Petition: Toronto in Crisis
Just as so many of us are struggling to pay rent and put food on the table, COVID-19 emergency spending alongside decades of underfunding has pushed City Hall to a financial breaking point and they are ringing the alarm.
If this isn’t solved quickly, the Mayor is threatening to make massive cuts and stop vital services. That means we will be facing increased fares, fees, and devastating losses to services like housing, transit, shelters, fire, community centres, libraries, and child care, right when we need these services most and possibly for the long term. It doesn’t have to be this way.
If thousands of us take action by signing this petition, we can convince the Federal and Provincial governments to provide immediate financial relief to cities and tell City Council not to cut these vital services so we can build a Toronto that works for everyone. Send your message below and scroll down to read more
We cannot return to what was normal in Toronto
We cannot return to what was normal in Toronto. The gap between wealthy Torontonians and the rest of us was already widening rapidly and many communities were being left behind.
Before the pandemic Toronto faced:
an affordable housing crisis;
a homelessness crisis taking lives;
an opioid crisis taking lives;
child care that is unaffordable for 3 of every 4 families;
a climate emergency requiring urgent action;
a severely underfunded transit system;
mounting gun violence claiming young lives;
inadequate access to recreation services, youth hubs, and libraries;
streets that put pedestrians and cyclists in danger; and
growing income inequality that disproportionately impacts racialized communities.
“If Toronto and other cities don’t receive a major funding package from senior governments soon they’ll be forced to cut back on the many programs and services they provide to residents and businesses. And that will make our economic recovery even harder than it’s already going to be.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has deepened inequality in our city
The COVID-19 pandemic has deepened these inequities, exposed them as public health risks, and shown that their burden is felt most by people experiencing poverty, women, and Black, Indigenous, racialized, newcomer and LGBTQ2S+ communities, people with disabilities, and seniors - especially those who hold intersecting positions. Those who were already most vulnerable in Toronto are the very people most impacted by emergencies like COVID-19.
Much of this is because Toronto has been starved of resources from other levels of government over the last decades and has been responsible for vital services like affordable housing, child care, and transit, without adequate funding or revenue sources. Toronto’s financial sustainability was precarious prior to COVID-19, but now, more than ever, the status and work of our city must be changed so that we can proudly and urgently build a Toronto that works for everyone.
The City needs urgent financial relief & time is running out
Starved of revenue and forced to increase spending in certain areas to respond to the pandemic, alarms are going off at Toronto City Hall that the City will be reaching a financial breaking point in June [1][2]. Service cuts have already started to roll out and without immediate financial relief from the Federal and Provincial governments, we will be facing higher fares, user fees, and more cuts.
The City Manager says Toronto is losing approximately $65 million a week and that this pandemic could cost Toronto between $1.5 and $2.8 billion dollars in 2020 [2].
That means the loss of vital services and user fee increases since, unlike other levels of government, the City of Toronto is not allowed to run a deficit [3]. City Hall must pass a balanced budget. Vital services - affordable housing, child care, transit, public health, libraries, overdose prevention, student nutrition programs, recreation, violence prevention, and more will all be impacted when we need them more than ever before.
One time relief for Toronto won’t stop the crisis - we need a new deal for our city
The pandemic is shining a light on long-standing problems Toronto has faced and making them even worse.
For decades, Provincial and Federal governments have underfunded local services leading to unreliable TTC service, the most expensive child care in the country, a deadly lack of funding for shelters and permanent affordable housing solutions, and much more.
So while City Hall needs urgent relief to make it through the next few months, we also need a new deal - a new legal and financial relationship between the City and the Provincial and Federal government so that this crisis we collectively face can end and we can rebuild in a much safer way for our city.
The need for cities to invest much more in affordable housing, road safety, a safer and reliable TTC, and expand services like childcare has become crystal clear the last few months. We need a new deal - a new legal relationship and more consistent funding - for Toronto from the Federal and Provincial governments so that we can break the cycle of underfunding and growing inequality in our city.
A new deal for Toronto would recognize Toronto’s economic contribution to the country, alongside the shared responsibility of all levels of government to support people - especially the most vulnerable, support continued local decision-making over local services, and give City Hall greater access to progressive revenue tools to properly provide the public services we rely on.
Now is our opportunity for transformative change in Toronto — change that will make us all safer in the future. And now is the time to put an end to the unfair relationship and the affordability crisis faced by cities like Toronto, with a new deal for our city that changes the way the Provincial and Federal governments support city services. We need consistent, sustainable, reliable funding that makes sure services can continue and that they meet the needs of people across Toronto.
Toronto is not alone - cities across Canada are in crisis
It’s not just the City of Toronto facing these problems. Cities across Canada are calling on Federal and Provincial governments to step up and make changes to how cities are treated and supported.
Vancouver’s Mayor announced that without new funding, the City of Vancouver will have to declare bankruptcy [3]. The City of Montreal has already made plans for cuts to stem some of the losses due to the pandemic [4]. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities, which represents cities of all sizes across Canada, is clear that changing the relationship between cities and other levels of government needs to be part of the recovery [5].
As Canada’s largest city, Toronto is facing the biggest financial challenges. We need immediate financial relief and a new deal for Toronto, so that recovery from this pandemic means rebuilding a Toronto that works for everyone.