Minutes Confirmed on June 3, 2025

This meeting of the Board of Health was conducted with members participating in person and remotely.

The Board of Health:

1. Directed that Confidential Attachment 1 remain confidential in its entirety, as it pertains to the education or training of the Directors.

The Board of Health recessed its public meeting to meet in closed session to consider the item as it pertains to the education or training of the Members.

Indigenous Cultural Safety training - provided by Dr. John Waaseyaabin Hupfield (Anishinaabe, Wasauksing First Nation) - provides an overview of colonization and power dynamics of community building today and offers a model for rebuilding relationships with Indigenous communities and urban organizations. The training works to foster an understanding of how colonization is an ongoing process that continues to undermine Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination. As a direct outcome of colonization, the relationship between Indigenous peoples and municipal institutions remain fraught with tension and mistrust. The training presents models used in academia and research that work to re-balance power dynamics and honour the sovereignty and self-determination of Indigenous peoples. 

Learning Objectives:

- Understand colonization as an ongoing process - not one rooted in the past

- Demonstrate how relationships remain strained at the governance, community, and individual levels

- Learn from Indigenous Research Methodologies, which can re-frame working relationships with Indigenous communities today 

The Board of Health will meet in closed session on this item in accordance with the provisions of the City of Toronto Act, 2006 which permits the closing of a meeting for the education or training of the Directors.

The Board of Health recommends that:

1. City Council authorize the Acting Medical Officer of Health to enter into agreements and other suitable arrangements, on behalf of the City of Toronto, for the transfer of funds to the Angel Foundation for Learning ($5,508,378) and the Toronto Foundation for Student Success ($25,512,201) for the purpose of administering the 2025 approved municipal funding (totalling $31,020,579) to eligible Toronto student nutrition programs on terms satisfactory to the Acting Medical Officer of Health and in a form satisfactory to the City Solicitor.

The Board of Health:

1.  Forwarded the report (April 22, 2025) from the Acting Medical Officer of Health to the Toronto District School Board, the Toronto Catholic District School Board, le Conseil scolaire Viamonde, le Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir, the Toronto Foundation for Student Success, and the Angel Foundation for Learning.

This report makes recommendations for the 2025 Student Nutrition Program service subsidy allocations. The proposed combined allocations to the Angel Foundation for Learning and the Toronto Foundation for Student Success are for the purpose of administering the 2025 approved municipal funding to eligible student nutrition programs across the City of Toronto. These allocations total $31,020,579, which includes $1,448,575 held in reserve for fall applications and appeals, including equipment and start-up supplies for new programs submitting fall applications.

The Board of Health recommends that:

1. City Council receive the report (April 17, 2025) from Acting Medical Officer of Health for information.

Toronto Public Health currently has service contracts with partner agencies that support service delivery in the community for the Healthy Babies Healthy Children program, Food Security initiatives, Sexual Health program, Dental Care to Street Involved Youth and Low-Income Adults program, and the Ontario Seniors Dental Care program.

Purchasing services from community agencies can be an effective and efficient way to provide essential public health services. This approach builds on existing service infrastructure in the community, facilitates community partnerships, supports continuity of service to clients, and can increase service efficiencies.

The purpose of this report is to provide information on the purchase of service contracts awarded and executed by the Acting Medical Officer of Health for 2025, according to the delegation of authority by City Council.

The Board of Health:  

1. Requested the Medical Officer of Health to collaborate with Municipal Licensing and Standards to assess changes made through the Implementation Review of the Noise By-law in Item EC9.5 that is intended to minimise the health impacts of noise.

2.  Requested the Medical Officer of Health to support Municipal Licensing and Standards in fulfilling City Council’s direction in Item EC16.4 to work with waste collection operators and other relevant stakeholders to develop and publish online guidance documents for waste collectors, property managers and residents, that may be referred to for best practices to mitigate noise from waste collection operations.

3. Requested that the Provincial and Federal governments develop a noise monitoring program with the objective of creating long-term data that could inform population health studies.

