Toronto set to launch 20-year anti-poverty plan

Mayor John Tory said the city must battle rising poverty rates, but warned there will be competing priorities for funds.

Thestar.com
Oct. 20, 2015
By Betsy Powell

Toronto is set to embark on an ambitious 20-year plan to eradicate poverty, but with no clear spending goals.

“We can’t afford ... to have people who aren’t engaged, to have people who don’t have the opportunity to contribute,” Mayor John Tory said of the strategy’s aim.

Funding the proposed initiatives won’t be easy. “There are going to be competing priorities,” Tory said.

Called TO Prosperity, the staff report is a blueprint with initiatives aimed at tackling poverty reduction in Toronto, where one in four children and one in five adults live in poverty.

The report will go to city council for final approval next month.

“This is the beginning of all of our work,” said Councillor Pam McConnell, one of Toronto’s deputy mayors appointed by Tory to stickhandle the strategy.

“I support this vision,” added Councillor Gary Crawford a member of the executive committee. He is also chair of the budget committee, where the spending decisions will ultimately be made.

Foreshadowing the battles ahead, Crawford said he is willing to reduce the grooming of beaches to pay for anti-poverty efforts.

“We will be able to support a lot of what this vision is,” not just in 2016 but beyond, Crawford pledged.

Last year’s budget allocated $26.1 million for some immediate measures, including expanding a student nutrition program, free transit for children under 12 and new shelter beds for women and LGBT youth.

Deputy Mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong said he would support the report largely because it is backed by the mayor. Whether he’ll support it, going forward, is another matter.

“When the rubber hits the road, it all comes down to money,” Minnan-Wong said, adding the report is “aspirational” and “ambitious.”

“Budgetary implications have to be considered,” he said.

Dozens of social service advocates addressed the committee, urging councillors to use municipal resources to demonstrate its commitment to fighting poverty.

"Progress on poverty will depend on a serious investment in the city's 2016 budget," Sean Meagher, executive director of Social Planning Toronto, said in a news release.

By adopting the report, executive members have committed to reducing Toronto's sky-high poverty rates.

"To turn that promise into a reality, mayor and executive need to adopt the systemic changes proposed and make poverty reduction a top priority in the city's upcoming budget."