Contact your councillor and the mayor
One of the most effective ways to make change in Toronto is to get in touch with the Mayor and your local councillor. The Mayor and councillors do pay attention to the mail they receive.
You can find contact information for the Mayor and all Toronto City Councillors by using the City of Toronto website councillor lookup. This page can also tell you what ward you are in and who your councillor is, if you don’t already know.
When emailing to Elected Officials: (1) Request an action be taken, and a reply. (2) Include your address. (3) Copy info@walktoronto.ca.
If you would like to write to your councillor by traditional mail, you can send it to them care of:
Toronto City Hall
100 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON M5H 2N2
Phoning your councillor’s office can also be effective. Their office phone numbers are listed on their official council page (scroll down for the list of councillors with links to their pages).
If you are using Twitter or Bluesky to contact your councillor, you can also include a hashtag to share it with others interested in these issues. Some relevant hashtags include:
#accessibility, #AccessibleStreets, #AODA, #AODAFail, #CompleteStreetsTO, #decolonization, #DriverPrivilege, #equity, #indigenous, #justice, #MobilityJustice, #MoveEquity, #PedestriansMatter, #Streets4All, #StreetsForAll, #TOpoli, #TransportationJustice, #TransportJustice, #VisionZero, #walking, #walkTO, #WeAreAllPedestrians, #ZeroVision
Making a deputation
A next step up is to make a deputation to a City Council committee about an issue you are concerned about. Deputations are made on specific agenda items that go to the committee. A deputation can be written, and/or given live in person or virtually. The agendas are generally published on the City of Toronto website a week ahead of the meeting.
The Toronto Environmental Alliance has a good web page about how to make a deputation. The City of Toronto’s web page Have Your Say at Council & Committee Meetings gives all the details about the process.
If you want to get a heads-up when a particular committee’s agenda is published, you can subscribe to a committee to get updates.