4. Acknowledged the health consequences of excessive airplane noise on its residents.

5. Requested the Minister of Transport, the Ontario Minister of Health, the Ontario Minister of Education, the Federal Minister of Health, and the Federal Minister of Mental Health and Addictions to hold meaningful consultation with communities impacted by airplane noise.

6. Requested from the Greater Toronto Airports Authority a commitment to accountability and meaningful engagement with communities impacted by airplane noise.

7. Urged the Greater Toronto Airports Authority and/or Transport Canada to fund a comprehensive, independently overseen health study comparing health outcomes of residents under flight paths to those in unaffected areas, with findings to be made public and used to inform mitigation and compensation efforts.

8. Urged Pearson Airport and Transport Canada to consider the impacts of airplane noise on children's learning in their noise modelling studies and noise attenuation efforts.

Noise is raised by Toronto residents as an issue of concern. To address this concern, the City of Toronto has many initiatives guided by the 2019 Noise Action Plan and the updated City of Toronto Noise By-law. Toronto Public Health’s (TPH) mandate is determined by the Ontario Public Health Standards. Noise is not described as an environmental health hazard in the Ontario Public Health Standards. Toronto Public Health consults and provides advice to other City divisions in their work to mitigate the impacts of excessive noise. 

The 2019 Noise Action Plan contains recommended actions within the authority of each City division to reduce excessive noise in Toronto. Although the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in pauses to some City operations, Toronto Public Health and other City divisions have since made substantial progress in the Noise Action Plan. For example, Municipal Licensing and Standards completed the Noise By-law Review in 2024 in consultation with Toronto Public Health, other City divisions, and stakeholders. The review identified new efforts to mitigate noise in Toronto.  

This report, as requested by City Council through Item 2024.EC9.5, Implementation Review of the Noise By-law, provides an updated review of the health impacts of noise. The latest research continues to describe excessive noise exposure impacts on cardiovascular, cognitive, sleep, and mental health outcomes. These are smaller relative impacts than other environmental and social determinant of health factors on these outcomes. This means that while there is evidence to support links between excessive noise and adverse health impacts on individuals, the population-level impact of noise is limited relative to other factors that cause population morbidity and mortality.

The Board of Health:

1. Received the report (April 17, 2025) from Acting Medical Officer of Health for information.

This report provides the Board of Health with an update on the risk management reporting that is part of the Ontario Public Health Standards Accountability Framework. It outlines risks and challenges facing Toronto Public Health in 2025, which include talent availability, resource capacity to address evolving and emerging public health issues, challenges in public confidence in public health advice, and changes to the Ontario Public Health Standards.

The Board of Health:

1. Directed that the confidential information contained in Confidential Attachment 1 to the report (March 25, 2025) from the Acting Medical Officer of Health remain confidential in its entirety, as it relates to personal matters about an identifiable individual, including a municipal or local board employee.

At its meeting on March 25, 2025, the Board of Health - Performance Appraisal of the Medical Officer of Health Committee considered Item HP3.1 and made recommendations to the Board of Health.

Summary from the report (March 25, 2025) from the Acting Medical Officer of Health:

This report provides information respecting performance planning and objective setting for the Acting Medical Officer of Health for 2025.

Announcements

The Chair acknowledged that the Board of Health was meeting on the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples and is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. The Chair also acknowledged that Toronto is covered by Treaty 13 with the Mississaugas of the Credit.

The Chair further acknowledged that not all people came to these lands as migrants and settlers, and specifically acknowledged those who came here involuntarily, particularly those brought to these lands as a result of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and Slavery. In support of the City of Toronto's ongoing efforts to confront anti-Black racism, the Chair paid tribute to those ancestors of African, Caribbean and Black origin and descent.

The Chair acknowledged that the meeting coincides with Red Dress Day, the National Day of Awareness for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

The Chair further acknowledged that next Monday marks International Nurses Day and the beginning of National Nursing Week, and extended gratitude to all the nurses across the City, including Toronto Public Health nurses.

Where the Directors of the Board of Health listed in the attendance for this meeting participated remotely, they were counted for quorum as permitted by Section 189(4.2) of the City of Toronto Act, 2006, and the Board's Procedures, as amended.