What Toronto Needs

by Adil Dhalla (@CreativityKTR)
It appears that the strike is over in Toronto and while certain industries will return to business as usual, the city is in need of some unique solutions to salvage the summer, restore confidence and regain form as a world class metropolis. We originally planned to compile a wish list, but despite the popularity of lists, their brevity is not always constructive. Instead, here are four larger suggestions or ideas that we’d like to table for your consideration:

More Millers

Had Mayor Miller been foremost concerned with his reelection, then he would have given in to the unions or swept the issue under the mat akin to his predecessor.  Instead, he held his ground for reasons related to fairness and in the process, the left leaning Miller established an important precedent. Strikes have become too commonplace in this city but based on this one, we’ll be seeing less of them. With it over, Miller can refocus on his normal activities, including his championing of Toronto as the creative city. Having a vision and principals takes courage – we need more David Millers.

Training for the Working Class

According to a recent Martin Prosperity study, unemployment levels are at a four decade high with members of the working class (occupations that depend highly on physical skills and repetitive tasks) most severely affected.  The issue is more troubling when you consider our direction towards a creative/service economy. I’m naturally in favor of this, but not at the expense of leaving people behind. Let’s put it this way: Joe has worked at a plant for the last two decades and if that plant is never coming back, what does he do now? Given the right incentive (tax or E.I. related, for example), Joe should be encouraged to seek [affordable] training that will either help integrate him into the new economy or learn an in-demand skill. People say this type of stuff all the time but those in the service or creative sectors will rebound post-recession; the same cannot be said about the labor industry.

Incubators

To catch up on things, city council has called a special meeting to power through decisions to get things back on track. Here’s the list of the 60 things that they’ll be voting on, some of which is specific (“New lease terms for 4804-4812 Yonge”) and some of which is pretty vague (“$110,000 for seed money for economic development projects”).  That dollar amount for economic development projects seem awfully small so we suggest rather than put it towards new companies (because really, how many could you help with that amount), put the money towards citizen created incubators like Demo Camp, Red Wire Nation, Refresh Events and pretty much anything going on at the Center for Social Innovation. That’s just a sampling of the smorgasbord of the different idea incubators in this city that could play a significant role in injecting us with the innovation and ideas that we need. There are more out there, let them be heard.

My Toronto Campaign

Simply put, Toronto is a world class city that hasn’t felt like a world class city for the last little while. Any campaigns or initiatives focused on revitalizing the confidence of this city should be a priority for our leadership or for citizens looking to make a difference.

Finally, it would be nice if we were blessed with an Indian summer but that’s largely out of our hands. Instead, what we can do is dust ourselves off (or because of the garbage, take long hot showers) and get back up Toronto. This city lives.