The Road to Recovery Needs Resident Voices!

NOTE: We have concluded this consultation process and submitted data to the Toronto Office of Recovery and Rebuild. Read our Community Voices Pave the Road to Recovery report here.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City of Toronto has received input on how best to respond, recover, and rebuild our city through outreach done by the Mayor’s Economic Support and Recovery Task Force and by the joint City and United Way Greater Toronto Community Coordination Plan. Residents, businesses, and nonprofit organizations have also voluntarily and proactively reached out to the Mayor’s Office, Councillors, and City divisions.

This feedback has helped shape the City’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, and it will help shape future recovery and rebuild actions. The City's divisions and agencies will continue to engage with residents, community partners and groups, and businesses for input throughout the different phases of recovery and rebuild.

As part of this process, the City has established a temporary Toronto Office of Recovery and Rebuild (TORR). TORR's role is to coordinate engagement and research to inform city-wide recommendations for rebuilding and reimagining how the City delivers programs and services. TORR will submit a final report with recommendations to City Council by September 2020.

TORR's work has five main theme areas, one of which is Community and Strategic Alliances. A Working Group for this theme was tasked with developing an engagement plan for residents from Indigenous populations, equity-seeking groups, and/or vulnerable populations — all of whom often face barriers to influencing civic decisions that significantly impact their lives.

As part of this work, the City has engaged Social Planning Toronto (SPT) as a partner to coordinate a grassroots and community sector engagement plan. SPT is working in direct partnership with the Toronto Aboriginal Support Services Council (TASSC) to ensure Indigenous representation in this consultation process. 

TORR will use the data from this engagement to inform its final Community and Strategic Alliances recommendations to Council. The key themes TORR identifies from this data will be shared with SPT and its partners.