Pedestrians are the city's orphans

We can call it the “baby stroller effect”; when a mom pushing a stroller was killed by a car, it made the front page of all papers; much time in TV news was focused on it and everyone became concerned. Now pedestrian deaths are back on the forgotten pile.

Political candidates in the GTA, to both municipal council and for mayor, do not seem to have this on their minds, even though it affects everyone, young and old, rich and poor, urban or suburban -- all. What are they proposing to do about it? It is not about talking “war on cars,” it is about doing, creating cities for people.

We seem to justify pedestrians killed as a normal part of everyday city life in the 21st century; we blame it on the fact that he or she was “talking on the cellphone” or “listening to the i-Pod” or “probably jaywalking” or just “not paying attention.”

This common attitude might lower our concern and anxiety, but it is wrong. None of those actions justify getting killed! It is people like us, like our children and parents, our neighbours and friends, who are killed while they walk to their normal activities.

Everyday a Canadian is killed while walking (average last five years, StatsCan). Last year a pedestrian was injured by a car in Toronto every six hours (TO Police). There are more than twice as many pedestrians killed in Ontario as there are homicides by firearm.

Walking can and should be made safe for ALL. Period.

Walking is a mode of transportation. Even in the wealthiest and most sprawling neighbourhoods in the GTA more than one in three people do not drive: everyone under 17, 30 per cent of the over 60, and 15 per cent of the rest. In areas less affluent and/or denser, it can go above 75 per cent.

What are our political candidates saying about this? Who is the “champion of the pedestrians”? Who is willing to propose a one-line policy on the first day at work that “in this municipality pedestrians are first”? It would send a clear message to all stakeholders, municipal staff, developers, citizens, that everything that takes place in our communities should have pedestrians as a priority.

From the point of view of vulnerability according to modes of transportation, pedestrians are first, then cyclists, then transit users, and then car drivers and passengers. From the age point of view, children and older adults are most vulnerable, they are also the least likely to drive, which is why we need to create great cities for all (8-80 Cities).

But walking is not just about transportation; creating a great walkable community results in other benefits as a bonus: vibrant cities, healthier communities, great public places and happier residents.

Make sure that your politician makes a commitment to do whatever is necessary to make walking a normal part of everyday life, and to make it SAFE for ALL.

About Gil Penalosa

Why a $5 road toll makes good sense

Lorenzo Mele.

Congratulations to Sarah Thomson, candidate for Mayor of Toronto, for introducing us to her bold vision to support transit expansion in the city. Thomson seems to understand that Toronto needs more than a "cap in hand" funding strategy to support transit expansion since senior levels of government are growing weary of bankrolling our transit vision. And we can’t forget that once the subway and LRT systems are built, money is needed to operate, maintain and ultimately replace them.

The challenge is that such a powerful economic measure must be considered in broader terms than simply collecting $5 from each motorist using the DVP and the Gardiner Expressway to fund subways instead of light rail transit.

As a candidate in a municipal election, it takes courage to introduce unpopular ideas, and it would be unfortunate if we devolve the important discussion that Thomson has started down to the simple "war on cars" or 416 versus 905 struggles. We deserve an informed civil debate to better understand how we might apply a tried-and-true economic strategy to improve traffic congestion, air quality, and fund our transit and cycling dreams.

Road pricing or tolls were used in Roman times, places like Singapore continue to evolve road pricing schemes first introduced there in 1975 as a way to manage ever-growing traffic congestion, and charging a fee for a good or service is the very foundation of our revered market economy.

The "law of supply and demand" is applied effectively to virtually every aspect of our consumer society, save for transportation. Tolls or road pricing implemented strategically across the GTA and Hamilton (not only on the DVP and Gardiner Expressway) and combined with improved transportation services (transit, bike lanes, rapid transit, vanpools, carpool lanes and parking lots, community shuttles) and better land use planning that puts people and the places they need to go to closer together, would transform the way we choose to travel around our city.

Along with rising fuel costs, road tolls would give motorists an economic incentive to seriously consider travel choices other than the private automobile. Overnight we would see increases in carpool activity, and transit use, more employers would allow their employees to work from home, and some people might decide to work closer to where they live or live closer to where they work so that they could cycle or even walk to work.

