Item - 2021.EX25.2

The Executive Committee recommends that:

1.  City Council authorize the City Manager and/or any other relevant City Official, in consultation with the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, to apply for and receive funding, and negotiate, enter into and execute any agreements required in respect of such funding, including any amendments and extensions thereto, with either the Government of Canada, the Province of Ontario and their respective agencies, until the first scheduled City Council meeting after September 1, 2021, in a form satisfactory to the City Solicitor.

This report is the ninth COVID-19 response and recovery update from the City Manager since April 2020, when the City was in the early weeks of the global COVID-19 pandemic. As the number of COVID-19 cases is currently in decline, and the City continues to work to ensure that all residents are vaccinated, attention is shifting to reopening plans and longer-term recovery strategies.

Over the past 16 months, the City has progressed from holding only emergency sessions of City Council, closing all but critical services, and a single public health message – stay home – to a return to a full Council and Committee cycle enabled by technology, the creation of new and remote services, and robust COVID-19 information, guidance and supports to the public and businesses through repeated surges of COVID-19.

The City’s priorities remain on both short-term response and sustainable recovery. City staff are continuing to identify and plan for emerging strategic issues related to re-opening. As we move forward, the City must consider how to scale and roll back emergency responses such as mass vaccination clinics, and how best to learn from and apply the many lessons from the pandemic to the City’s future decisions.

"Building back better also means learning from the past and starting sustainable improvements that make a difference for future generations. Our recovery efforts must take a long-term view towards building the city we want for those who will call Toronto home decades from now." 

                        City Manager’s October 2020 Towards Recovery report

The pandemic remains a global health crisis. In Toronto, its immediate impacts continue to be felt along with a growing understanding of potential longer-term effects. COVID-19 is not solved for Toronto until it is resolved elsewhere as well. The stress, concern and grief faced by many residents affected by COVID-19 in our City, as well as for those with loved ones living in other countries who are experiencing critical rates of infections, limited access to vaccines and significant loss of life, will have lasting impacts and require years of recovery here in Toronto.

In all of the past eight City Manager’s response and recovery updates, the first sections have highlighted COVID-19 case counts, Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) and public health updates. These omnibus-type reports also included information and recommendations from across all City Divisions to City Council for their consideration.

This report marks a change in that approach. Over the past several months, divisions have applied a COVID-19 lens to their work and included response, recovery and rebuilding information in their reports to Council, rather than relying solely on the City Manager’s updates to bring forward recommendations to City Council. This and future updates from the City Manager will focus on new information and recommendations that are not otherwise routed through an appropriate Standing Committee or Community Council and are cross-cutting or whole-of government in nature, for City Council’s consideration.

This report also provides:

- COVID-19 impact indicators the City will monitor as we move towards recovery;
- Updates on re-opening Toronto;
- An update on the City’s intergovernmental actions; and
- Information on the launch of RecoveryTO, a series of new webpages that will provide a snapshot of the previous four months, curating highlights from City Council decisions, staff reports, data, dashboards, and media announcements on the City’s recovery actions.