Written by Metcalf Innovation Fellow John Stapleton, with contributions by Dr. Carl James and Dr. Kofi Hope, The Working Poor in the Toronto Region is Metcalf’s third in a series aimed at illuminating the realities of working poverty in our region and providing an overview of the factors driving the continued rise in numbers. Drawing on census data from 2016, and by disaggregating the data, Stapleton identifies that in Toronto CMA, 46% of the working-age population is racialized, yet 63% of the working poor are racialized. Some of the highest rates of working poverty are among Toronto’s Black communities. Dr. James and Dr. Hope provide contextual framing for how this data might be interpreted.

In 2017, anti-poverty activist Bee Lee Soh and John Stapleton were selected to participate on the federal government’s Ministerial Advisory Committee on Poverty. Despite the best of intentions to create an inclusive process, Soh faced many challenges to participation. In Voice of Experience: Engaging People with Lived Experience of Poverty in Consultations, Stapleton and Soh identify barriers and impediments to participation, and suggest ways in which government entities can address these barriers to ensure successful inclusion of people with lived experience of poverty in policy consultations.

In Spring 2019, the provincial government announced an extensive overhaul of employment services, social assistance reforms, apprenticeships, and education programs, with the goals of driving improved employment outcomes, and better aligning the skills and training system with the needs of business. The Toronto Region Board of Trade, United Way Greater Toronto, and the Metcalf Foundation, collaborated on this report, which provides guiding principles and recommendations for the provincial government to enhance the current employment and skills training system to better serve people and business and create more value for the economy.

The “Parkdale Community Wealth Building: Community Financing Report”, funded by Metcalf, represents a major step in understanding how financial capital and impact investing can support priorities at the community level.

In late 2016, the Ontario government announced its intention to carry out a basic income pilot project in communities across the province. John Stapleton’s report uses the budgets of four people receiving income security benefits and revealing how each person is served by our current income security system, and how a basic income could alter their circumstances.

From 2014-2016, Metcalf Innovation Fellow Dr. Sarah Schulman and her team at social design agency InWithForward experimented with new methods to spur behaviour change and shift practice among 400 Canadian social services professionals. They observed that the typical instruments for changing professional practice, which focus on strengthening an individual’s skill set, often proved unable to spur broader change. This report shares reflections offers a series of case studies and actionable strategies.

For the approximately 600,000 migrants working in Canada, changes made to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program in 2014 left them more vulnerable to exploitation and further narrowed their access to permanent residence. Detailing the continued exploitation faced by migrant workers — including unscrupulous recruitment practices, employment mobility restrictions, and a lack of protection from rights abuses— the report provides clear policy recommendations to strengthen protections and build employment security for Canada’s migrant workers.