Inside City Hall

Public Transit
INSIDE THIS ISSUE 1
City Hall Transit Housing Community Development and Recreation Official Plan Review DiverseCity Fellows International Womens Day

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Toronto City Council came together for a special meeting on public transit on Wednesday February 8th. While councillors debated Toronto's transit future we heard arguments for and against subways and LRTs. Ultimately, it was Councillor Stintz's motion that brought back the LRT transit expansion plan. TWCA took a moment to thank TTC Chair Stintz for her leadership in bringing this plan back to Council Chambers and for supporting an environmentally sustainable, accessible and affordable transit future for Toronto. The same meeting saw a motion carried to establish an expert advisory panel for the Sheppard Avenue line. Thanks to Councillor Kristyn WongTam's motion to include an equity lens on the panel, Prabha Khosla, one of TWCA's senior board members, will have the opportunity to offer her expertise on gender and transit. For more detailed information about the motions adopted at that meeting please visit the City's website: http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgendaItemHistory.do?item=2012.CC 17.1 TWCA would like to see a public transit system that is considerate of the diverse experiences of its riders. Studies have shown that more women use public transit than men. We also use it differently; multi-destination trips and issues of safety are a couple of ways in which women experience public transit different than men. For more information on gender and public transit please follow these links: Public Transportation's Hidden Gender Imbalance http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2012/02/publictransportations-hidden-gender-imbalance/1107/ Why Women-Only Transit Options Have Caught On http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2012/02/why-women-onlytransit-options-have-caught/1171/

TWCA to sit on expert advisory panel regarding transit on Sheppard Avenue...The advisory panel, incorporating a gender and racial equity lens, will advise City Council on the most effective means of delivering rapid transit to the greatest number of riders... Item CC17.1

If you want to get involved in TWCAs work for a more womenfriendly transit system, e-mail us at info@twca.ca

Municipal Update

Public Housing
In Toronto, for many women and girls, housing is neither affordable, available, nor appropriate. This is because on average, women are poorer than men, especially when we are lone parents, elderly, live with a disability, victims of violence or belong to a marginalized group. In Toronto, there are more than 80,000 households on the waiting list for affordable housing. Submission to Exec Committee On Friday February 17th after being postponed twice - the Executive Committee held a special meeting to address the Toronto Community Housing Board's proposal to sell off 675 single family units in order to finance repairs in TCH's multi-residential stock. This proposal would have displaced hundreds of families. Instead the Executive Committee moved a motion to set up a working group to explore other options. The members of the group will be chosen by Councillor Ana Bailao Affordable Housing Committee Chair and the Mayor. The special working group is set to report back to the Executive Committee in September. At the meeting, Councillor Bailao asked, deputant and social housing expert, Joy Connelly, to join the working group. Connolly writes a blog with some very refreshing ideas to address social housing in Toronto. Check out her blog here: http://openingthewindow.com/2012/02/14/tchc-house-sales-a-windowopens/#more-521 Please follow this link to read TWCA's submission to the Executive Committee: http://www.scribd.com/doc/83017919/TWCA-s-submission-to-ExecutiveCommittee-s-special-meeting-on-housing

City of Torontos Official Plan Review

The City of Toronto is going through a statutory 5 year review of the Official Plan. The Official Plan is an overarching vision for development in the City of Toronto. It is a guideline on which land use development in Toronto is based. TWCA has been working with a network of womens organizations to provide input into the review to incorporate policies that address gender inequities in urban planning. As we know, affordable housing is a major challenge for women and lowincome families across Toronto. One of the policies that we are working towards is engaging the City to implement inclusionary zoning policies that would require new developments to include a certain percentage of affordable housing in the project so that there would be a mix of affordable and market rent homes. If you are interested in becoming involved in TWCAs efforts towards inclusionary zoning, please e-mail us at info@gtwca.ca

Community Development and Recreation Committee

At the February 22 meeting of the Community Development and Recreation Committee, discussed a number of reports that addressed equity issues impacting the lives of women and girls. A report was received that included recommendations forward to address the challenges faced by Child Care in Toronto as the Full Day Kindergarten provincial program is implemented

Municipal Update
Community Development and Recreation Committee contd.

