Toronto’s Vital Signs provides a snapshot of the trends in our city, highlighting progress we should be proud of and challenges that need to be addressed for Toronto’s quality of life. The Report is compiled from current statistics and special studies which look at eleven different, yet interconnected, issue areas that are critical to the well-being of our city and its residents. The Report aims to: inspire civic engagement, provide focus for public debate, and guide donors and stakeholders who want to direct their resources to areas of greatest need. Since Toronto’s first Vital Signs publication in 2001, the Report has been adopted by 16 communities across Canada.

THE CITY – population 2,677,700

The “City of Toronto,” “Toronto” or “the city” refers to the former Regional Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto, which consisted of the former cities of Toronto, Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough, York and the Borough of East York.

THE REGION – population 5,623,500

The “Toronto Region” or “Region”, refers to the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA), an area slightly smaller than the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and the largest metropolitan area in Canada, stretching from Ajax and Pickering on the east, to Milton on the west and New Tecumseth and Georgina on the north. Almost half the population of the Toronto Region resides in the City of Toronto.

• A diverse array of people, representing more than 200 distinct ethnic origins, calls Toronto “home.” They could be:

Asad, who arrived in Toronto in 2009. He is one of about 300,000 members of the city’s South Asian communities, the largest visible minority population in the city.

Amina who goes to elementary school in northwestern Toronto. Her classmates come from 59 different countries. She and 80% of the students at her school are English language learners.

Francesca who came to Canada in 1967 and settled in Toronto. Her predominantly Italian neighbourhood has changed a lot over the years. Now more people speak Tamil than Italian in Toronto.

Roberto who has just finished high school and is starting college in Toronto this fall. He knows that further education will make all the difference in finding good work, when more than 30% of his contemporaries (15-24 year olds who have been in Canada 5 - 10 years) are unemployed.

Philomena who is a resident in a long-term care facility in Toronto. At 93, she is still active, one of over 16,000 Torontonians 90 and older in 2009 (a number expected to double by 2026).

• Toronto’s population is growing slowly, but by 2036 the city will be home to more than 500,000 new residents. The proportion of youth in the population will be only half that of seniors.

• The Toronto Region has received fewer immigrants each year for the past 5 years (a 26.9% decline since 2005), although immigration accounts for most of the Region’s growth.

• Toronto was named one of 21 leading centres of business, finance and culture in 2010 and the leading city in livability. Toronto ranked high on the list with eight others (New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, Stockholm, Chicago, Sydney and Singapore) in providing a healthy balance of economic competitiveness and quality of life.

• The city is among the world’s most expensive. But purchasing power was higher in Toronto than in many places. Wages purchased more goods and services in only 16 other cities in 2009.

• A highly attractive labour market boosts Toronto’s economic prosperity, but in the areas of productivity, innovation and investment – three major drivers of prosperity – Toronto and the whole Toronto Region does not shine.

• Toronto’s international ranking on numbers of patents registered (a key measure of innovation) was unchanged for the third year in a row (in 17th place). Toronto’s growth had been steady in recent years, but dropped 9.4% to 843 patents registered in 2009 (compared to top-ranking Tokyo with 20,605). Patent activity decreased in half the 20 top-ranked cities in 2009.

• The city is weak in attracting investment – likely the single most important determinant of prosperity (ranking 19th in 2010 among 24 cities). Venture capital investment in relation to GDP was $1,069 (US$ per million GDP) compared to top-ranked San Francisco ($21,750). The weakness is due to Toronto’s relatively small financial market.

• However, Toronto is a relatively competitive place to do business. The KPMG annual index of business costs measures 27 costs across a dozen industries. A rating of less than 100 indicates a more favourable business environment than the average of American cities surveyed. In 2010, the Toronto Region was 95.8 on the index, compared to Montreal (94.2) and Vancouver (94.9).

