With proposed city service cuts looming, charges that the mayor is declaring a “war on children” feel increasingly relevant.
While kids, as part and parcel of the city’s most vulnerable, are sure to be unfairly affected by the proposed budget cuts, advocacy groups such as the Toronto Women’s City Alliance have been working in partnership with frontline agencies and organizations to show how women in particular will be disproportionately affected.
As a promoter of women’s issues in municipal policy, the TWCA and its supporters will take their cause to City Hall for a press conference at 11 a.m. today, rallying to stop cuts that target Toronto's most vulnerable women and girls.
Here, representatives from several organizations break down how women will pay the price for slashed services.
Housing
On the table:
- A 10 per cent cut to the city’s affordable housing office, which facilitates development of new affordable housing units.
- Sale of 706 Toronto Community Housing-owned homes to the open market (650 of these tenants will have to be re-housed, causing an influx to the already record-breaking housing wait list of 81, 000. Fifty-six tenants will be kicked out altogether).
- Closing Bellwoods House, a 10-bed, longer-term shelter for senior women have a history of mental illness.
The repercussions:
Because Canadian women on average still earn less than their male counterparts, and more frequently head single-parent households, they are more likely to live in poverty.
A 2010 report released by the TWCA found that 20 per cent of women and girls in Toronto are unable to afford housing.
Female-led single-family households, single women and senior women often spend “more than 50 per cent of their income on housing.”
“If we’re taking away accessible and safe housing for women, where will these women go?” asks Jennifer Arango, adminstrative coordinator for the TWCA.
Michael Shapcott, director of housing and innovation at nonprofit research group the Wellesley Institute, is critical of the shuttering of Bellwoods House. As one of several longer-term shelters for women, it offers greater stability and support.
“The whole idea of creating transitional (longer-term) shelters was to take people with special needs out of the general shelter system, which is not set up to meet the needs of elderly women, or women with mental and physical health needs.”
Childcare:
On the table:
- End the city’s 13-year commitment to cover utility and occupancy costs for roughly 380 school-based daycares, and 10 family resource centres. The agreement affects 20, 000 children per year, about 8,000 of whom receive daycare subsidies.
- Parents of the 12, 000 children not receiving childcare subsidies will see added occupancy costs of $2 per day, boosting their monthly fees by between 5 per cent and 8 per cent. This would lead to a fee increase of about $522 annually for non-subsidized children.
The repercussions:
With about 17, 000 families waitlisted for childcare subsidies, Arango says, the number of people able to afford hiked service fees will shrink. “Why aren’t we putting money towards childcare, so that women can go out and find jobs, go to school, learn English? By taking away these childcare spaces, we’re limiting [women’s] opportunities.”
Andrea Calver, coordinator for the Ontario Coalition for Better Childcare, says childcare is already the largest expense for most families with young children.
“For many, childcare is like a second mortgage. Many parents are paying forty to sixty dollars a day, ten to fifteen thousand dollars a year per child. When you start talking about [multiple] children…it’s not unusual to have [something like] a $30, 000 childcare bill.”
Calver says increased costs will push parents to consider whether both should be in the workforce. “Let’s be honest. Because, on average, women still make less, if somebody’s going to stay home, it’s usually mom. Any change that goes after families has an inherent impact on women.”
Community Health:
On the table:
- A 9.8 per cent cut to the Community Partnership and Investment Program (CPIP), which funds nonprofit community organizations that deliver services like public health initiatives, AIDS and drug prevention programs
- Elimination of the Hardship Fund, which particularly supports senior women and people with disabilities or serious health issues
- A $200, 000 cut to the Immigrant Women’s Health Clinic, and its mobile health bus.
Repercussions:
The grants delivered by CPIP are often used by nonprofits to leverage provincial or private dollars, Shapcott says, meaning the organizations relying on this fund—many of whom focus on health equity for marginalized populations—will be significantly affected.
“One of the things we’re concerned about in a cut to these programs is that it’s destroying a vital network of community services that allow people to remain healthy.”
In addition impact on clients, Shapcott said female employees will be unfairly targeted insofar as women comprise the largest share of employment within the community and nonprofit sector.
Regarding proposed cuts to the Immigrant Women’s Health Clinic, administrative coordinator Ayesha Adhami said it is the only sexual health clinic in the country that caters specifically to immigrant and refugee women. They provide services in nine different languages and employ an all-female staff.
Cutting $200, 000—22 per cent of its overall budget—would force the clinic to reduce hours both at its College Street site and bus, which provides sought-after mobile support to women with barriers to mainstream health services or public transit.
“When we think about cuts in terms of staffing,” Adhami says, “we have to make a decision about whether we’re going to cut a woman who serves the African Caribbean community or someone who serves the Farsi community. It puts us in a difficult position.”
Transit:
On the table:
- A 10 per cent budget cut.
- A 10-cent fare hike annually, for the next three years.
- A return to pre-2004 service standards for certain streetcar and bus routes, with a shift in criteria for acceptable wait times and levels of crowding.
Repercussions:
“When women are experiencing a heavier burden of poverty, the transit fare increase and service cutbacks have disproportionate impact on them,” Shapcott says. Since TTC service cuts usually are made to off-peak night and weekend routes, shift workers with irregular schedules—most commonly women—are disproportionately affected
“For the most part, when it comes to planning a city, planners don’t really take into account women’s safety and how we experience this in transit,” Arango said.
“We now know that these cuts will largely be borne on the backs of women and children,” says Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam (Ward 27, Toronto Centre-Rosedale), herself a former member of the TWCA.
“We need to look at the budget with a social equity impact lens,” she says.
On January 12, The Executive Committee will approve final budget recommendations, to be voted on by City Council from January 17 to 19.
