Dear Mayoral Candidates,
Every day, our 10,000 members see something that can no longer be ignored: the housing crisis has become an education issue.
When families cannot afford stable housing, children bring that precarity into their classrooms, affecting their ability to learn. When educators cannot afford to live where they teach, they are pushed farther away from their school communities. And when governments make major decisions about housing, public land, and our neighbourhoods, those decisions directly affect our schools.
We cannot talk about quality public education without talking about quality, affordable housing. Nor can we overlook how a child’s ability to learn is impacted if their basic needs, including access to nutritious food, are not met.
That is why the Elementary Teachers of Toronto is calling for educators to have a meaningful voice in Toronto’s decisions about housing, student well-being, and public lands, particularly where public schools are involved.
705 Progress Avenue provides an important example.
The City of Toronto, CreateTO, and the Toronto Lands Corporation are working to redevelop this publicly owned site into a mixed-use community proposed to include housing, affordable housing, a new public school, a park, and a community hub.
We support urgently needed affordable housing, complete communities built around strong public schools, and a city where children have nutritious food at school. We are not asking to slow this work down. We are asking to help make it even better.
Teachers and education workers understand schools in ways developers, planners, and administrators cannot. We know how students use these buildings, what families need each morning, and how housing and food insecurity affect children. We understand the importance of safe drop-off and pickup areas, accessibility, green space, recreation, community services, and schools designed around the children and communities they serve.
Yet the people working in our schools have no formal voice in these discussions. That needs to change.
705 Progress Avenue should be the start of a new approach. As Toronto uses public lands to address the housing crisis and develops policies affecting children’s well-being, educators should be part of long-term planning wherever municipal policy intersects with public education.
ETT is asking every candidate for Mayor of Toronto:
- Will you support formal educator representation on the CreateTO Board, including the appointment of an ETT-designated representative through the appropriate City Council process?
- Will you support a city-wide universal lunch program ensuring Toronto students have access to nutritious food at school?
- Will you ensure ETT and affected educators have meaningful representation and consultation in future City and CreateTO planning involving TDSB properties, beginning with 705 Progress Avenue?
We are asking these questions because Toronto’s educators and families deserve to know where each candidate stands. ETT will publish the responses and share them with our members before the municipal election on Monday, October 26, 2026.
This is bigger than one development or one election.
Amid an extreme affordability crisis, public schools can be the community anchors Toronto neighbourhoods need. We have an opportunity to think differently about how public land, affordable housing, food security, public education, and infrastructure work together. The people who teach Toronto’s children should be part of that conversation.
Strong homes. Nourished children. Strong communities. Strong public schools. These are the foundation of a healthy democracy and a vibrant society.
We hope you agree, and we look forward to your response.
In solidarity,
Nigel Barriffe
President
Elementary Teachers of Toronto