In Canada, only the federal government and the governments of Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec and Alberta are responsible for larger populations than Toronto. The City provided more than 40 key services in 2009, including:

— 24-hour medical response from 43 ambulance stations

— 2,790 fire fighters, who responded to 142,000 calls including 8,382 fires and 79,747 medical emergencies

— 940 child care centres and 21 home child care agencies

— 45,000 business licenses and over 50,000 business inspections

— maintenance of 1,504 parks, 136 community centres, 5,600 kms of roads, 8,000 kms of sidewalks, 600 bridges and 100 kms of bike lanes

— management and protection of 9 watersheds on 38,000 acres

— 60,000 recreation programs

— management of 97 City-owned heritage and cultural buildings at 60 heritage sites, including 10 historic museums

— 99 branch libraries, providing materials in 40 languages and no-charge services and programs for newcomers and for small business developers

— preventative public health services, such as basic dental treatment to 300,000 people, and dental screening for 200,000 children in 636 public schools

— 24-hour on-line and telephone access to information on city services in 180 languages (311).

• A projected $821 million revenue gap in the 2010 $9.2 billion operating budget was closed and the budget balanced by a combination of sources including cost reductions and efficiencies, TTC fare and user fee increases, provincial upload of services and a higher than anticipated 2009 surplus, part of which (including $31 million savings from a 2009 labour disruption) was applied to 2010.

• $343 million in 2010 revenues came from unsustainable or one-time sources, partly due to the lack of shared transit funding with the province. Toronto’s transit system serves a population well beyond its boundaries, but currently receives no provincial subsidy. In the U.S., big city transit systems are 51% subsidized by federal and state funding. (50% of the 2010 Toronto transit budget equals $256 million.)

• Toronto residents had a lower municipal tax burden in 2009 than several big cities in Ontario. The average residential tax levy was among the lowest in the GTA.

• As in 2009, almost three-quarters (73%) of the property tax budget funds the Toronto Police Service (25.2%), provincially mandated health and social services (21.1%), the TTC (14.5%) and fire and ambulance services (12.1%). Debt charges (on prior capital projects) take a further 11.3%. All other services, such as libraries, economic development, culture, parks, forestry, recreation and transportation services, make do with 16% of the property tax budget.

• The City of Toronto generates about 10% of Canada’s and about 26% of the province’s GDP. Toronto’s GDP per worker shrank for the fourth year in a row to an estimated $75,338 in 2009.

The issue:

Post-secondary credentials are becoming essential to success in the job market.

• The proportion of the Region’s population with post-secondary education rose by more than 50% between 1990 and 2009.

• Many eligible students are not pursuing post-secondary education, and the barrier is largely financial. University participation rates in Canada vary by income far more than by academic ability.

• Tuition costs rose an average 19% over the decade 1997-2007 (adjusted for inflation), which, combined with other cost of living increases (particularly housing), put post-secondary education out of reach for many.

• 94% of Toronto’s elementary schools (600 schools) now require support for English Language Learners, up from 90% in 2008/2009. In some Toronto schools up to 90% of students require English Language Learning support.

• Only 14% of children and youth are physically active.

• Schools face major challenges in delivering the provincially-mandated 20 minutes of daily physical activity:

77% need more resources and supports

37% of schools lack adequate space

38% of schools say they need more time in the school day.

• The percentage of Toronto elementary schools with full-time teacher librarians continued its downward slide from 1999, when 40% of schools had full-time librarians, to just 19% in 2009 (a 50% decrease since 2000).

• At-risk students in Toronto schools received more support in 2009. 83% of elementary schools now have regular access to social workers, compared to 59% of schools five years ago. But service is spread thinly, and few schools have a team of social workers, psychologists and youth workers functioning together.

• Toronto has 56,750 spaces in 969 licensed child care centres and home child care agencies.

• 24,000 fee subsidies support less than one in three low-income children. The number of child care fee subsidies has not changed in two years.

• In June 2010, more than 17,800 children remained on the subsidy waiting list.

• In 2009/2010, just over half (54%) of all Toronto schools have a school-based child care centre. However, only one quarter of schools had before- and after-school programs for children up to age 12 (compared to 33% of schools in all of Ontario).

The bottom line:

Education is often the dividing line between those who succeed in Toronto and those who are left behind.

The issue:

The arts and culture sector is vital to the generation of wealth and community vitality.

• The richness of Toronto’s cultural inheritance is preserved in 750 cultural facilities (including 97 City-owned heritage buildings and 60 heritage sites). These are hubs for neighbourhood cultural activities, incubators of creative ideas and people, showcases for artistic performances and exhibits, and places where cultural memories are housed and celebrated.