The interesting thing is that the future is here with respect to road pricing since we have a world class example right in our own backyard. According to www.tollroadnews.com in 2009 the 407 ETR (Express Toll Road) had revenues of $560 million and average weekday trips of 380,000.

The challenge with the 407 ETR is that "we the people" no longer own the highway so we don’t share the revenue, and although that’s a matter that I won’t address through this blog, we are collectively benefiting from having a alternate parallel route to the 401 and Highway 7 that is used daily by transport companies delivering our goods and services and commuters, the majority of which likely have a 905 area code.

Experience world wide has demonstrated that travel demand can be better managed with road pricing than without. As our population grows and our municipal budgets shrink due to competing spending priorities, road tolls will become a vital ingredient in our transportation future as we strive to maintain the quality of life of everyone in our city and surrounding regions.

About Lorenzo Mele

Transit woes demand tough love

Our hopes for an expanded transit system across the GTA have been dashed with the tabling of the provincial budget. Our mayor is outraged. He thinks the decision; in his words is "thick" and every candidate for mayor has something to say about Santa Dalton becoming a Transit Scrooge. Like a Hollywood movie script, political theatre needs good guys and bad guys, and besides lamenting about it, again in our mayors’ words, "how are people in our poorest communities going to get to work," what are we and our leaders prepared to do to make our Transit City plan a reality?

There’s no disputing that the current municipal leadership is transit supportive; they’ve been tremendous advocates for Toronto’s transit plans and we’ve seen payoffs in the past. Unfortunately, in tough economic times, which may be with us for some time to come, their passionate and at times zealous approach no longer resonates with our provincial and federal bankers. Our population will continue to grow and the need for expanded transit along with it. The question now becomes – what’s our plan ‘B’?

Will we simply wait to put our cup out again and hope that in a few years time a benevolent Premier or Prime Minister has a change of heart and fills it up with the billions of dollars that are needed for transit? Or do we start acting like the world class city we long to be and use the powers granted to us by the Province under the City of Toronto Act and become masters of our own destiny. If expanded transit is really that important to Toronto and the rest of the region then we need to devise a pan-GTA financial strategy that is dependable and sustainable.

Last year the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development) prepared a Territorial Review of Toronto and they determined that traffic congestion, resulting time delays and long commutes cost us over $3.3 billion annually in lost productivity. One of their key recommendations outlined in Chapter 2.3 of their report, was for Toronto and the surrounding region to begin tackling transportation challenges by creating incentives for reducing car use, securing access to additional revenue sources, and longer term funding and investment commitments by our federal government.

When the OECD report was issued last year politicians and citizens alike seemed indifferent and I don’t recall any mass protests or outrage expressed that traffic congestion and long commutes were resulting in a collective loss of an obscene amount of money. The main comment from our Mayor was that the federal government should take note and solve Toronto’s problems. I agree that the federal government does have a role to play on the tax policy and investment fronts but we also need to help ourselves. We seemed to take the news in stride and now as the municipal elections begin to grip our interest no one appears to be connecting the dots.

Consider this – our transit dreams won’t happen without billions of dollars, traffic congestion and the resulting lost productivity costs us billions of dollars, the OECD recommends that we devise incentives for reducing car use and develop additional revenue sources, and we have a Premier acting more like Scrooge than Santa. If someone is brave enough to connect the dots they’ll see that the answer to our problems – road pricing - is staring us in the face.

About Lorenzo Mele

Time to cut councillors' budget in half

In one week, we’ve had a councillor under fire for charging taxpayers for the furry, costumed friends at his annually subsidized icecapades, and a TTC chairman who asked us to pay for his joyride…but one that certainly wasn’t on the rocket. How nice.

With 44 councillors each owning expense budgets with an annual maximum of $53,100, potentially totalling a cool $2.33-million, who knows what other gems remain uncovered. But one thing is for sure – they exist and they are ridiculous.

