Grassroots municipal policymaking: using research, community development and advocacy to build City services from the ground up

Transcription

1 Grassroots municipal policymaking: using research, community development and advocacy to build City services from the ground up

2 A) Toronto City Council: the basics B) Toronto City budget process C) Grassroots policy initiatives: two case studies - Antibes Community Centre - Youth Spaces D) It never ends E) Lessons learned

3 A) Toronto City Council: the basics

4 Toronto City Council consists of 44 City Councillors, one for each Ward, plus the Mayor.

5 Community Development and Recreation Committee In charge of: Homeless shelters and homelessness-related programs; City-run long term care homes; Child care and after-school care; Community grants/programs; Community centres and recreation programs; Ambulance and fire services.

6 Boards, committees and City Council vote on policy in the form of motions.

7 Committee and board meetings are an opportunity for people to make five-minute deputations about the motions under consideration that day. Journalist Desmond Cole (pictured below, during his deputation) made a deputation to the Budget Committee in 2011 that worked to draw attention to proposed cuts to City services.

8 The City budget process is the time everyone finds out what s really going to become policy. Nothing s real until the money gets allocated. And even then

9 B) Toronto City Budget Process

10 Where the Money Comes From - Program Revenues of $9.598 Billion ($Billion) Federal Grants & Subsidies, $0.174, 1.8% Provincial Grants & Subsidies, $1.834, 19.1% Other Subsidies, $0.149, 1.6% User Fees, $1.637, 17.1% Fines & Penalties, $0.133, 1.4% Interest & Investment Income, $0.206, 2.1% Reserves / Reserve Funds, $0.446, 4.6% MLTT, $0.342, 3.6% Property Taxes, $3.765, 39.2% Prior Year Surplus, $0.000, 0.0% Other Revenues, $0.823, 8.6% Transfers from Capital, $0.140, 1.5% Strengthening Fiscal Health Investing for the Future 10

11 Where the Money Goes: - Program Expenditures of $9.598 Billion ($Million) Shelter, Support & Housing Administration, $639.0, 6.7% TTC, $1,706.7, 17.8% Transportation Services, $334.9, 3.5% Toronto Public Library, $183.9, 1.9% Economic Development & Culture, $69.1, 0.7% Toronto Public Health, $245.9, 2.6% 21.3% 11.4% Parks, Forestry & Recreation, $409.7, 4.3% Municipal Licensing and Standards, $49.7, 0.5% Children's Services, $403.5, 4.2% Long Term Care Homes & Services, $231.8, 2.4% 28.1% 17.7% 6.9% 7.2% 7.4% City Planning, $40.9, 0.4% Fleet and Facilities, $47.8, 0.5% Other City Services, $298.3, 3.1% Governance and Internal Services, $707.7, 7.4% Toronto Employment & Social Services, $1,172.1, 12.2% EMS, $187.8, 2.0% Fire Services, $422.7, 4.4% Toronto Police Service, $1,088.9, 11.3% Other, $666.6, 6.9% Capital & Corporate Financing, $262.0, 2.7% Debt Charges, $428.6, 4.5% Strengthening Fiscal Health 11 Investing for the Future

12 But even when budget is allocated, it might not get spent. For example: gapping The city is rocking a $190-million surplus from the 2014 budget year. The bad news? As has been the case with every City of Toronto budget in recent memory, a chunk of that budget surplus is due to the city not hiring people to fill positions. The budget nerds call this gapping, and it s significant. Last year, for example, the city left 56 positions vacant at the Toronto Public Library and positions open at Toronto Public Health, according to the city s 2014 budget variance report. At Transportation Services the department responsible for maintaining the roads more than 110 jobs went to nobody. And at Parks, Forestry and Recreation, the division that maintains our parks, there were a whopping 206 unfilled jobs. Matt Elliot, Metro News, 2015:

13 2014 Budget Schedule - Key Dates Apr. - May Jun. Oct. Nov. 25 Nov. 25/26 Dec. 2 Jan. 8 Jan. 22 Jan. 29 & 30 City Program s & Agencies Prepare Budget CM/ CFO Budget Review Staff Prepare Recommend ed Operating / Capital Budget Public Launch Drop In Sessions Introductio Open n of Capital House For and Councillors Operating Budgets Budget Committee Public Hearing BC Reviews & Wrap-up Executive Committee BC Recommend ed Operating & Capital Submission to Council City Council Considerati on & Adoption of Operating and Capital Budget Strengthening Fiscal Health 13 Investing for the Future

14 C) Grassroots policy initiatives

15 #1. Antibes Community Centre

16 A system that is not a system 1. Research 2. Organizing 3. Securing resources 4. Identifying opportunities 5. Making it happen 6. Implementation Music, food, recreation, teach-ins, festiveness, talking, trainings, hanging out, lots of time.

