Open Letter to Mayoral Candidates
November 2006
Dear Candidates,
We are writing to you to learn more about your commitment to issues that affect the daily lives of more than 10,000 people in diverse families that we serve at Family Service Association each year.
As Toronto's Vital Signs 2006 recently identified, there are troubling signs of distress in our city. The proportion of Toronto's children living in low income families has grown over the past three years, now at 36.2% despite the fact that the total child population is decreasing. The seeming permanency of food banks is a worry for us all, as we note that the use of food banks has increased by 78.6% over the past decade in the Toronto region. The depth of poverty, particularly in the eight neighbourhoods in which more that 40% of families live in poverty, threatens to sap the vibrancy of our city.
As our staff, board, volunteers and program participants strive to cope effectively with these challenges, we know that sound public policy is a strong component in building the just and supportive communities that Torontonians want and need
We are interested in hearing your views on the following issues and look forward to your reply.
1. The City of Toronto is a large and influential deliverer of child care and other children's services. The City's leadership in pressing for action at other levels of government has been instrumental in achieving important progress. Through the Children's Services Advisory Committee the City has provided an important forum in which a diverse and knowledgeable group of individuals and non-governmental organizations work with City staff and elected representatives to craft important directions for the City. If you are elected mayor, will you commit to continuing this vital committee with leadership from the Children's Advocate, a City Councillor appointed by City Council and will you ensure that sufficient resources are made available to support its work?
2. The cost of delivering a wide range of people-centered services including child care, family resource centres, Ontario Works, Ontario Disability Support Program and affordable housing has a significant impact on the ability of City Council to balance its budget. Some of these costs were abruptly increased when the Province of Ontario downloaded the responsibility for partial funding of some of these services in 1997.
We support the contention that municipalities are in the best position to plan and deliver these services, often in partnership with community organizations and neighbourhood groups, that are responsive to local needs. Indeed, we support and applaud the leadership of the City of Toronto in this context. We believe that the Province of Ontario must assume all of the direct program costs if the City is to have sufficient resources to fulfill all of its important civic roles. What strategies will you undertake to achieve the uploading of the cost of people-centered services while maintaining the City's key role in planning and delivering services?
3. The issue of good jobs with security, fair wages and benefits is central to an effective, prosperous economy and to family security. With nearly 40% of workers who do not hold full-time, permanent employment and many immigrants and refugees who toil in under-employment and unemployment, the labour market is not serving many in our community very well. Under your leadership, what would the City do to facilitate the creation and retention of good jobs with fair wages and benefits and to make training programs available that will help vulnerable people to secure these jobs?
4. Important initiatives have been taken to reduce violence in Toronto, particularly among youth and their families in vulnerable neighbourhoods. While we recognize the importance of these measures, we are concerned that appropriate priority and resources be assigned to the prevention of violence, an essential and long term undertaking. What strategies and programs will you support that foster violence prevention and what role do you see that partner organizations, including but not limited to service clubs, community agencies, unions and schools, can assume in violence prevention?
5. Many of the programs and initiatives that help to create and sustain just and supportive communities require public financing. This is true for both for City-delivered services and those delivered by the non-governmental sector with support from the City. In our recent study completed in partnership with the Community Social Planning Council of Toronto, On the Front Lines of Toronto's Community Service Sector, we recommended that the City of Toronto adopt a dual role. First, the City should collaborate with non-profit community organizations to advocate with the other levels of government to improve their funding practices. Also, the City should ensure that its own funding mechanisms are "lead by example" as outlined in the report of the City/Community Workgroup on Core Funding which City Council adopted in 2005.
At the same time, City Council is on record as directing departments to plan for no budget increases for the 2007 budget. While the economy has been strong and favourable in the past few years, forecasters predict slower growth in 2007 which may affect the economy in the City and may have an impact on vulnerable families such as those that we serve. How will you respond to the constraints of zero-based budgets for 2007 and the pressing needs of vulnerable families and communities?
Sincerely,
Anita Lapidus
President, Board of Directors, Family Service Association of Toronto
Yves Savoie
Executive Director, Family Service Association of Toronto (Aug. 2003-Dec.
2006)
