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Toronto budget falls short of anti-poverty pledge, activists say

Activists say Toronto must invest more money to fight poverty in 2016 budget.

Thestar.com
Feb. 8, 2016
BY Laurie Monsebraaten

Anti-poverty activists are holding a bake sale at Nathan Phillips Square Tuesday to protest what they say are “crumbs” to fight poverty in Toronto this year.

“We’re showing that we are prepared to do our bit. But it’s a partnership. The politicians have to do their part,” said Mike Connell Monday, as he stirred cookie batter at the Yonge St. Mission on Gerrard St. E.

Connell, a 61-year-old cook who can no longer work due to a heart condition and lower back troubles, is one of more than 1,000 low-income residents who worked with city staff for more than a year to produce TO Prosperity, Toronto’s first 20-year plan to fight poverty. City council unanimously approved the blueprint in November.

Connell’s group, part of Commitment 2 Community, a coalition of social agencies and individuals, has been calling for Toronto to earmark $75 million in new money this year to kick-start the initiative.

And yet the city’s proposed 2016 budget, to be debated by the council’s executive committee Tuesday, includes just over $5 million in municipal funds for new or expanded programs, the group says.

Missing are new child-care subsidies, one of three planned youth spaces, expansion of after-school programs and a freeze on TTC fares for adults while the city develops a subsidy system, the activists say.

The 600 to 650 new affordable apartments scheduled to open this year falls short of the city’s annual goal of 1,000. The budget includes just $1 million of the city’s recommended $14 million in new rent supplements and only nine of 1,070 new supportive housing units, the activists add.

“A city as rich as Toronto shouldn’t have people sleeping on subway grates,” said Connell. He is grateful for a city rent supplement that helps him afford a one-bedroom apartment on his meagre Ontario Disability Support Program payments. But he worries the city isn’t doing enough to help others.

Commitment 2 Community says the funding gap can be filled through more than $400 million in untapped revenue tools that the city must get serious about using.

Toronto Deputy Mayor Pam McConnell, appointed by Mayor John Tory to lead the city’s poverty-busting efforts, said activists have misunderstood TO Prosperity’s goals for 2016. And far from short-changing the effort, the city budget includes at least $100 million for poverty reduction this year, she said.

“It’s a fault of the budgeting process,” she said. “But if you look carefully, you can see that at least 93 per cent of what’s in the (new and enhanced anti-poverty) plan for 2016 is fully funded.”

McConnell acknowledged money still needs to be found for daycare subsidies and to cover the cost of inflation for school nutrition programs. But she said TTC bus service to low-income suburban neighbourhoods has been improved, more affordable housing is being planned for the waterfront and the city is shoring up support for homeless shelters where funding has been lost.

“Advocates have a role to advocate,” she said. “But my job is to ensure poverty reduction gets embedded in the city’s DNA and I think we are off to a very good start.”

Tory said he will continue to push Ottawa and Queen’s Park to invest more money for housing, child care and mental health services in the city.

“Funding for those initiatives has always been contingent on funding from the other levels of government,” he said. “We can’t possibly do it alone.”