• Annually, city-operated museums, historic sites, cultural centres and art galleries welcome more than half a million visitors.

• Attendance at City-funded or programmed cultural events grew by 20% in 2009, to 15.4 million people.

• The City has yet to reach arts and culture spending targets in year seven of its ten-year Culture Plan ($18.00 per capita spending in 2010 is well short of the $25 target).

• Five cities are home to almost 40% of all artists in Canada, and Toronto is home to the highest number of artists in the country.

• 9.3% more people were employed in arts and culture occupations (including arts, entertainment, recreation and sport, film and video, publishing, broadcasting and heritage institutions) in 2009. Employment grew from 81,400 in 2008, to 89,000 people.

• The Toronto Region ranked first in a 2007 survey in attracting talent and investment in digital media, against comparable cities such as Boston, Frankfurt, and Washington. Toronto excels in recruiting local talent, and in livability, although is less competitive in the quality of its infrastructure.

• Film and television on-location production spending increased more than 40% in Toronto in 2009, buoyed by steady growth in domestic spending and a more than doubling of U.S. production.

• 698,000 Canadians volunteered in arts and culture organizations in 2007, contributing 73.5 million volunteer hours (the equivalent of about 38,000 full-time jobs, or $1.1 billion).

• 2009 Toronto Public Library circulation increased by 5% to over 31 million books, DVDs and other materials. The library experienced its busiest year ever, as residents relied on library services and programs for help in challenging economic times.

• 17.5 million library visits represented an 8.5% increase over the year before. Torontonians borrowed 88% more eTitles (eBooks, eAudiobooks and music files) than in 2008.

• Individual household spending on arts and culture dipped as the recession deepened, to pre-2005 levels (in current dollars). Average spending totaled $1,011 in the Toronto Region in 2008.

• 70% of Aboriginal survey respondents in Toronto said they believed that Aboriginal culture has grown stronger over the past five years.

The bottom line:

Toronto is a leader in recruiting talent, but the arts and culture sector needs better funding and infrastructure support.

The issue:

Workers face multiple pressures in the new knowledge economy.

The Toronto Region is:

• site of the head office for 40% of Canada’s businesses;

• home to 3 of the world’s 25 largest banks, and a world-class financial services industry;

• a major manufacturing hub for the automotive, biomedical and electronics industries;

• the location of 25% of Canada’s best-ranked workplaces.

• But Toronto’s 1,487,960 workers face serious stresses. The 10% average unemployment rate for 2009 was higher in Toronto and the Region than the 9% Ontario rate and the Canadian rate of 8.3%. For the first time ever, the Regional rate surpassed Montreal’s.

• The unemployment rate doubled (from 15.6% to 30.2%) between 2008 and 2009 for young (15-24 year-olds) immigrants living in Toronto between 5 and 10 years.

• Finance, ambulatory health care, hospitality/tourism, art and entertainment/culture industries grew in 2009. Manufacturing (11% of the labour market) continued to decline in the Toronto Region.

• The Region attracted 22.4 million visitors from more than 200 countries in 2009. They contributed almost $4 billion to the region’s economy and supported close to 65,000 jobs in the hotel and restaurant sector.

• Less than a quarter (21%) of neighbourhoods with a high-proportion of service workers are within easy access (500 metres) of the subway, compared to 65% of high-proportion creative worker neighbourhoods. Higher-income creative workers rely less on public transit than service workers.

• 23% of young “Generation Y” workers cited poor/underfunded transit as one of the worst things about Toronto, in a recent poll, followed by the cost of living (23%) and traffic congestion (19%). For employers the cost of living/taxes topped the list (27%), followed by traffic congestion (17%) and road infrastructure (8%).

• 15.4% more Ontarians were living with a disability between 2001 and 2006, more than half that growth attributable to an aging population.

• Only 41% of men and 32% of women with disabilities were in the work force in 2002. Average employment income for disabled adults declined between 2001 and 2006.

• Toronto lost more than twice as many business establishments in 2009 as the year before. The 1.7% decline in 2009 was small compared to the largest recorded decline in a single-year of 3.6% in the early 1990’s.

• Retail sales in the Toronto Region dipped to 2007 levels of just under $58 billion in 2009.

