The following newsletter went out to subscribers on Tuesday, May 26 with the headline You’re Invited! Our City for All Summit Will Shape a Toronto That Works. Sign up for our monthly newsletter.
In the build-up to this October's municipal elections, a coalition of community organizations and communities across Toronto are collaborating to build City for All, a city-wide platform that will address the growing crises in health, poverty, housing, safety, and climate across the city.
To help build this platform, we are engaging residents and community groups across the city to share their feedback on what kind of Toronto they want to build.
Our next event invites Black, Indigenous, and racialized community members to help shape the platform through the lens of racial justice and reconciliation. If this speaks to you, join us at the City for All Summit on Saturday, June 13 from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. at the Central YMCA. Registration is required. If you are interested in attending, please fill out this registration by Monday, June 1, 2026 at 5 PM.
To plan for this summit, our partner agencies convened last week at the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto (pictured above) for an invigorating and productive conversation on how to build a city that works for all residents. A big thank you to all who attended!
Photo by Razeeb Chowdhury
In this issue:
- Read Our Op-ed on Personal Support Workers in the Toronto Star
- Our 2026 Pre-Budget Submission to the Federal Government
- Our Submission to the City of Toronto in Support of a Zoning Amendment to Construct a Woman’s Shelter
- Ontario Superior Court Judge Rules People Experiencing Homelessness Have Charter Protections Against Discrimination
- Bill 98 Gives Provincial Government Control of TTC, Rolls Back Green Building Standards
- Help Shape Accessible Transit on the TTC – ACAT Applications Now Open
- Take Action: Tell the Province to Fund Our Schools
- New Series on Understanding the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action
- Event (May 31): Documentary Screening at Hot Docs on the Politics of Policing and the Toronto City Budget
Read Our Latest Op-ed on Personal Support Workers in the Toronto Star
To mark Personal Support Worker Day on May 19, SPT’s Senior Researcher and Policy Analyst Beth Wilson and Dr. Naomi Lightman of TMU co-authored an op-ed published in the Toronto Star, "These workers support us in our homes, but are burnt out and underpaid. This is how we can help them."
From the article:
Personal support work is vital for society but is also deeply undervalued — typically low paid and insecure, with inadequate workplace benefits and poor working conditions. The Ontario government’s own projections show 50,853 additional PSWs will be needed across all sectors by 2032. But delayed and inadequate action to address PSWs’ employment concerns has resulted in labour shortages, compromising access to much-needed care for Ontarians.
Read the full article on Toronto Star's website.
Read our report, Caring About Care Workers.
Our 2026 Pre-Budget Submission to the Federal Government
As a part of the Federal Government's Pre-Budget Consultations in advance of Budget 2026, SPT put forward six recommendations, with a focus on poverty reduction.
- Recommendation 1: Increase the adequacy and accessibility of the Canada Disability Benefit
- Recommendation 2: Create a new Canada Child Benefit End Child Poverty Supplement targeted to families with low income
- Recommendation 3: Introduce a permanent, Canada-wide housing benefit system to help people move out of homelessness and increase stability for lower-income renters
- Recommendation 4: Recommit to the right to adequate housing and take action to curb the financialization of housing
- Recommendation 5: Advance the next phase of the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care program
- Recommendation 6: Increase investment in and expand access to the National School Food Program
Submissions closed on May 22, 2026. The full budget will be announced in fall 2026.
Our Submission to the City of Toronto in Support of a Zoning Amendment to Construct a Woman’s Shelter
On May 7, the City’s Planning and Housing Committee considered a zoning by-law amendment application to support the construction of a 60-bed women’s shelter. The most recently reported median age of death for women in Toronto experiencing homelessness is 36. Shelters are a critical entry point to long-term housing.
Though there has been some opposition to the shelter, the majority of community participants at Committee expressed their support for the site. Social Planning Toronto both deputed in person and submitted a written statement, which you can read on our website
Progress Toronto has created an e-mail tool you can use to tell your Councillor you support the creation of new shelters.