Let me first say that I don’t actually have a problem with Councillor Heaps expensing $439 on animal costume rentals. The councillor used taxpayer money to attract his Ward’s residents (children, in particular) to an annual community event. If you feel it is a frivolous event, fair enough. But it certainly isn’t scandalous (Heaps ranks 16th overall in office expenses, so whether there is a systemic frivolity here, that’s another matter).

My main issue with expense items is when there is evidence of deceitful, fraudulent, or selfish behavior that speaks to the integrity of the elected official.

Unfortunately, the answer here is not to focus further on what gets expensed – it’s a tangled, messy web that the Clerk’s office, and skilled journalists, already navigate through as best as possible. Not to mention, the ironically inefficient 66-page document that sets out what can and can’t be expensed leaves much to interpretation. Instead, the answer is to drastically cut the budgets so that councillors no longer have the ability to take these liberties.

To agree with this, you have to first agree that the budgets are set extraordinarily too high. The goal here is not to prevent a councillor from doing valid city business, but rather to ensure it is done appropriately and efficiently. Withiout a doubt in my mind, a smaller budget would result in councillors reducing their self-promoting pamphlets (green movement, anyone?), think twice before making $500 donations to community groups (yes, this is actually allowed), and provide a stark realization that there’ll be a negligible effect on their office’s ability to operate.

The city already cut office expense budgets by a whopping 5%. What I propose is to add a "0" on to that – let’s cut it in half, from $53,100 to $26,550. A full quarter of the councillors (11 in total) operate with budgets below that already, including some of the most respected and accomplished ones in the bunch (the bar is not set high, but still). Should a councillor reach that peak and require further funding, they can apply for access to a reserve managed by the City Clerk’s office, ensuring the expense is deemed pertinent.

It’s time to treat taxpayer money responsibly, and we can start by cutting the expense budgets by $1.16-million. Unless, of course, it really is that easy to "find" $100-million laying around…sigh…

About Tyler Currie

Forget the Grammys -- watch the Teddys

From Liquor Control Board of Ontario folk knocking back pricey bottles of wine at chi-chi restaurants, to councillors expensing chipmunk or bunny suits to school board trustees charging back trips to the Dominican Republic to taxpayers, it's no wonder why many MTV Generationers view City Hall as being one big phat court, filled with too many jesters. Silly season.

While forking out dough to rent Dalmation outfits for the public good might seem noble at the time, these acts are making city councillor Rob Ford look like a Steve Jobs-like genius – which is not an easy thing to do (the same Ford who got loaded at a Leafs game and started a scene, who once proclaimed that “Oriental people are slowly taking over”, and that "AIDS is very preventable,” and that “if you are not doing needles and you are not gay, you wouldn't get AIDS probably”). Ford, who routinely bills taxpayers for nothing, strikes me as someone who might actually spend money out of his own pocket to rent polar bear suits.

What I’m suggesting to my MTV Generationers (and to those select, tapped-in Baby Boomers who understand that Tim Deegan is not the name of a doughnut franchise) is that it’s time to forget about the Grammys and the BET Awards (pure and utter sacrilege, I know).

Sorry, but it should be all about the Teddy Awards now. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation dole out Teddy awards to those who’ve wasted tax dollars. And a big congratulations is in order for Toronto, which won this year’s municipal Teddy for inane activities like paying people $100 to pretend to be living on the streets, for tallying homeless count purposes.

What I’m suggesting as a means to wade through these questionable tax dollar expenditures is to develop an easy-to-understand website -- that even Much Music watchers can understand -- that analyzes data so that people can influence how their tax dollars are spent.

When your local area city councillor is busy burning your taxpayer cash on giraffe (or chipmunk) suits, it's time to take action. Now.

While voter apathy is nauseating and counter-productive (what, you like them bear suits that you unknowingly paid for?), being an armchair critic that hurls objects at CP24’s Stephen LeDrew is getting you nowhere. It’s time to call, fax, write and email City Hall. Meet with your elected officials. Write letters to the editor. Spend some time scrutinizing all of this publicly available info that is up on the City of Toronto website. Everything from your mayor’s and local area city councillor’s salary, to their detailed office expense reports are up there. Sitting on your duff will do nothing to advance the cause of stifling your local area councillor’s penchant for bunny rabbit suits and House of Lancaster lunches. All of which you’ve paid for, Tony (or Tonya) Taxpayer.