• The median family income after tax, 2008 constant dollars (Region):

1986 $50,000

1996 $46,900

2006 $55,200

The bottom line:

Unemployment in Toronto is directly related to age, education and immigrant status.

The Issue:

Traffic volume is vastly outstripping the development of new road and public transit infrastructure.

• Weekday vehicle traffic entering the city almost doubled in two decades. Congestion in the Toronto Region is costing the Canadian economy over $5 billion annually.

• Road construction increased by 56% in the Region between 1986 and 2006, while personal vehicle travel grew by 106%.

• Toronto scores last among 19 metropolitan regions, with an average commute time of 80 minutes.

Weekday Morning Vehicle Traffic

1985 179,200

1995 247,300

2006 313,900

• The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) recently cited Toronto’s transportation woes as the key liability threatening the Region’s future prosperity.

• The TTC reported record ridership in 2009, but the overcrowded system needs to increase capacity to handle an additional 175 million riders annually by 2021.

• The TTC is the third largest rapid transit system in North America, after New York and Mexico City (based on ridership per route km).

• The network serves 1,495,000 passengers on an average business day, resulting in almost one million fewer car trips every weekday (average automobile occupancy is 1.10 for inbound trips to the city of Toronto).

• All levels of government will need to make significant investments in the wider region’s transportation plan (five major Light Rapid Transit projects with a price tag of about $50 billion).

• 22,000 Torontonians were members of the city’s car-share companies in 2010, up from just 2,000 in 2006. Car-sharing is beginning to change the landscape of vehicle ownership and contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

• One in two adult Torontonians bike for work, school or recreation. Improved convenience, safety and accessibility remain challenges.

• Close to 75% of cyclists believe that the overall quality of cycling in Toronto has improved over the decade.

• Toronto was named the 4th most walkable city in Canada, in spite of the challenges some residents face in neighbourhoods built for cars. Vancouver retained its number one spot in 2010, followed by Victoria and Montreal.

The bottom line:

Toronto needs to fund and build an expanded rapid transit network before congestion brings the city to a halt.

The Issue:

Toronto’s prosperity depends on skilled immigrants who will make up 100% of net new labour force growth.

• The ‘social geography’ of the city is undergoing a major shift, as visible minorities – including recent immigrants – increasingly settle in minority ‘enclaves’ where a single group is at least twice the size of any other.

• Households in minority group enclaves are typically larger (3.4 compared to the 2.8 city average in 2006) unemployment is higher and median incomes are lower. However, rates of home ownership are above the Toronto average, and the number of university-educated residents is at the city average.

• Almost two in five immigrants in the skilled worker category and more than half of refugees become low-income within their first year in Canada, even though many immigrants arrive with savings. Lack of language and cultural literacy skills often prevent newcomers from finding good jobs. A big barrier is recognition of foreign credentials and work experience.

• Employers are most interested in Canadian work experience. Even so, in one study, job applicants with English-sounding names were 40% more likely to get an interview than those with identical Canadian training and experience, but with Chinese, Indian or Pakistani names.

• Unemployment more than doubled in the city among 25 - 44-year-old newcomers with college or university credentials, from 7.8% in 2008, to 16.2% in 2009 (a 107% increase, compared to a 54% increase for those with the same education in the total population).

• Newcomers are overrepresented in entry level jobs in Toronto, compared to the rest of Ontario. Recent immigrants are also more likely to be employed in middle-level jobs (that require experience but less education), and less likely to be employed in knowledge work (jobs that require higher specialization and education), despite the fact that there is no significant difference in the educational attainment of newcomers in Toronto and elsewhere in Ontario.

• More than a third of food bank users are newcomers to Canada.

• 37% of Torontonians who relied on food banks in 2009/2010 had been in the city for less than five years.

• More than one quarter (26%) of the newcomers using Toronto food banks had gone hungry at least once a day in the previous year. One in three had not eaten for a whole day.

• More than half of ‘Gen Y’ (18-35 year-old) respondents to a 2010 poll and more than a quarter of employers who responded, named cultural diversity as one of Toronto’s best qualities – the highest-ranked feature of the city by both groups.

