Municipal Elections are happening across the province on October 26!
This is the perfect time to speak publicly about the importance of municipal and regional government support for people on social assistance and to ask mayoral candidates to commit to doing whatever they can to improve the lives of their constituents and community members on social assistance.
With just over 30 days left before election day, now’s the time to learn about and share the 2026 Municipal Social Assistance Pledge with mayoral candidates in your area.
What is a pledge and how does it work?
A pledge is a way to quickly determine if a person running for office is interested in supporting an issue. It is also an intentional way to educate voters about the responsibilities and powers municipal and regional governments have.
A pledge is also a tool that can help keep elected officials accountable. A lot of promises get made during election time – pledges are a community-led way to hold elected officials accountable after the election.
What specifically does the 2026 Municipal Social Assistance Pledge ask for?
The pledge calls on all candidates running to be mayor of any jurisdiction in Ontario, if elected, to commit to the following:
Maintain and expand municipal/jurisdictional supports for people receiving social assistance (often referred to as “discretionary benefits”) and for people living in poverty. This could look like: increasing discretionary funds for air conditioners; improving job-seeker-related supports; increasing funding to rent banks and public food programs; establishing or increasing hardship funds for disability-related needs such as mobility devices, hearing aids, and other material supports, etc.
Advocate to the province on behalf of your municipality/jurisdiction to improve social assistance. This could look like: passing a motion to advocate for increased social assistance rates, increased earnings exemptions/reduced clawbacks, changes to spousal cohabitation rules, etc.; and committing to meeting with the Premier and Ministers to move these issues forward.
Commit to working with regional, provincial, and federal governments to reduce poverty in your community. This could look like: working more closely with other levels of government on poverty-reduction efforts; brokering new funding agreements; improving data-sharing and use for designing or improving programs that help the most vulnerable in our community.
How do I get a commitment from a candidate for this pledge? What are the steps?
You can take the following steps:
- Download the template letter/email (Word format) here (Note: download will automatically start) and modify it to include details from your own community. Details could include poverty rates, ODSP/OW rates, homelessness rates in your community, etc.
- You can find general details about ODSP/OW rates from ISAC’s recent 2026 rates sheet release
- Use Feed Ontario’s new online tool Hunger in My Community to find out about foodbank use and average rent costs and hourly average incomes in your riding
- Read more about poverty in Ontario in this August 2026 Maytree brief
- Email every mayoral candidate the letter and ask them to endorse the pledge
- Attend mayoral debates in your area, or contact mayoral candidate campaign offices, and ask the candidates if they will commit to the three action items listed in the pledge
- Have a copy of the pledge ready in case a mayoral campaign canvasser comes to your door
- Share the pledge and any responses you get from candidates with your friends and family
What happens to the pledge after the election?
Whether or not the winning candidate endorses the 2026 Municipal Social Assistance Pledge, the new municipal government is still responsible for supporting constituents and community members living on social assistance and in poverty.
After the election, you can get in touch with the new mayor and council and keep the pressure up by letting them know that they can help social assistance recipients by doing the following three action items listed in the pledge. Ask them for regular updates on their progress. Get involved in your city/town’s budget cycle to ensure that the action items in the pledge, especially the first one, do not get pushed aside or forgotten.
Every level of government has a role to play in supporting and improving the lives of people living on social assistance.