Transport committee  Thank you. It's my pleasure to be here this morning representing the Toronto Community Benefits Network. We're a community labour coalition, and we envision Toronto as an inclusive, thriving city in which all residents have equitable opportunities to contribute to building heal

Transport committee  You are talking about the difference between... What are the two words?

Transport committee  I understand.

Transport committee  We believe there are potentially other categories that should be looked at, as it's important that it's in consultation with the local communities. Every neighbourhood is different, and every neighbourhood has different situations that they're facing. It's in consultation with th

Transport committee  I think so. It's a balance, and the community recognizes that. There are some things that the community might ask for that might end up being too expensive and will delay the project, but it's in communication with the community that those determinations can be made. There are p

Transport committee  That's fine.

Transport committee  I'm in full agreement. Entrepreneurs are not going to provide benefits to communities out of the goodness of their hearts. For example, look at the construction industry. There have been jobs in infrastructure all across Canada for many years. When we look at the percentage of

Transport committee  Yes, absolutely. Infrastructure jobs in particular have the most opportunity to become green. You can create green jobs from that, and historic preservation, and the transformation of the landscape. It's an excellent opportunity to meet your environmental goals as a government.

Transport committee  The one aspect of this that we realize is extremely important is that a process needs to be set in place to manage each potential contract. For example, with Metrolinx we have a working group that includes all the stakeholders. It's more around implementation, obviously. All the

Human Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, committee, for inviting me here to speak. It's a real pleasure. I represent the Toronto Community Benefits Network. We are a 99-member organization and growing, a coalition of community organizations, grassroots groups and social enterprises,

Human Resources committee  In addition to the consultation that we did, we also, through funding from the Ontario government, underwent a process of research and development to look into the issues that under-represented groups are facing, not only in terms of getting access to the trades, but also once th

Human Resources committee  Absolutely, and we've been working with the unions to do that. We just got started. We have 35 mentees in the program and we have over 25 mentors, journeypersons from the different unions, who've already expressed interest and registered for the program, and we expect it to grow.

Human Resources committee  Absolutely.

Human Resources committee  Could I add one little thing to that?

Human Resources committee  Thank you very much. Notice in my presentation that I said 1.2% of racialized people are registered in the Ontario College of Trades. The term there is “registered”. There's a whole heap of people right here in Toronto and Hamilton who are actually working in the underground,