The bottom line:

New immigrants struggle to have their skills and experience valued, despite the pride that many Torontonians feel in the city’s diversity.

The issue:

A convergence of risk factors and demographic change threatens to place an unprecedented burden on the health care system.

• 72% of Toronto residents rated their mental health as very good or excellent in the 2010 Canadian Community Health Survey (down from 77.5% a year earlier).

• A one-third reduction in hospital admissions for cardiovascular and respiratory conditions between 1999 and 2006 was directly attributable to Toronto’s leadership in anti-smoking health policies.

• Diabetes, heart disease and stroke disproportionally affect visible minorities in Toronto, particularly Canadians of South Asian and African-Caribbean origin. 11% of South Asian Canadians have diabetes compared to 6% of Canadians of white European origin, and are likely to develop heart disease 5 -10 years earlier than other ethnic groups.

• Ontario currently spends almost $5 billion annually on treatment of diabetes and related illnesses. Unchecked, the cost is expected to rise to $7 billion by 2020, when an estimated one in four people in the province will either have diabetes or be pre-diabetic.

• Less than 15% of Ontario children are physically active (getting the recommended daily hour and a half of physical activity, half of which should come from active play).

• One in three children (aged 2 to 11) in Toronto is overweight or obese, and most are exposed to intense marketing of unhealthy food choices.

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• Toronto high school students are much more likely than students in other Ontario regions to rate their health as poor (17.9% compared to the Ontario average of 14.5%); more of them are physically inactive, and almost one in seven spends 7 or more hours a day in front of a computer or TV screen.

• About one quarter (24.5%) reported being overweight or obese in 2009 (slightly below the provincial average).

• Barely more than a third of teenagers (aged 15 -17) were eating one daily meal at home with their parents in 2005 – a decline of more than 80% since 1992.

• A long-term survey finds decreased drug and alcohol use among Toronto high school students:

• Smoking rates have declined steadily since the late 1990s, although they have leveled off since 2007.

• In 2009, 2% of 7th graders had smoked their first cigarette by grade 6 (compared to 27% in 1997 and 41% in 1981).

• Registration in City-run recreation programs was down almost 30% in 2009, from 459,420 in 2008 to 356,968, in part due to the summer labour disruption. 52,076 programs were offered (compared to 62,246 in 2008).

The bottom line:

Smoking rates continue to decline, but Toronto residents are at risk for a number of diseases aggravated by lack of physical activity and poor diet.

The issue:

The environment, the economy, transportation and the health and well-being of city residents are all vitally linked.

• More than 12% of the city is an urban heat island (where temperatures are significantly higher than the surrounding area). Heat islands are estimated to be growing by 3% annually, fuelled by lack of vegetation, energy use and pollution.

• Climate change is expected to more than double the number of days with temperatures over 30 degrees in Toronto over the next decades – from about 15 days per year between 1961 and 1990 to 37 days by 2041 - 2069.

• Based on the provincial Air Quality Index, Toronto experienced 4 smog alert days in 2009, down from 13 days in 2008. But the average for the years 2002 - 2009 was 18.6 days, compared to an average of 7.8 for the eight years prior.

• In 2007, Greenhouse Gas emissions from private vehicle operation totalled 6,760,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent (at 1,322 tonnes per capita, that was below the average of 1,549 tonnes for Canadian metropolitan areas).

• Estimated residential water usage was unchanged in 2009 from 2008, after another cooler, wetter summer. Demand has dropped about 13% since 2003, due in part to the weather, and to increased water rates and residential metering.

• Toronto has now received seven Sustainable Community awards from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, including two in 2010.

• 7 of Toronto’s 11 beaches met the standard for international Blue Flag designation in 2009 (which includes 27 water quality and site management criteria, including that the beach is open at least 80% of the season). Four beaches received a Blue Flag in 2005.

• The City of Toronto is focusing on developing a health-focused sustainable food system. Toronto residents:

• spend $7 billion a year on food;

• live within the largest near-urban greenbelt area on the planet;

• boast the second largest food-distribution hub on the continent (one job in eight is food-related).

In spite of that:

• One in ten cannot afford a healthy diet;

• Many young Torontonians have little idea where food comes from and few food skills;

• The average food producer in Ontario was earning just over $8,000 annually from farming in 2006;

• Toronto relies on an unsustainable fossil-fuel dependent global food production system that contributes up to one-third of GHG emissions.

