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Join us for TCBN's 10 Year Anniversary, RSVP Now

WHEN
March 21, 2024 at 6:30pm - 8:30pm
WHERE
United Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil St.
25 Cecil St
Toronto , ON M5T 1N1
Canada
Google map and directions
CONTACT
Kumsa Baker ·

Will you come?

TCBN 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION &

QUARTERLY GENERAL MEETING

LEARN MORE

Toronto Community Benefits Network would like to invite you to join us in celebrating our 10 year anniversary on March 21st 2024 at 6:30pm at United Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil St. (near College and Spadina) There will be an online Zoom link shared for those who cannot attend in person. 

Join us as we celebrate TCBN's accomplishments and key moments over the last 10 years, and look forward to the work ahead as a community-labour coalition advancing the movement for economic and racial justice in Toronto. 

Over the past 10 years, the City of Toronto has seen unprecedented growth. With over 60 billion in new public transit infrastructure like the Eglinton Crosstown LRT and Finch West LRT and the growth of Toronto neighbourhoods like Regent Park, Community Benefits Agreements are a movement to ensure good green jobs, support equitable local economic development, address the systemic inequities that we see in sectors like construction while contributing to local neighbourhood improvements, climate action and building community wealth has never been more important. 

Through the TCBN community and labour network, the movement has grown to over 20,000 supporters in neighbourhoods across the City and has created pathways for over 5,000 individuals from equity deserving groups into good jobs and opportunities in the construction and skilled trades, a sector where Black, Indigenous, racialized peoples and women continue to be underrepresented.

While TCBN is proud of these efforts and accomplishments, there is still much work to do. Indigenous peoples, Black and racialized people in Canada continue to face racism and discrimination every day. In 2020, 6 incidents of nooses were reported on construction sites with Black workers, a despicable hate crime that shone a light on the construction industry and the experiences that Black workers in construction continue to face today.

International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

March 21st marks the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, observed annually on the day the police in Sharpeville, South Africa, opened fire and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration against apartheid "pass laws" in 1960. This day serves as a reminder and call to action for individuals, organizations and all levels of government to actively work to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination, injustice, racism and hate.

Keynote Speaker - Julian Gross 

Julian Gross is one of the nation’s principal experts on community benefits in land use development, public spending, and public infrastructure. For over 25 years, Mr. Gross has represented public entities and nonprofit advocates in contract negotiations, legislative and administrative drafting, and policy development aimed at improving land use development and public infrastructure, and advancing racial and economic equity.

He has negotiated dozens of community benefits agreements (CBAs), initiating and refining a groundbreaking contractual approach to resolution of challenging urban development issues. He has taught, published, and spoken widely on the subject of land use and community benefits, with a focus on public and private negotiation strategies. Mr. Gross has also drafted numerous local hiring and contracting policies, and has worked on living wage policies, disadvantaged-business policies,
and many other community economic development initiatives.

Mr. Gross represents affordable housing developers and advocacy associations in legislative and policy development, and challenging aspects of project development, including negotiation of project labor agreements and community workforce agreements that advance multiple policy goals. In addition, he has extensive experience advising public entities and nonprofits on a wide variety of organizational legal needs. Some agreements and policies that Julian has supported include: 

• Humboldt County Offshore Wind CBA (2022; under negotiation)
• Park Hill Golf Course CBA negotiations (Denver, CO – 2022; under negotiation)
• City of Richmond CBA Policy (adopted as ordinance 2022)
• City of San Bernardino: Carousel Mall project (2022; under negotiation)
• City of Concord, CA: Cannabis industry CBAs (2021)
• 350 2nd Street hotel development CBA (San Francisco, CA—2018)
• Exposition Point development project CBA (South Los Angeles, CA – 2019)
• The "Reef" development project CBA (South Los Angeles, CA—2017)
• Facebook Campus Expansion CBA (Menlo Park, CA—2016)
• Jobs Agreement Port of Oakland, Oakland Army Base (2014–2017).
• City of Oakland (2022; under negotiation)

• AC Transit (2015; 2022 under negotiation)
• Oregon Department of Transportation (2022; under negotiation)
• SANDAG ($1502021-22)
• Regional Workforce Equity Agreement (Oregon METRO transit agency, City of Portland, and
Multnomah County; first PLA in the nation with three or more public entities as parties;
groundbreaking workforce equity approach; 2022)
• City of Fresno (2019)
• Department of Toxic Substances Control: Exide residential cleanup (2017 and 2022)
• Alameda County (2020)

Guest Speaker - Marie Clarke Walker 

Marie Clarke Walker is the former Executive VP and Secretary Treasurer of the Canadian Labour Congress, Canada’s largest labour central. She served as an Executive Officer for 19 years retiring from the CLC in 2021. Since then, she has served as a member of the Federal Employment Equity Task Force and Principal at Marie Clarke Walker Consulting where she keynotes and speaks on issues of Human Rights, labour unions and gender justice. 
 
Her fight against injustice both at a national and international level has led to a ground breaking ILO Convention on Violence and Harassment in the World of Work (C190). Her work has included issues of health and safety, gender and human rights with a focus on intersectionality and the impact of inequities in the workplace, including violence and harassment, discrimination and racism.
 
She continues to fight  against injustice to ensure the rights of people who are marginalized or in situations of vulnerability in the world of work are defended.

Performances, Entertainment and Food

- Entertainment by Steelpan With Suzette
- Performance by Spirit Wind Women’s Hand Drum Group
- Performance by Inyange cultural troupe

*Dinner will be served starting at 7:30pm