Ontario Superior Court Judge Rules People Experiencing Homelessness Have Charter Protections Against Discrimination
Ontario Superior Court Justice Michael R. Gibson has ruled that the region of Waterloo is not allowed to remove encampment residents from the site of a future transit project, citing their Charter rights. Per Justice Gibson, Canada’s international obligations as adopted through the National Housing Strategy Act “require state actors to treat those experiencing homelessness as right-holders entitled to effective remedies, due process, and genuine and meaningful consultation in any encampment response.”
Housing justice activists are praising the move, particularly for what this means with how Canada addresses homelessness in the future. The National Right to Housing Network (NRHN) released a statement saying that if upheld, “this decision could mean that anti-camping bylaws, police sweeps of encampments, denial of services when people experiencing homelessness have nowhere else to go, are now far more open to legal challenge.” They credited this ruling to decades of work done by advocates, researchers, and organizations across the country.
Bill 98 Gives Provincial Government Control of TTC, Rolls Back Green Building Standards
The Province of Ontario has passed Bill 98, the Building Homes and Improving Transportation Infrastructure Act, which according to transit advocacy group TTCriders will hand “sweeping new powers over transit fares, service standards, and regional integration to the Province of Ontario.” The legislation could override affordability measures that SPT and partners organized to win in the 2026 Toronto City Budget, including fare capping. See TTCriders’s full statement.
Toronto Environmental Alliance (TEA) has also warned that Bill 98 will threaten green building standards. Per their statement, this bill “bans all municipalities from implementing green building requirements, even going as far as eliminating ones that have been in place for years.”
Stay informed of upcoming actions from TTCriders and TEA by signing up for their newsletters.
Sign up to receive TEA’s newsletter.
Sign up to receive TTCriders’s newsletter.
Help Shape Accessible Transit on the TTC – ACAT Applications Now Open
The TTC is currently accepting applications for new members to join its Advisory Committee on Accessible Transit (ACAT). ACAT plays an important role in advising the TTC on accessibility across the transit system – helping ensure services, infrastructure, and communications are accessible and inclusive for all customers.
Applications are open until 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, August 5, 2026.
To learn more, please visit ttc.ca/acat.
Take Action: Tell the Province to Fund Our Schools
The Fund Our Schools has created an e-mail template you can use to contact provincial decision makers (including the Premier and the Education Minister) calling for a reversal to years of chronic underfunding in public schools. Specific demands include restoring per-student funding to a needs-based level (adjusted for inflation), fully funding the urgent repairs needed in 84% of Toronto schools, and legislate a commitment that education funding annual increases will never fall below the rate of inflation.
Learn more about upcoming events related to Fund Our Schools, including a Virtual Town Hall on June 1 and a rally at Queen's Park on June 4.
The Fund Our Schools campaign is a project of Toronto & York Region Labour Council, Elementary Teachers of Toronto, and Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation – Toronto.
New Series on Understanding the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action
North York Community Housing (NYCH) has shared recordings for the first two sessions of the TRC Calls to Action Study Group with Dr. Niigaanwewidam Sinclair. Presented by The Neighbourhood Group, Toronto South West Local Immigration Partnership, and North York Community House, this gathering is open to students, organizations, companies, and anyone who is committed to learning, reflection, and meaningful action toward Reconciliation.
Registration is available for the remaining two sessions on June 3 and June 17.
NYCH’s previous speaker series, Lunch & Learn with Niigaan Sinclair and their Indigenous Speaker Series, are archived on their Youtube Channel.
Event (May 31): Documentary Screening at Hot Docs on the Politics of Policing and the Toronto City Budget
Hogtown: The Politics of Policing (2005) screens Sunday, May 31 at 6:30 p.m. at Hot Docs Cinema. This unflinching look at policing, power and municipal politics in Toronto during a period of public crisis and institutional upheaval was shot 20 years ago but issues remain urgent today. The screening will be followed by a conversation with director Min Sook Lee and Massey College senior fellow Alok Mukherjee, and moderated by organizer and researcher Aliya Pabani.