throughout our city’s history happened because of protest, and we know how much progress lies ahead of us, but only if we work together.
We remain deeply grateful to all our funders, sustaining partners, donors, and organizational members, particularly United Way Greater Toronto and the City of Toronto. We also want to thank the Metcalf Foundation and the Atkinson Foundation for their partnership and support. We are also indebted to our larger community: anyone who has ever attended one of our workshops, panels, or rallies, deputed at City Hall, shared or amplified our research, signed a joint letter or petition, or otherwise made their voices heard. In Social Planning Toronto’s six decade history, one thing has always been constant: we cannot do it alone.
