January 21, 2026 at Scarborough Civic Centre
Aanii kina gwaya, shé:kon, kwe, taan’si, salut, hello everyone.
My name’s Aasiya Hussain. Born & raised in Tkaronto for generations in gratitude & kinship with Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, & Huron-Wendat of whom this is their ancestral, traditional, & unceded Indigenous territory. Of the Dish With One Spoon, Wampum Belt, & Robinson Huron Treaties. Aapiji go chi miigwech, niá:wen, tiawenhk, hiy hiy!
Thanks City of Toronto Budget Committee & Scarborough Civic Centre Subcommittee for accommodating me to present virtually! I’m joining you with lived experience & as the founding CEO of Ecohesian based in Tkaronto (our heart is in Scarborough-Rouge). We’re members of the GTA Disability Coalition & End Austerity Coalition.
Ecohesian is a Disability-led ENGO & consultancy led by Melanated Women with Disabilities in kinship with Indigenous, Black, Racialized, Disabled, & Multiply Marginalized People. Sharing the L’eau-ve™ of water, conservation, stewardship, sustainability, planetary health, disaster management, & decolonial intersectional justice from an anti-oppression lens. We center & serve the most at risk of people & planet with Nothing About Us Without Us to Leave No One Behind. Who face isolation, marginalization, exclusion, & harm from disparity & disasters.
I face this daily as a Brown Hijabi Racialized Woman with Disabilities & medically fragile health conditions. Once with you in person, now homebound in perpetual lockdown since long before this ongoing pandemic. Due to severe health, Disability, airborne risks, structural & systemic barriers. Among the most at risk facing disproportionate deadly disabling disparities & disasters. Like many in the Disability Community often left behind by governance & society. Although, I do know that there are many among you who are trying your hardest not to. We know that Tkaronto & our shared world is only as safe as the most at risk are. Which everyone will face one day. Because it’s not if but when abled people become Disabled too: from illness, injury, & aging.
Our safety, living, thriving, justice, & liberation is intersectional, interconnected & interdependent on not leaving behind the most at risk of people & planet. When we prioritize funding prevention & mitigation for the most at risk of disparities & disasters, we bring collective safety, flourishing, & a just recovery. The opportunity cost of not doing so is far too great, perpetuating deadly disabling disasters & deficit.
So please prioritize increased funding for these 5 life-dependent life-saving things:
- AC, Heating, & its Electricity Cost: for homebound Disabled People, Elders, & Patients in legislated poverty. It’s great that the City’s increasing funds for AC. Yet a starting of 1000 units remains insufficient, leaving behind homebound Disabled People at most risk of fatal outcomes. For whom communal cooling & warming centers aren’t airborne safe nor accessible. Almost 700 homebound Disabled People were killed when Vancouver & Burnaby didn’t provide AC during the Heat Dome. Let’s not let this happen in Tkaronto, where our population is far higher with many more homebound Disabled People at risk of being killed without AC & climate control.
- Power Backup Generators in Disasters: for Disabled People & Patients in legislated poverty requiring constant power for medical devices, climate control, & accessibility. Please fund this with EMS to fill gaps because evacuation is not an option as discussed earlier.
- Air, Water, & Health Safety: Over 83% of early Tkaronto catastrophic Covid cases were Black & Racialized Disabled People. We’ve witnessed this worsen with multiple airborne contagions & contaminants still peaking, killing, & disabling many more today. Let’s protect each other, water & air we share from contagions, pollution, fragrance, & anaphylaxis. Please fund air purification, far-UVC disinfection, respirator masks, patient & wastewater testing, home visit vaccination (including Novavax), treatment, tracing, education, accessible alerts, & incentives. For safe communities, schools, workplaces, buildings, healthcare, transit, & everywhere air is shared & water flows.
- Accessible Airborne-Safe Affordable Housing: Over 87% of Women with Disabilities risk being trapped in abuse due to legislated poverty & lack of accessible airborne-safe affordable housing. Likewise, housing insecurity is skyrocketing for many across Tkaronto. Please fund gaps in COHB, HSF, Rent Banks, RentSafeTO, & incentives to build rent-controlled detached affordable accessible airborne-safe garden suites that prioritize the most at risk. This also builds equity & rental income for homeowners.
- Swift Snow Removal (including snowbanks & windrows): prioritizing Disabled People, Elders, Patients, People in poverty, & EMS. Our Snow Angels program confirms massive gaps in municipal snow removal, leaving snow mountains & ice blocking access for the most at risk & EMS.
These are just 5 of many Disability justice, climate justice, heath, safety, disaster, & human rights issues needing your prioritization. Please do so to save lives & prevent expensive deadly disabling disasters. The City can do so, as it spends more on policing than Ambulance, Fire Services, Community Housing, & other essential services combined. Consider instead reallocating some of this & the not yet allocated $2 million to prioritize funding, protecting, & serving the most at risk of people & planet. Let’s pour into this collective safety, living, & thriving.
Aapiji go chi miigwech, niá:wen, tiawenhk, hiy hiy, merci, thanks for your time & consideration.