Item - 2017.EX29.12

The Executive Committee recommends that:

1.  City Council adopt the TO Prosperity 2018 Annual Work Plan for implementation as outlined in Attachment B to the report (November 15, 2017) from the Executive Director, Social Development, Finance and Administration, and the General Manager, Toronto Employment and Social Services, and forward the initiatives with financial impacts to the City Manager for consideration as part of the 2018 Budget process.

2.  City Council request the Executive Director, Social Development, Finance and Administration to work with relevant City divisions and agencies and report back on the development of a City of Toronto Community Benefits Framework that includes:

a.  a comprehensive inventory of existing City processes and practices that leverage community benefits outcomes, including analyses of best practices, challenges, gaps, and opportunities;

b.  ways to maximize community benefits outcomes from large-scale private development proposals, through the enhancement of existing City practices and processes, or the leveraging of untapped opportunities.

3.  City Council direct the Executive Director, Human Resources, the Director, Purchasing and Materials Management Division and the Executive Director, Social Development, Finance and Administration, working in consultation with relevant stakeholders, and contingent on Council approval of resource requirements described in the 2018 operating budget proposal, to pilot-test standards in City contracts and procurement documents related to (i) advance notice of scheduling, and (ii) equitable hiring, and to report back to Executive Committee by the fourth quarter of 2019 on the feasibility of adopting these standards into City contracts and on their impacts for workers, vendors, and City operations.

4.  City Council direct the City Solicitor and the Executive Director, Human Resources, to report to the Employment and Labour Relations Committee on impacts of the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act for the City's employment relationships and labour agreements, within six months of Royal Assent of a new Provincial Act.

5.  City Council convey to the Province its support of the vision, objectives and recommendations of the Income Security: A Roadmap for Change report prepared by the Province's Income Security Reform Working Group, First Nations Income Security Reform Working Group and Urban Indigenous Table on Income Security Reform, and summarized in Attachment E to the report (November 15, 2017) from the Executive Director, Social Development, Finance and Administration, and the General Manager, Toronto Employment and Social Services.

In 2015, City Council unanimously approved TO Prosperity: Toronto Poverty Reduction Strategy. Designed as a 20-year strategy, TO Prosperity contains 17 recommendations divided in six core areas: housing stability, service access, transit equity, food access, quality jobs and livable incomes, and systemic change. Each recommendation is linked to a set of actions to be carried out over a four-year period. Annual work plans identify initiatives that advance the implementation of actions. Every year, staff report on the completion of ongoing initiatives and present a plan for the following year.

After a brief discussion of new Census and City data on poverty in Toronto, this report provides an overview of key developments in the core areas of the Poverty Reduction Strategy; topics include actions at the federal and provincial levels, progress on the 2017 Work Plan, highlights of the 2018 Work Plan, the first year of the Lived Experience Advisory Group (LEAG), and the launching of an Equity Responsive Budgeting Tool.

The report also examines two emerging processes with significant potential to reduce poverty reduction in Toronto, namely: City policies and programs aimed at leveraging the City's economic powers to drive inclusive economic development; and a report recently submitted to the Provincial government, by three Provincial Working Groups, recommending a 10-year roadmap to structural reform of Ontario's income security system, Income Security: A Roadmap for Change report.