About Dalton Higgins

Keep bike lanes off busy streets

Bicycle plans on Bloor Danforth started to ignite a controversial debate at City Hall last week. The proposed 24km would go through several neighbourhoods and business communities all the way from Scarborough to Etobicoke and already two of Toronto’s leading mayoralty candidates, George Smitherman and Rocco Rossi, have expressed some serious concerns about it.

The city is moving forward and is currently looking for a third party to conduct an environmental assessment, at which point further public discussions, the measurement of traffic patterns and reports on on-street parking will begin. A massive under-taking and one that, I believe, will be very expensive to the taxpayer.

Its impact is huge. Certainly I hope the city pays very close attention to the Business Improvement Associations and business owners along this corridor. It was interesting that I had one business owner on March 19th come up to me in Greektown right after I exited the Chester subway. He was very concerned that this had been discussed and he felt that, despite what he and many others say, that the plan will go-ahead. It was at that point that I decided that I would write about this issue.

As I said in my last piece, I am not anti-bicycle. I just believe the bicycle plan needs to be looked at more closely in the sense that lanes shouldn’t be placed on such busy arterials. The other consideration the city needs to figure out is how urgent is the expense? I’ve learned that the Toronto Bike Plans figures prominently in the city budget. I understand that it received an increase in funding in 2009 to $8 million and a commitment of $70 million to fund the Bike Network in the 2009 to 2010 capital plan. I believe the multi-million dollar backlog of road and sewer repairs warrants a higher priority on this.

Can we somehow encourage and put more emphasis on bicycle use in a secondary plan, which involves our excellent and beautiful ravine system? For example, in East York, there are many entries into Taylor Creek Park and the Don Valley for cyclists to ride downtown with no worry of passing cars within a few feet of them.

As a regular and frequent visitor to Greektown, I can tell you that the area at many times during the day and evening is congested. A lane in that area will just divert the cars on to Broadview and along O’Connor Drive in East York or on to the east/west arterials south of Danforth. Ultimately it will just add more travel time, and yes, more pollution in the air. What impact will gridlock do to the business community in Greektown, which has become very well known to have an excellent selection of restaurants? What will it do to customer parking? I believe it will cause a huge impact.

One of Danforth’s most well known retailers, Saul Korman, who’s had his business, Korry’s Clothiers, for 56 years, told me that approximately 50,000 cars drive by the Danforth over a 24-hour period. He noted to me that a very significant number isn’t local traffic either. “People with bikes don’t come to the Danforth to buy suits or groceries,” he said. “I’m not against bikes but it’s not the right street for this.”

Councillor Case Ootes who represents Ward 29 rightly noted that the thought of cyclists biking from Scarborough to downtown Toronto is incredibly small.

Cycling is also not the popular mode of transportation during the winter especially if we have snow on the ground.

The other important point is that we have a subway operating along the same route directly below from one end of the city to the other.

Again, as I said in my last piece, this comes down to spending and figuring out what core services require attention. Given the financial state of the city, I say we can’t afford this now.

I expect my piece to ignite a further discussion but at the end of the day perhaps if we’re giving so much of the road to cyclists, then perhaps it does warrant a debate to have bikes licensed in the city. Councillor Michael Walker recently made this point and it should be discussed sooner rather than later. Another topic for another day.

About Justin Van Dette

Should we license panhandlers?

On a recent visit to downtown Toronto I was surprised by the number of panhandlers who greeted me on almost every street corner. While none of these panhandlers were threatening or aggressive, I must admit that I was cautious as I passed them.

I am accustomed to panhandlers, as I spend a lot of my time downtown meeting with clients and politicians, but this experience made me stop and think about our City and our future. If I was a little leery walking by panhandlers, I am sure that I am not alone. I can only imagine what our tourists experience on a daily basis as they visit the many great destinations in the downtown core.