17 Research: Community café and information gathered at community events points to economic access to community centres as an issue. Research: Catchment-wide environmental scan points to access to community centres and space as an issue: Research: What is the current policy environment, and who holds the levers? Document review - City budget and policy docs. Meetings with people working in bureaucracy. Talking through experiences of frontline workers and residents navigating processes.

18 Organizing: Who in the neighbourhood wants to move this forward involving community leaders, residents, organizations, faith groups, etc. Securing resources: Space for meetings, food, child care, transportation, training, teach-ins. Community Day at Antibes CC Collectively-created mural re: what do you want for your neighbourhood? Community leaders who created Antibes CC community women s dinner organizing and serving at a monthly dinner. (Maureen Simpson, left, pushed to have the community centre established in the first place in 1999)

19 Identifying opportunities: 2010 Municipal election campaign. Candidates debate for Ward 10, candidates asked if they would make Antibes CC a Priority Centre.

20 Making it happen: o Meeting with (and sometimes pushing) Councillors o Making deputations o Identifying allies in other neighbourhoods to solidify Council support o Drafting plain language materials o Engaging media o Online tool to connect people directly to their Councillors Implementation: o Winning the vote o Ensuring the budget allocations are actually there o Monitoring what s happening at the neighbourhood level o Developing/identifying neighbourhood-level oversight

21 #2. Youth spaces

22 Research: o Report from Space Coalition re: need for dedicated youth space in Toronto ( content/uploads/2015/06/another-winter-another-spring-toronto- Youth-Speak-Out-about-Space.pdf) o Roots of Youth Violence report ( /index.aspx) and many other documents. Research: Community Recreation for All roundtable with youth workers re: best practices in youth space: Letting Youth In: Youth Workers Talk Space Research: Current state of youth space (general) and city-run youth space. Document review, requesting City documents, motion to report on state of youth spaces, etc.

23 Organizing: Identifying supportive City Councillors and interested community groups, youth workers and youth. Securing resources: Space for meetings, food, printing, administrative support provided by partner organization. Identifying opportunities: City budget process Making it happen (and many others were also working on this): o Meeting with (and sometimes pushing) Councillors o Making deputations o Identifying allies across city to solidify Council support o Drafting plain language materials o Social media

24 Implementation: o The vote itself. 10 youth spaces were funded to roll out over 3 years 4 in 2014, 3 in 2015, 3 in o Organizations and youth workers met with policy-makers to break down the program and share best practices. o In the 2015 budget was a proposal to cut the 3 youth spaces slated to roll out in Once this was identified there was a push through the budget process to make sure these were funded after all. o CRfA pushed for an advisory committee to be part of the youth spaces implementation and governance process. o CRfA also sought funding for an evaluation of the first 4 spaces to be conducted separately from the City s evaluation processes. o CRfA is working with partners in north east North York to build community oversight for both a new youth space and a new centre where programs are free.

25 More examples of grassroots policy-making at the municipal level: onew, 24-hour women s drop-ins. o Sanctuary City policy. oadditional capacity in the shelter system. odedicated LGBTQ2 shelter beds and revision of shelter standards. opush to stop police carding.

26 D) It never ends

27 Maureen Simpson was there every step of the way.

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31 In September 2012, Antibes CC officially became a Priority Centre. A year later, registration was up by 35%. In September 2014, 16 new Priority Centres will be added, bringing the total to 39.

32 E) Lessons learned

33 #1. City Councillors need the information you have about your life, work and neighbourhood.

34 #2. Data is political. Independent research matters.

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36 #3. Change can take resources. Long-term resources.

37 #4. Strong relationships matter When we got people to call into the Councillor or make a deputation, it s because we had been talking together for years at community events, and on the street, and there was trust there. We identified the problem and learned the system together. It wasn t about flyers. It was about relationships. Hamda Mohamed, community worker with the Bathurst-Finch Network

38 #5. Eyes on the prize, pretty much forever. Implementation matters as much as funding. So does independent oversight.