A report requested by Councillor Ana Bailao on, The Social Impact of Lower Wage Jobs was also reported on by staff. This report considered recent research and Stats Canada information on the rising number of people employed in service class position in the City of Toronto and across Canada. The report discusses this trend in light of recent budget decisions to contract out unionized cleaning positions and questions the social impacts this decision will have across the City. The committee members directed staff to report to the Government Management Committee on the issues that deputants raised and the status of undocumented workers in Toronto including the possibility of offering amnesty to workers and their families. As it is women who are often employed in these service class positions and often faced with the challenges of not having status in Canada, this report is particularly relevant in addressing equity for women in Toronto. The final report that was discussed was the Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy 2020. The strategy is an updated workplan for the place-based work that the City has undertaken since 2004 based on the United Ways 2004 Poverty by Postal Code report. The overall strategy has attempted to use learnings from the past 8 years and has engaged some new monitoring and evaluation tools to look at progress and includes plans for addressing the challenges in high-rise communities. For more information on the Committee decisions and for links to the reports, visit the website: http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/decisionBodyProfile.do?function=doPrepare&meetingId=5637#Meeting2012.CD10

Celebrating Achievements in Human Rights

Do you know someone who is working to eliminate violence, racism, sexism, homophobia, homelessness, hate crimes, hunger, poverty or illiteracy in Toronto? Do you know someone who is building a city where everyone can participate in the social, cultural, economic, recreational and political life of Toronto? Recognize a human rights champion by nominating them for a City of Toronto Access, Equity and Human Rights Award. The City of Toronto recognizes the ongoing work of residents in five categories: Aboriginal Affairs; Disability Issues; Status of Women; Race Relations, and; Lesbian Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Transsexual and Two Spirited Issues. Find out more at

DiverseCity Fellows
TWCA's Administrative Coordinator was selected as one of the 2012 DiverseCity Fellows! She looks forward to using this opportunity as a new platform to advocate for gender equity and women in leadership. DiverseCity is a one-year, action-based program concerned with civic engagement and city building opportunities for Toronto's emerging leaders. This innovative program brings together 28 participants from the non-profit, private and government sectors. Funded by Maytree and Civic Action this program seeks to diversify the face of leadership in Toronto. For more information please visit the program website:

http://www.toronto.ca/civicawards/index.htm
or call 416-392-8592 or email diversity@toronto.ca The deadline for nominations is Monday, May 7, 2012.

http://diversecitytoronto.ca/getinvolved/become-citybuilder/meetthefellows/

Municipal Update

International Women's Day

Toronto IWD International Women's Day (8 March) is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. In some places like China, Russia, Vietnam and Bulgaria, International Women's Day is a national holiday. IWD has been celebrated for more than 100 years. In Toronto, IWD has traditionally been a rally and march, and is organized by a committee of social justice, labour, health and women's rights activists. Reclaim Our City: Good jobs, Services, Dignity! Together we are stronger! Saturday, March 3 Rally, 11:00 AM, OISE Auditorium, 252 Bloor St West March, 1:00 PM Fair, 2 PM, Ryerson Student Centre, 55 Gould St.

Skills for Change

Join Skills for Change as they celebrate International Women's Day and launch their new Immigrant Women in Leadership program. Their first project will be a gender-based analysis informed by immigrant women's participation in their communities and workplaces. Thursday March 8th Centre for Social Innovation 215 Spadina Ave, suite 416 6pm to 8pm RSVP

https://www.facebook.com/IWDToronto MUJER
MUJER invites women to celebrate Latina Leaders in Canada on International Women's Day! The celebration will be hosted at the Toronto Women's Bookstore: Thursday March 8th 73 Harbord Street (Harbord and Spadina) 6pm to 8pm The event will feature a photo exhibit of Latin American women creating positive change in Canada.

www.immigrantwomenleadership.eventbrite .com chung@skillsforchange.org 416.904.1627 TORONTO WOMENS CITY ALLIANCE

Address: c/o North York Women's Centre 2446 Dufferin St Toronto, ON M6E 3T1 Phone: 647-235-8575 E-mail: info@twca.ca Website: www.twca.ca

https://www.facebook.com/latinameric anwomen

Follow this link for more information on IWD events taking place in Toronto: http://www.internationalwomensday.com /search.asp