• The Humber and Don Rivers are closer to being part of the 728,434 hectares (1.8 million acres) of Greenbelt surrounding the city. In April, 2010, Toronto City Council requested that the province make the river valleys part of the protected Greenbelt.

The bottom line:

Toronto looks to innovations like a health-focused food system, to improve the city’s environment and the health of its residents.

The issue:

Housing affordability is one of the most fundamental issues, impacting the quality of life in the city.

• Toronto was the 5th least affordable housing market in Canada in the 2010 Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey, and ranked 215th least affordable of the 272 international locations surveyed. Vancouver was the most expensive of any market surveyed.

• The average Toronto residence cost 4.62 times the median family income in 2008 compared to a ratio of 3.54 in 1995.

• The 2009 - 2011 period will likely see a drop in tenant incomes and worsening housing affordability, similar to the recession of the 1990s. In 2009, estimated incomes for a number of occupations and groups had already put affordable housing out of reach:

Average Incomes for Different Occupations and Affordable Rent, City of Toronto, 2009

• 8,000 new eligible households were added to the active waiting list for social housing in Toronto in 2009. The list of households waiting for housing grew by 15% to 60,197.

• The number of seniors on the total waiting list increased by 20% between 2005 and 2009.

• The City’s goal is to build 1,000 units of affordable rental housing and 200 units of affordable home ownership housing every year.

The bottom line:

Toronto moved from the ranks of the ‘seriously’ unaffordable to the ‘severely’ unaffordable housing markets.

The issue:

Safety and security are linked to socioeconomic resources and a sense of social cohesion.

• Criminal offenses in the city of Toronto dropped for the third year in a row. The 180,283 reported offences in 2009 was 14.4% below the 2006 figure.

• The number of reported violent crimes is at its lowest level in more than a decade. The rate of 1,171 crimes per 100,000 population (31,919 criminal offenses in 2009) compares to the 1999 rate of 1,302 (33,122 violent offenses).

• Homicides claimed the lives of 62 people in the city in 2009, 11.4% fewer than the 70 deaths in 2008. This is close to the average 60 homicides a year in the decade 1995 - 2004, and well below the average 76.5 reported annually between 2005 and 2008.

• 13.5% of the total number of Torontonians charged with violent crime in 2009 were youth (12 -17 years old), the lowest percentage since 1998. The 12-year average is 15.31%.

• 7 young offenders (aged 12 - 17) were charged with murder (higher than the 5 charged in 2008, but still below the 15 youth charged in 2007). The 10-year average is 6.8.

• Hate/bias crimes increased almost 14% in Toronto by in 2009.

• Crime rates are lower in Toronto than in many Canadian communities, but are linked to the socioeconomic and cultural characteristics of city neighbourhoods.

• Violent crime is more concentrated in neighbourhoods where residents have access to few socioeconomic resources. It is also higher in neighbourhoods where high population density and mobility contribute to a lack of social cohesion or sense of belonging to the community.

• The Crime Severity Index (CSI) first introduced in 2009, and Youth Crime Severity Index released in 2010, assigns a weight to crimes based on sentences handed down.

• Highest crime severity rates continue to be found in western Canada and the lowest are in Ontario. The Toronto Region has the third lowest CSI among all metropolitan areas (only Guelph and Québec were lower in 2009).

• Half of Toronto’s 18 - 35 year-olds responding to a 2010 poll, rated Toronto as a safer place to live than other international cities, but almost one in five put crime on the list of the worst things about the city. In contrast, only 4% of employers polled cited crime as one of the city’s big problems.

The bottom line:

Police-reported crime rates continue an almost decade-long decline in the city, but crime is a top concern of many young Torontonians.

The issue:

Cities provide not just infrastructure like roads and sewers, but social infrastructure - the services and facilities that support those least able to cope in financially tough times.

• One in 10 people (10.8%) in the Toronto Region were living in poverty (based on after-tax Low Income Cutoff) in 2008, a 2.7% decrease from 2007 and a 12.9% drop since 2000.

• 9.5% of children (17 and under) in the Region lived in poverty, down from 13.8% in 2007 – an even more significant drop from the 2000 level of 17.4%.