Before I go any further, I want to make the distinction between panhandling and homelessness. Homeless advocates constantly try to blur the lines between panhandlers and the homeless, but the reality is that not all panhandlers are homeless, and not all homeless are panhandlers.

Homelessness is a serious and complex problem that requires a multi-pronged approach to resolve. Governments have an obligation to assist the homeless population in our City, to provide sustainable housing opportunities and resources to protect one of the most vulnerable groups in our society. But this issue is for a future blog.

The Safe Streets Act, which was enacted in 1999 regulates panhandling in Ontario, but does not go far enough to preventing panhandling. Just because a panhandler is not aggressive or threatening, it does not mean that they should be permitted to impede or even block a person’s use of the public sidewalk.

If panhandling were prohibited in the downtown core, it would require additional resources and job skills training in order to provide people with a viable alternative. Now that would be money well spent.

I have an idea!

If we cannot ban panhandling in the downtown core, why not regulate it like they do with hot dog vendors, or community groups who use city parks?

Under this new regulation, Professional Panhandlers would be required to apply for an annual permit in order to provide their “service” on City sidewalks. They would be given a designated spot on a sidewalk of their choice, and also be required to review and adhere to the Safe Streets Act. They could even carry around a special badge that makes them an official City of Toronto Panhandler.

This idea may sound a little outrageous, but so is the status quo.

About Dan Bordonali

Leave the Canadian Citizens Alone!

So, on Monday my post about why I think Toronto’s Permanent Residents should be allowed to vote in the municipal elections went online.

And boy did that open some kind of floodgate.

It’s like most of the commentators there can barely resist the urge to spit at immigrant-looking people when they enter the subway trains in downtown Toronto. And then they get home, tired and irritated of dealing with all the brown people in the city, turn on their computers and innocently browse the internet, and, whoa, a blog headline about immigrants.

Empathy switch: off. Raving jerk mode: on.

The comments range in the spectrum of single one-off declarations — no Citizenship, no vote — to the classic insecure, drive-by “who the hell do you think you are, you dirty immigrant? Get out of Canada if you don’t like it here” raging type. There are some supportive, well thought-out responses too, but they are pretty much deluged by the barrage of negative, vitriolic words.

There is a deep and pervasive sadness inherent in all the bile because it gives you a glimpse of the type of person who is basically just desperately clutching on to one of the few cards left in their life to grant them the exclusive, privileged pass to knock a person a notch or two beneath them.

It's one of the few instances when they can hold their nose up high and say "no", even though no one is asking them to give up anything.

It’s also sad because the moment they hear that the immigrants are demanding something, they react as if we are encroaching on their rights, while the immigrants live a life of blissful comfort and convenience. They must think that immigrants just spend the whole day twirling around their apartments while drinking wine from silver goblets paid (just) by Canadian citizens' taxes.

As if by suddenly opening our mouths and not being a Canadian, we know nothing about what it means to be a resident or a person. As if the only reason we want to have a voice in the city that we love and live in is so that we can disrupt the lives of the normal, decent, hardworking and law-abiding Canadian citizens who have to put up with so much nonsense from immigrants all the time.

It’s sad that most of them probably didn’t even bother to read what I’d written. Instead of talking about how immigrants can be better integrated into the country, or why this might be a bad idea because [insert study or fact] shows that it's not effective, all they care about is knowing whether the person who's lived in Toronto for five years, owns a house, participates in the community and cares for the city, has a passport or not. If you don’t have one, you’re SOL as far as they’re concerned.

In their knee-jerk rationality, all the immigrants in Toronto only care about are avoiding the duties and responsibilities that only Canadian citizens carry the burden of. And we even actively avoid becoming a citizen because, man, life's too gravy just living without an identity and purpose.

And alright, here’s the last part about it being sad: to hear Torontonians complaining that granting municipal voting rights to immigrants is sacrilegious because it shreds the fabric of Canada is like that neighbour who throws a hissy fit when you ask him if he can lend you his step ladder so that you can help clear the gutters of his garage roof. He won’t because it’s his ladder and his roof, goddamit. Never mind the fact that he rarely, if ever, uses the step ladder.

