c/o North York Women’s Centre

2446 Dufferin Street, Toronto, ON M63 3T1

info@twca.ca p. 647.235.8575

Submitted to Executive Committee Item 5.3: April 20, 2011

The TWCA, Toronto Women's City Alliance, comprises a diverse group of

women who have been organizing to end the silence and invisibility of
girls' and women's voices and issues on the political agenda in the City of
Toronto. Poverty, homelessness, un- and under-employment, racist and
domestic violence and sexual abuse is an overwhelming reality for many
girls and women. These relate closely to the City's planning, housing,
safety, security and economic development strategies.
How actively is the City addressing these critical issues for women?
How is the Executive Committee learning of the needs of women and girls
in the City of Toronto?
Some of the women in the TWCA are relatively new to municipal activism,
we come from the diverse ethnoracial and ethnocultural communities.
Some of us have a long history in local government in Toronto.
It is deeply troubling that Mayor Ford characterizes this Council as a body
running a business and residents and citizens as consumers. Supposed
effciency instead of service. We pay taxes, you provide the services that
we as residents on our own cannot either purchase or organize - i.e.
planning, public transportation, public health.
Businesses do not need Council Advisory Bodies and Working
Committees, they need strategic marketing plans and brand identifcation.
And that is what our diverse communities of women and men, boys and
girls are getting with the elimination of Advisory bodies.
We are here today, to register our opposition to the abolition of the
community advisory committees and working groups.
We see this as a means to silence the involvement of residents in the City
and to curtail democracy. We need more involvement of the women and
men of Toronto in the City’s decision making and not less.

1
 c/o North York Women’s Centre
2446 Dufferin Street, Toronto, ON M63 3T1
info@twca.ca p. 647.235.8575

1. WHY WERE ADVISORY BODIES ESTABLISHED TO BEGIN WITH?

The ways in which we interact with the City brings us different
understandings of the City. For example, If I am boarding subways and
street cars with groceries and a stroller, effciency demands that I not be
allowed to get on the TTC in the rush hour. However, If I am earning
minimum wage, have to purchase my groceries when I pick up my child at
day care because my partner works a later shift, then I know that I need
the TTC at rush hour and that I need the TTC to have spaces in which I
can stash my groceries and anchor my stroller without my child being
bludgeoned with swinging briefcases and backpacks. The experts
designing transport cars, unless they worked for an ineffcient company
did not board their designs with groceries and strollers. As a Council you
need to hear from women and men who use the services in order to
understand what we need.
2. THE CHEAPEST SERVICES LIKE THE CHEAPEST GOODS ARE
FREQUENTLY EXACTLY THAT THE CHEAPEST GOODS AND
SERVICES. As the management guru Henry Mintzberg points out - It's
easy to measure costs; it's not easy to measure benefts. Who benefts
when tenants, women and men with the least money, no longer have
access to Tenant Defense bodies - landlords - their increased returns are
measurable; tenants - not so much - and the City has longer social
housing lists, higher social services costs. The interactions among the
systems that measure these costs and the lost benefts are much harder to
grasp. And you as the policy makers lose sight of the costs to women and
children and to the City, in terms of the school achievement and
employment challenges that result from unstable and substandard
housing.
3. HOW DO WE KNOW THIS? Issues around community safety,
specifcally public safety of women, have been explored and documented
because community women's groups provided the coherent description of
their experiences.

2
 c/o North York Women’s Centre
2446 Dufferin Street, Toronto, ON M63 3T1
info@twca.ca p. 647.235.8575

Our new neighbourhoods need the input of people on the ground, people
who will walk the streets with their children, taking them to school,
teaching them to ride bikes safely, shopping on their way to and from
school and work. The TWCA research, funded by the City and to explore
what women need in various communities, points to the need for the input
of women across the City into planning, cycling, parks, child and long-
term care, transportation, literacy and economic development, to name
just a few. These city functions and challenges tie together differently for
women and men and boys and girls.
While the goal of the Toronto Women's City Alliance is to establish an
Offce of Women's Equality with a mandate to review and monitor the
impact of all City policy and services on diverse groups of women and
girls, we also need Community Advisory groups and Working groups in
order to assist you as policy makers to determine the shape and structure
of services that are appropriate for the needs of women and families
across Toronto. We see the elimination of these bodies as a means to
silence the involvement of residents in the City and to curtail democracy.
We need more involvement of the women and men of Toronto in the City’s
decision making and not less

Sonja Greckol for

Toronto Women's City Alliance