uniteTOlove.ca

Newcomers

A standalone candidate question bank — every figure sourced and checkable, every question identical for every candidate. Also part of the full twelve-category bank.

How to use this bank

Any Torontonian, any candidate, any office. These questions presuppose no position — they ask what a candidate would do, how they would decide, and how residents would check. Jurisdiction tags keep the questions honest about who holds the lever: [CITY] council/mayor/city boards control this directly; [CITY→PROVINCE] / [CITY→FEDERAL] the lever sits above the city, and the honest question is what to ask that government and what to do if the answer is no. Where a question carries a figure, it is cited below — candidates are welcome to dispute any figure; the source trail is public. This bank never endorses, scores, or ranks any candidate or party. The universal set at the foot works for any office on the ballot.

Newcomers

11.1 [CITY→FEDERAL] In 2024, Toronto’s shelter system served more than 24,200 unique individuals, including more than 12,600 refugee claimants, with 33% of the shelter division’s operating funds coming from the federal Interim Housing Assistance Program. What is the right long-term arrangement between the city and the federal government for receiving refugee claimants — and what should the city do when federal funding and actual arrivals don’t match?

11.2 [CITY] By 2024 Toronto had 24 refugee-specific shelter programs run by 11 provider organizations. Describe what Toronto’s reception system for newly arrived claimants should look like three years from now — who runs it, who funds it, and how someone moves from reception into housing and work.

11.3 [CITY] In 2024 the city facilitated $4.3 million in council-approved compensation to community organizations and churches that sheltered refugee claimants. What should the standing relationship be between the city and the community groups that step up in emergencies — partnership, contract, or something else?

11.4 [CITY] Beyond shelter: settlement services are mostly federally and provincially funded. What is the city’s distinct job in a newcomer’s first year — and name one city service you would change so it works for someone still learning English and the city at the same time?

11.5 [CITY] Newcomers are among the residents least likely to reach a candidate’s door or a council chamber. How will you hear from them — concretely — and how will they be able to hold you to what you say tonight?

11.6 [CITY] In 2022, city staff quietly stopped letting refugee claimants into regular shelter beds. Toronto’s own Ombudsman investigated and found the decision amounted to anti-Black racism; council reversed the policy in 2023 and the mayor apologized. What would you do to make sure a decision like that is caught and reversed faster next time — before an Ombudsman investigation finds it, not after?

11.7 [CITY] [CITY→PROVINCE] Immigrants who studied outside Canada face an overqualification rate more than twice that of immigrants who studied here — 25.8% versus 11.8% — a recognition gap, not a skills gap. The city runs one credential-matching program, Profession to Profession, pairing newcomers with a mentor in their own field for four to six months. Would you expand it, and what would you press the province — which licenses the professions themselves — to fix about how long recognition takes?

11.8 [CITY] Ontario’s Human Rights Commission has found that a strict “Canadian experience” requirement can amount to discrimination, upheld in at least one adjudicated case. Should the city change how it hires, contracts, and does business to stop requiring it — and would you apply that same standard to companies the city does business with?

Universal set — for any candidate, any office

U.1 How will residents know if you succeeded? Name two or three public, checkable measures you are willing to be judged on at the end of the term — and where residents will find them.

U.2 What is one thing you would copy for Toronto from another city — anywhere in the world — and what makes you confident it would work here?

U.3 Name one thing the city currently does or funds that you would stop or shrink — and what you would say, face to face, to the residents who value it.

U.4 When the evidence in front of you and the residents you represent disagree, how do you decide? Give a real example of a position you changed, and why.

U.5 Name one problem residents raise constantly that the office you seek cannot fix directly. What do you tell them honestly — and what would you still do about it?

Sources & receipts

  1. 2024 shelter system: 24,200+ unique individuals served, including 12,600+ refugee claimants; 33% of shelter operating funds from the federal Interim Housing Assistance Program — City of Toronto shelter system reporting (11.1).
  2. 24 refugee-specific shelter programs run by 11 provider organizations, 2024 — City of Toronto reporting (11.2).
  3. $4.3 million in council-approved compensation to community organizations and churches sheltering refugee claimants, 2024 — City of Toronto reporting (11.3).
  4. 2022 shelter-access exclusion of refugee claimants; Ombudsman Toronto found the decision amounted to anti-Black racism (decision dated November 7, 2022; disclosed May 31, 2023; Council reversed the policy July 19, 2023) — Ombudsman Toronto investigation report, December 10, 2024 (11.6).
  5. Overqualification rate by location of study: 11.8% for immigrants who studied in Canada versus 25.8% for immigrants who studied abroad — Statistics Canada, “The Daily,” November 30, 2022 (11.7).
  6. City of Toronto’s Profession to Profession mentoring program: four-to-six-month occupation-matched mentorship — City of Toronto newcomer employment services (11.7).
  7. Ontario Human Rights Commission: a strict “Canadian experience” requirement can constitute prima facie discrimination, upheld in Clarke Institute of Psychiatry v. Ontario Nurses’ Assn, [2001] O.L.A.A. No. 184 — OHRC policy materials (11.8).

This page went through an independent verification pass before publication (fact-check against primary sources, claim by claim, including a live re-fetch of every figure against its original source). The internal verification record has been removed from this public page; the sourced facts and figures above are unchanged by that removal.