The City of Toronto has developed Sidewalks to Skylines: A 10-Year Action Plan for Toronto’s Economy (2025 – 2035), a new plan to guide economic development policies, programming and decision making for the next 10 years. The previous plan Collaborating for Competitiveness: The City of Toronto’s Plan to Accelerate Job Creation and Economic Growth was launched a decade ago and will be succeeded by the new Action Plan for Toronto’s Economy which will be presented to the Economic and Community Development Committee meeting on October 23.
The great majority of the directions in the previous plan have been implemented. Over 2010-2020, Toronto’s economy experienced aggregate GDP and employment growth, but this prosperity was not shared equitably across sectors, neighbourhoods or populations. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic generated many new challenges and opportunities for Toronto’s economy and communities, accelerating technology driven changes which are reshaping city and regional industry competitiveness, supply chains, workforce dynamics and land use pressures.
Sidewalks to Skylines: A 10-Year Action Plan for Toronto’s Economy sets a vision for Toronto’s economy and proposes actions that the City and it’s partners can take to maintain and enhance Toronto’s competitiveness while setting the city on a path for a more inclusive and sustainable economy that works for all residents.
To craft the Action Plan and effectively serve the needs of all businesses, workers and residents, the City conducted extensive public consultations and research. Altogether, the City and its consultation partners engaged more than 1,000 stakeholders. This includes the Economic Advisory Panel which helped guide this work, engagement led by the Canadian Urban Institute, City-led engagement tables, and engagement with Advisory Bodies to Toronto City Council. Their combined perspectives, gathered through surveys, interviews, consultation sessions, and focus groups, directly informed the development of the Action Plan for Toronto’s Economy.
To support the development of the Action Plan the Economic Advisory Panel was convened to provided input and subject matter expertise to inform the plan. The panel consisted of two co-chairs and 26 members.
Councillor Shelley Carroll and Zabeen Hirji.
David Amborski, Patricia MacCarney, Jonathan Davey, Eva Lau, Lauren Epstein, David Gerofsky, Jeffrey Remedios, Neishaw Ali, Goldy Hyder, Giles Gherson, Stephen Lund, Deborah Flint, Andria Babbington, Karen Chapple, Nation Cheong, Ross Cadastre, Aaron Binder, Troy Dunn, Melanee Short, Luke Robertson, Jon Shell, Renee Gomes, Salima Rawji, Maayan Ziv, Shamira Madhany and Andrew Weir.
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