But if there’s one comment on my blog post that takes the cake, just on sheer awesomeness and ridiculousness, this one has to be it:

Landed immigrants need to understand what landed means. It sorta relates in Canadian terms, to a bark canoe touching a sand beach, and the occupants being europoeans seeking furs and fortunes, crept ashore. They often were made welcome at the campfire of the local chief, and they could participate in the life of the locals, but if they pushed to hard, they were scapled, tortured, and they died a death of pain and humiliation for offending the resident hosts. This ridiculous rant captures the mood of those early visitors, and perhaps the writer might want to reflect on that, if he ever thinks of traveling in the north, or indeed anywhere outside the warped out, sold out, gaped out city of Toronto. The federal cabinet minister who told David Miller to F-Off, had it right.

There are so many things wrong with the person that took the time to type that paragraph out. It’s almost hard to register whether the response was written by a conscious person or a series of algorithms based on malice, satire and ignorance.

1. That he refers to how the early settlers were welcomed by the First Nations people in Canada. Seriously? This coming from a person whose forebears violently claimed, looted, desecrated, pillaged and killed the natives out of their land? That he somehow contextualizes my post about municipal voting rights for immigrants against the backdrop of a bloody and tragic history of Canada which to this day affects Aboriginal people and has reduced them to being second-class citizens in their own lands? There must be some kind of prize for this kind of warped audacity.

2. Threatening me with violence. I’d just like to know that when I do get scalped, tortured, and die a death of pain and humiliation, will the commenter at least have the decency of signing off his property, family and life to the new settlers? Because, you know, I need that. It’s what the immigrants dream of when they land in Canada.

3. He (or she) most likely doesn’t even live in Toronto. So, to put it bluntly, what the hell does he care? I mean, this doesn’t concern and affect him the least bit. Why does he feel the need to stick his neck out like that and forever be branded with this toxic concoction of stupidity, insecurity and malevolence. Why?

Oh, and you know what’s the craziest thing in all of this? I am a Canadian citizen. And this is the response I get when I voice an opinion: get out of Canada.

You stay classy, Toronto.

About Gelek Badheytsang

Budget for an active Toronto

I am one of those people that anxiously awaits the always entertaining federal and provincial budget announcements every year from Ottawa. I hope for the best, expect the worst and keep my fingers crossed that maybe this will be the day that they wake up and realize what will actually make this country and our cities a better place. 

I have to admit, though, I am constantly amused by the number of complaints upon complaints from every single person that wants their needs to be met, their programs to be flooded with resources and their lives to be bettered. I find it ironic that it becomes a battle between provinces and a clash between people and certain groups that are all out for "me."

To be honest, I am not going to sit here and say that I haven't thought of my needs over others and preach to all of you to be more altruistic. But I will say that on the whole I think we all need to commit to think about what's best for all of us: WE all owe it to each other to make this a better place to live.

Realistically, it all ends up with the privileged few politicians that hold the fate of our city in their hands. The last few years it has become increasingly more apparent that Toronto has one of the largest municipal infrastructure deficits across the nation. This has been a weight that we have been struggling under for years and it shows. 

In November 2009, the city declared that more than half of its capital budget for 2010 will be going towards the maintenance and expansion of the TTC. Actually, transportation is eating up about 70 per cent of the entire budget over the next 10 years, putting aside $11.7 billion.

To put it into perspective, Toronto is already running a $382 million debt and balancing the books calls for, you guessed it, higher taxes and service cuts. But hey, we're going to have some new streetcars out of it. This is a classic case of when all else fails, just cut programs. It seems to be the easiest thing for our government, so they can say they're helping our city by getting us out of debt, when in fact hundreds of thousands of people are going to suffer for it. 

Last year 39 public pools were closed leaving 700,000 kids, students, athletes and adults with nowhere to go for physical activity. With not only childhood, but adult obesity on the rise and health care costs going through the roof, we are cutting after-school programs and increasing the time our citizens can opt for the couch over getting active. You'll be hard pressed to find modern, up-to-date community centres in areas that are desperate for that kind of facility. The access to get active is lacking.

