The following deputation was delivered by Social Planning Toronto's Executive Director Jin Huh to the Economic and Community Development Committee on October 23, 2024 as they considered item EC16.2 - Sidewalks to Skylines: An Action Plan for Toronto's Economy (2025-2035).  It will be considered by City Council on November 13, 2024. See a full list of community partners who submitted letters and/or deputed at the end of this post. 

Members of the Committee and staff, thank you for the opportunity to speak today. I am here representing Social Planning Toronto (SPT), a non-profit, charitable community organization that works towards a more equitable, and socially and economically just city through policy and systems change work. We collaborate with over 150 community-based partners that collectively represent tens of thousands of economically and socially marginalized residents across the city.

First, I want to express my appreciation for the work done to develop the 10-year economic action plan. We appreciate how the report names the realities facing Toronto; and how it calls for a change in how the City approaches economic development, noting the need to ensure equitable opportunities and climate resilience move forward, alongside economic prosperity. We also applaud the focus on affordable housing as a critical element to a thriving economy, the promise of 10,000 youth jobs, and the collaborative approach outlined in the report, including the recommendation around the Working Table for Inclusive Economic Development.

We would like to share some thoughts on what is missing so this Action Plan can truly work for all Toronto residents.

First, we are disappointed by how little the report acknowledges the nonprofit sector. The sector contributes at least $14 billion in annual revenue and 8% to Toronto’s GDP and plays an even greater role that is not fully measured. From cradle to grave, the sector increases community health, safety and wellbeing, including through our vital role in the care economy, contributes to thriving neighbourhoods and culturally vibrant local main streets, provides shelter, affordable and supportive housing, leverages millions of volunteer hours for public good, and enables greater community resiliency, such as during pandemics and amidst heat waves and other climate change impacts. Our sector is a major employer in the City, and provides job opportunities for marginalized residents, and we do all of this amidst stagnant or decreased funding alongside rising costs and significant increases in service demand. Meanwhile, the sector relies on the local government for only 7% of total revenue.

The City's own For Public Benefit Framework recognizes this sector as vital to Toronto's economic and social infrastructure. 

The Plan makes space for the forthcoming Inclusive Economic Development Framework, and connects this work to other key, existing strategies and plans, which is noted. But, with Toronto seeing rising poverty levels after years of decline, and with one of the highest rates of poverty in Canada, more substantial actions must be pursued in order to address a deeply inequitable economic system. This moment calls for even bolder steps to democratize the economy, and to ensure wealth and decision-making power are more broadly shared. 

We offer the following recommendations:

1. We would like to see the nonprofit sector more explicitly integrated in the Action Plan, with more concrete mechanisms identified for ongoing collaboration and feedback: 
   
   • In neighbourhoods across the city, social service, arts, environmental, recreation-focused, and care-based nonprofits work hand-in-hand with small businesses to create thriving main streets and socially cohesive communities. Nonprofits face many similar challenges as small businesses, including those related to displacement, insecure access to spaces and land, and rising costs. The Plan could include actions to support the protection and expansion of affordable community spaces for grassroots and nonprofit organizations. Targets could be established to protect nonprofits from rising costs and expand the sector’s role in enhancing the city’s main streets, and supporting them to get the basics right.
     
     
2. Invest further in models of shared ownership, community wealth building and ways to create a more inclusive and democratic economy, for example:
   
   • Set targets for expanding the percentage of publicly and community-owned affordable rental housing units, such as co-ops and land trusts, as a highly effective means to protect affordable rental units, and
   • Set targets for the City's existing Community Benefit and Social Procurement policies to expand the proportion of non-profit, co-op, social enterprise and community-owned participation, and prioritizing Indigeneous-, Black- and people of colour, newcomer, women and gender diverse-led organizations to correct for an inequitable marketplace.
     
     
3. Embed stronger human rights, poverty reduction, and worker-centred actions in the Plan
   • As the Plan notes, income has not matched rising inflation and costs. Toronto’s Action Plan needs to directly confront poverty and set targets to substantially reduce poverty as a critical element to a thriving local economy.
   • Our human rights obligations—that require the City to provide adequate housing, the right to food, and ensure individuals are able to live free of poverty—these human rights obligations lead to a stronger economy; they ensure quality jobs and enhance Toronto’s economy. The many protections workers have in this city, as well as the value of key quality of life indicators, attract workers and businesses to Toronto. 
   • The Plan should include a greater focus on workers and workforce development, including more supports for new skilled workers, more training, and encouraging decent work practices. 
   • Many lessons were learned in the early days of the pandemic about how to support and better value these frontline workers, who are mostly racialized, newcomer and women-dominated sectors, through critical workforce development initiatives and ramped up advocacy to other levels of government.
   • And finally, improved access to affordable childcare must be a critical element to realizing the right to work and ensuring a thriving economy

While some of these recommendations can be embedded in the upcoming IED Framework, SPT and our partners strongly believe they need to be integrated more fully in this Action Plan. We look forward to working collaboratively with the City to ensure that Toronto's economic future works for all its residents.

Thank you

Full list of deputants:
Donna Spreitzer, Toronto Community for Better Child Care
Jin Huh, Social Planning Toronto
Kim Patel, The Neighbourhood Group Community Services
Jessica Bell, MPP
Jack Copple, Toronto & York Region Labour Council
Josh Berman, Toronto Neighbourhood Centres
Kumsa Baker, Director, Community Engagement, Toronto Community Benefits Network
Stephen Mensah, Toronto Youth Cabinet
Victor Willis, The Parkdale Activity – Recreation Centre
Miguel Avila-Velarde

Full list of written submissions:

Amy O'Neil, Treetop Children's Centre
Nas Yadollahi, CUPE Local 79 
Fatima Crerar, The Atmospheric Fund 
Susan McMurray, Toronto and York Region Labour Council
Rob Howarth, Toronto Neighbourhood Centres
Emmay Mah, Toronto Environmental Alliance
Donna Spreitzer, Toronto Community for Better Child Care
Susan Colley, Building Blocks for Child Care
Rosemarie Powell, Toronto Community Benefits Network 
Larry Whatmore, Scarborough Community Renewal Organization
 Jutta Mason, Centre for Local Research into Public Space