• However almost one quarter (23.4%) of children in female lone-parent families were living in poverty in 2008.

• The incidence of elder poverty in the Region declined between 1980 (22.9%) and 2004 (5.6%) a trend mirrored across the country. It rose from 5% in 2007 to 8.7% in 2008 (an increase of 74% in one year).

• More than 160,000 people were receiving social assistance in the City of Toronto in June 2010 (10.2% more than in June 2009). The 2009 average monthly caseload was 88,506, a 17% increase over 2008 average.

• One in ten Toronto households lives without food security. A household is food secure when every member has access to enough safe and nutritious food for a healthy life.

• Half of Toronto is a ‘food desert’. One in two Torontonians lives more than 1 km from the nearest grocery store. Access to healthy food is linked to income, but also to proximity to a grocery store.

• 123,000 additional visits to food banks in Toronto pushed the total to almost a million visits between 2009 and 2010 (on top of a 9% increase in visits in the previous year).

• Almost half of new food bank visitors (46%) in the GTA came because of job loss or reduced work hours.

• 45% of food bank users are seriously ill or disabled.

• 3,269 children stayed in Toronto’s shelters in 2009, 550 more than the year before (a 20% increase). The numbers have been growing since 2005.

• The gap between Toronto’s high- and low-income neighbourhoods is deepening. Over a million people live in neighbourhoods in the northwest and northeast of the city that have experienced more than a 20% decline in incomes since 1970, compared to the Region. (see map above)

• Toronto’s City #3’s four distinct neighbourhood groups are comprised of somewhat larger households, higher percentages of foreign-born, recent immigrant and visible minority residents, and a population with lower economic status, including much lower levels of university education, a higher prevalence of blue-collar occupations and low household incomes. Residents are also served by many fewer subway stations than the rest of Toronto.

The bottom line:

Toronto’s vulnerable families and neighbourhoods are under strain, and reliance on services such as food banks continues to rise.

The issue:

Leadership that reflects the city’s diversity helps to strengthen a culture of citizen engagement.

• Participation in traditional political activities is declining in Canada. Voter turnout in the last two Toronto municipal elections (2003 and 2006) was less than 40%.

• Only about 2% of Canadians volunteer in traditional political groups.

• The second year of a three-year study of diversity in leadership in the GTA shows little change in visible minority leadership (14% from 13.5% a year ago; compared to 43% in the total Regional population), and wide disparities across sectors. More than half of organizations studied (3,348 leaders) have no visible minority representation.

• 4% of leadership in the corporate sector is visible minority. More than 75% of the 52 corporate boards surveyed had no visible minority members.

• 8 of the GTA’s 13 largest charities and foundations have no visible minorities on their boards. Voluntary sector leadership is only slightly more diverse (12.5% visible minority).

• Visible minority leadership is unchanged from a year ago in the education sector, at 20% of approximately 1,200 boards and executives. College leadership is the most diverse (25%). But less than 20% of Toronto District School Board principals and vice-principals are visible minorities.

• Ten daily papers are published in the GTA in languages other than English. But Toronto’s diversity is not reflected in print media leadership.

• 2 out of 62 mainstream print newsroom decision-makers are visible minority (3.2%).

• Almost half of Canadian charitable organizations reported increased demand for their services in 2009. Almost a third expect to face financial shortfalls in 2010 and a quarter don’t know whether they will survive.

• Charitable donations fell for the second year in a row in 2008, from a median donation of $350 in 2007 to $340 for tax-filers declaring donations in the Toronto Region.

• Just under 62% of Toronto residents reported feeling a strong or somewhat strong sense of belonging to their local community in 2009 (down from 66% in 2008 and compared to 65% across Canada).

• One-quarter of Toronto’s youth don’t feel they belong to their local community, a feeling that is reflected in more than half of young adults.

• Half of Canada’s Aboriginal population is urban. Toronto’s Aboriginal population is estimated at about 70,000. A major 2009 study found that 70% of the urban Aboriginal population feel a strong and growing sense of vibrant communal life, despite their perceptions of stereotyping and discrimination.

The bottom line:

Visible minority leadership is still low, particularly in the corporate sector and in mainstream media.

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