Toronto’s economic boom is not being felt in every neighbourhood

Thestar.com
Jan. 21, 2020
David Rider and Francine Kopun

As Regent Park residents and others urged city councillors to bridge the growing gap between rich and poor, newly released figures revealed Toronto’s overall economy continues to boom.

People crowded a city hall room Monday morning to make their cases to the budget committee on this year’s proposed $13.53-billion spending plan. That included pleas to help Torontonians struggling at the bottom of the economic ladder, where a TTC fare hike of as little as 10 cents can be a disaster.

“My (government) pension doesn’t include a 10-cent increase,” Toronto Community Housing resident Patricia Reid, 79, told budget committee members, adding the planned fare hike will reduce her already meagre ability to use transit and mean more walking and more bursitis pain.

“Last week, I had an eye appointment and walked three hours back and forth to Toronto Western” hospital, Reid said.

Several blocks away, Mayor John Tory released a rosy annual employment report at a news conference.

Toronto added 46,920 jobs to its economy in 2019, up 3.1 per cent over the previous year. The economy’s shining star was the burgeoning tech sector, where total employment surged 16.6 per cent.

“The report did not include data on the value of the jobs being created -- for example, whether they are permanent jobs with benefits -- but Tory told reporters the growth in well-paying sectors like tech suggests a positive trend.

“I can’t cite you the numbers, but I am very confident that the jobs being created by and large are quality jobs,” Tory said.

Office work remained the city’s biggest employer, with 48 per cent of all jobs, followed by institutional (17.4 per cent), service (12.6 per cent), retail (9.8 per cent), manufacturing (8.7 per cent), and community and entertainment (3.6 per cent).

Back at city hall, a big delegation from Regent Park that included many teens begged councillors to fund a long-standing but unfunded social development plan to help fund sports leagues and other activities in the low-income neighbourhood, where teens are periodically shot dead.

“A football team would help us support each other and bring our community together,” said Toccari Taylor-Kenton, 10. “Having a football team will keep me focused and away from gangs. I want to grow up and prove my teachers wrong that I can make it and go to university and play football.”

His neighbour Mary Ann Scott, who brought family members to reinforce calls for the social spending first discussed in 2007 amid plans to physically redevelop Regent Park, said the investments in young people have to catch up to the shiny new buildings.

“We have this beautiful infrastructure the children are grateful for, I know they are, but the underlying disparity of gangs and gun violence still exists,” Scott said.

Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam, whose ward includes Regent Park, said she will urge her colleagues to boost the operating budget by $635,000 per year to fund the social development plan.