The connection between sport, physical activity and health is a no-brainer. We know this, our politicians know this. By investing in real, quality programming through schools, community centres and local recreational groups, there is the great potential to reach the lives of thousands of Torontonians. Healthcare costs would decrease, albeit not over night, but the development of a city that prides itself on being active is a long-term solution that would dramatically help these costs over time. 

Cutting services and programs is just a means to look good on paper, but off the page is an uglier picture that even a smoother road or faster streetcar can't fix. 

About Alexandra Orlando

Integrating immigrants key to Toronto's future

The successful integration of immigrants is not simply a matter of individual efforts by newcomers to Toronto. It must be accompanied by the city’s will to make social cohesion a priority by engaging a range of stakeholders, and it requires action from many players. In other words, inclusion is a two way street.

In a cosmopolitan city like Toronto – where our residents speak more than 100 languages and come from 200 distinct ethnic groups – the integration of immigrants is critical. Toronto continues to be a city of choice for many newcomers to Canada with 49 per cent of our city’s population comprised of immigrants.

In light of our aging population and our declining birth rate, we’ll rely more and more on immigrants as a key resource for building and strengthening our city and country. By 2011, Canada will rely 100 per cent on immigration for our net labour market growth; by 2026, our net population growth will be derived from immigration. 

Based on these imminent realities, we need to continue to effectively integrate new immigrants into our communities, especially if they choose Toronto as their home. 

This is why Maytree incubates ideas and collaborates with many stakeholders on local practical solutions for immigrant integration. This is also why we are communicating and partnering with national and international organizations on solutions that work.

We know these initiatives have made a meaningful and tangible impact on Toronto. And they are gaining traction in diverse urban centres across Canada and abroad – many communities are looking to Toronto to lead by example.

A few key highlights:

Since the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council was launched in 2003 by Maytree and the Toronto City Summit Alliance, a range of successful projects have helped skilled immigrants integrate smoothly into the Greater Toronto Region labour market.

Now through the ALLIES project, a partnership with The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, cities across Canada are learning from – and adapting – the TRIEC model to set up their own, locally-led, immigrant employment councils. In Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Ottawa, Montreal, Waterloo Region, Niagara, London, Fredericton, Moncton and Halifax, a strong civic movement is building to ensure immigrants can put their international skills, education and experience to good use.

Toronto’s story of immigrant integration has also garnered the interest of civic leaders and policy makers from outside of Canada, from Sweden to Singapore to Spain.

The Mentoring Partnership is another successful program founded in Toronto in 2004. It has helped over 5,000 skilled immigrants navigate the local job market with guidance from volunteer mentors in similar professions.  Eighty three percent of mentees said their mentoring relationship made a positive difference to their job search.

Over 50 corporate partners from the private and public sector have been actively engaged in the program as a means to nurture their staff’s leadership capacity and to build cross-cultural competence in an increasingly diverse workforce.

Through a recently launched national initiative, urban cities across Canada – and as far away as Auckland, New Zealand – have implemented their own mentoring programs for skilled immigrants as well.

DiverseCity, another project launched by Maytree and the Toronto City Summit Alliance, supports and develops up-and-coming leaders from under-represented ethnic and racial groups to address their low numbers in senior leadership positions in the Greater Toronto Area. Other communities across the country are interested in learning how to ensure that institutions are governed by qualified leaders who are more reflective of their population.

Cities of Migration, also a Toronto-based project, is the first international initiative to connect communities in Canada, the United States and around the globe on issues of migration and immigrant integration. With existing partners in Germany, Spain, the UK and New Zealand, the project just began a new collaboration with The National League of Cities to exchange key learnings about successful integration strategies.

While Maytree has had a hand in shaping these projects and solutions, we have not developed these ideas alone. It is only with the vision, energy and innovation of key players including employers, educators, community agencies, media, civic leaders and government, that Toronto has moved the marker on immigrant integration.

This collaborative approach is yet another reason why communities around the world are looking to Toronto for inspiration.

Indeed there is still much work to be done in Toronto, but we have made measurable and marked progress.

For that, our city should be proud.

About Ratna Omidvar

New workers, new skills special section