February 28, 2022

Chris Murray

City Manager

4th Floor, East Tower, City Hall

100 Queen Street West

Toronto, ON M5H 2N2

Dear Chris Murray:

Re: Community Benefits Implementation Construction Collective Agreements

In 2019 the City of Toronto adopted our Community Benefits Framework which focuses on ways to maximize the use of City of Toronto levers (such as procurement, real estate transactions, or financial incentives for specific sectors and uses) to create inclusive and equitable economic opportunities through community benefits initiatives. It is an intentional step towards achieving that commitment using a coordinated and evidence-based approach.

The intention of the Framework is to be an “umbrella framework” that guides, supports and provides coordination across different City Divisions, Agencies, and Corporations who have existing or are developing new community benefits initiatives.

The disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 and the emphasized need for a recovery and rebuild strategy that prioritizes Indigenous, Black and equity-seeking communities, have highlighted the importance for community benefits initiatives to maximize municipal levers to create inclusive economic opportunities.

The support of the construction industry to achieve the City Community Benefits goals is of great importance. The City is party to provincial I.C.I. Collective Agreements with nine unions, and is negotiating with one other union. The City is part of the Employer Bargaining Agencies for each of these Collective Agreements.

As Councillors who strongly support Community Benefits we are recommending that the City formally propose to each Employer Bargaining Agency the inclusion of language to express a shared commitment to equity, diversion and inclusion, to be included in the appendix that pertains to construction projects owned by the City or its agencies.

An example of such language could be:

"For the Board Area 8 Appendix of ICI Provincial Collective Agreements:

The parties recognize that the City of Toronto is committed to offering a range of employment, training and apprenticeship opportunities for historically disadvantaged communities and equity seeking groups. The parties agree to cooperate on implementing the goals of the City of Toronto Community Benefits Framework through outreach, training and dispatch as well as demographic data collection, tracking, monitoring and evaluation practices for projects tendered by the City of Toronto or its agencies."

Thank you for your consideration of our request.

Sincerely,

C.C.:

Mayor John Tory

Marsha John-Greenwood, Interim Chief People Officer

Construction Associations and Construction Unions

Toronto Community Benefits Network