Wellesley Institute is publishing a series examining how mayoral candidates can show leadership and deliver Toronto the Bold—a city that takes wellness, health, and equity seriously to build a better future for every Torontonian. Our first three in the series examined housing, transit, and mental health. Finally, we’re examining how candidates can improve health equity by addressing poverty and ensuring everyone can Thrive.
Thriving means having resources to meet physical, social, and psychological health needs now and in the future. It includes having resources to meet health needs related to food and nutrition, physical activity, personal care, and shelter. But it also goes beyond this to consider the resources needed to meaningfully connect with others, access quality care such as child or seniors’ care, and adequately save for one’s future. It means a future in which everyone living in Toronto can have what they need to be healthy.
The next mayor must also recognize that Toronto’s success, and the wellbeing of its people, requires not just more jobs but good jobs. This should go beyond just income and encompass all the aspects of the Thriving Work framework, such as secure, safe, inclusive, and fair workplaces. Toronto does not need to accept that certain employers do not treat employees in a way that enables them to be healthy. Other employers will step up.
As with other social determinants of health, poverty and work are far too often viewed by municipalities as solely a federal or provincial problem. Achieving a City we can all Thrive in, one that maximizes our economic opportunities, one that we can all be proud of, requires all levels of government to take full responsibility for delivering on these needs.
To that end, Toronto’s Poverty Reduction Strategy must be dramatically improved and fully funded. It must recognize and address the important intersections of other social determinants of health, including housing, mental health, and racism in tandem with poverty. It must be the next Mayor’s priority to ensure that the City:
- Helps move every worker in Toronto towards a Thriving wage. The city must build a healthier and more economically resilient future by consulting with community and experts, and then introduce an enhanced minimum wage for Toronto.
- The wage should reflect the cost of living and needs of Torontonians, then over time be integrated into a plan to achieve a Thriving wage for all Torontonians.
- The Mayor should lead discussions with surrounding municipalities to ensure a smooth transition into areas with lower costs of living who may remain at the provincial minimum, and demonstrate leadership so GTA partners also move towards Thriving for their constituents.
- The City should use its City of Toronto Act authority to pass bylaws to address the “economic, social and environmental well-being of the City” as well as the “health, safety and wellbeing of persons.” This would build upon, not thwart, the provincial minimum wage.
- The City should also consider developing, then providing, evidence to the provincial and federal governments of the increased income tax receipts and reduced social safety net costs this would produce, and seek to recover that money for the municipal budget.
- Puts in place a plan, in consultation with experts and community, to work towards a future Toronto in which every job is a Thriving job.
- This should include municipal bylaws, under the same authorities as above, that establish higher made-in-Toronto for employment rights, including enough paid sick days to ensure the health of workers and their communities.
- Ensures everyone working in the municipal employment chain (including City staff, contractors, and city-funded non-profits) achieves a living wage immediately. The City should then put in place a plan, with targets, to achieve a Thriving Income within a reasonable timeline.
- Undertakes a full review of municipal taxation and fees (including transit fares and municipal fines) so that they are fully consistent with ensuring those below a Thriving Income can achieve that level.
Toronto’s next mayor should take bold steps to turn Toronto into a City where everyone has what they need to be healthy, to Thrive, and where every job is a good job. There are enormous health, economic, and civic benefits that can be reaped through an enhanced Poverty Reduction Strategy and a new Thriving Job Strategy that include true municipal commitment to regulate, fund, and tax all with an eye towards a stronger and more resilient populace. Our next mayor must build a Toronto we can all Thrive in and be proud of.