Inclusive Local Economic Opportunity (ILEO)

In 2018, United Way Greater Toronto and BMO Financial Group launched a made-in-the-GTA initiative to respond to an urgent challenge. In the face of growing neighbourhood inequality, we wanted to ensure that every GTA community had the chance to benefit from our region’s prosperity. The Inclusive Local Economic Opportunity Initiative (ILEO) builds on United Way’s resident-led work to continue strengthening neighbourhoods that BMO has invested in since 2005.

ILEO galvanizes the strengths and levers of all sectors and industries to drive economic opportunity at the neighbourhood level. It is a deliberate place-based approach to catalyze specific opportunities and enable the community, corporate, and public sectors to work together towards our common goal. Toronto’s Greater Golden Mile is the first neighbourhood to be part of the initiative.

Leaders from across sectors have come together to co-create, launch, and refine ILEO pilot projects that have now benefited over 100 local residents and small business owners of the Greater Golden Mile. Focusing on different aspects of inclusive economic opportunity,  these ILEO pilots are tailor-made to respond to the strengths, needs, and desires of residents in the Greater Golden Mile. What has emerged from this collaboration is a multi-sector approach and mobilizing entities focused on reducing gaps in economic prosperity in the Toronto region and creating lasting inclusive economic vitality at the neighbourhood level.

As ILEO pilot projects continue to rollout and evolve, ILEO has already accomplished something significant: a model for creative new ways of working across sectors and bringing all levers of influence to collectively tackle a shared challenge. The work continues.

There are currently five active ILEO pilot projects in the Greater Golden Mile. Each is convened by UWGT and led by a multi-sector team from ILEO partners.

The Greater Golden Mile, an inner suburb in East Toronto, centres around a largely commercial corridor on Eglinton Avenue East surrounded by five neighbourhood improvement areas.  Formerly serving as an important  hub of large-scale manufacturing, the economic power of the area began to decline in the 1970s after manufacturers moved to more affordable areas and average incomes fell relative to the rest of the city. Today, the commercial corridor is dominated by big chain stores and large surface parking lots.

Three major transit projects are now in development, connecting the Greater Golden Mile to the downtown and other parts of the GTA as never before. This has brought significant attention from developers who have proposed commercial and residential revitalization projects that will transform the neighbourhood and add over 35,000 residential units over the few decades.

The Greater Golden Mile is home to diverse communities with over 60% of residents born outside of Canada and over 75% identifying as a visible minority. Income rates in the neighbourhood continue to fall below the city of Toronto average – a key indication that opportunity is not reaching residents.