The purpose of this strategy document is to provide a clear roadmap that the City of Toronto can use - in partnership with other governments, community, business, labour, education and other sectors – to end present high levels of poverty in the city and create a path toward solid growth and prosperity.

The strategy fully embraces an approach which calls for, as a fi rst priority, ending deep poverty, and removing conditions that swell the ranks of the working poor and keep them entrapped in poverty.1 It aims to galvanize action to change present conditions and achieve a better future for all people of this city. In so doing, it sets out to identify practical solutions that take into account Toronto’s considerable assets (including its diverse, multi-skilled population and enormous economic potential), building not just for the short term but for many years beyond.