Help the Markham Food Bank this month
The province says "no" to moving the housing target goals; plus, $38 million in municipal capital investments for 2024 need to be approved this week.
Good Morning Markhamites,
I hope everyone enjoyed the festivities this weekend. There’s some interesting news below, but I wanted to start with a spotlight on the Markham Food Bank and some community initiatives to help support it fully this holiday season, including one of our own.
More on that below.
How to help the Markham Food Bank this month
As we face another winter of a cost of living crisis, more and more community members rely on food banks to put food on the table and provide living necessities. In early November, we highlighted how the Markham Food Bank doesn’t get enough feminine hygiene products to offer them monthly. At that time, they noted about 2,000 clients using their service. According to Feedontario.ca, that number is up from 1350 the year previous.
Here’s a list of the most needed items at the food bank. As a reminder, the food bank only accepts food before the use-by date on the packaging.
Small and Large Bags of Rice
Individually Wrapped Snacks for School
Hot Cereal (Instant Oatmeal, Oats)
Instant Coffee
Jam
Canned Salmon and Sardines
Canned Evaporated Milk
Non-dairy milk (oats, almonds, rice)
Vegetarian Soups
Habitant Soup
Cooking Oil
Kidney Beans
Peanut Butter
Cake Mixes
Juice
Canned Fruit
Diapers sizes 5 and 6
formula stage 2 and 3
Shampoo, Conditioner
Body Washes and soap
Toothpaste and Tooth Brushes
Menstrual products
Just so you know, they have an influx of pasta, kraft dinner and canned baked beans. They will continue to accept these food items but ask that you consider donating food from the most needed list.
Here’s how you can help the Markham Food Bank this season:
Red Bags of Markham
This local initiative started in 2015 in Cornell and has since expanded to the entirety of Markham through an army of volunteers. They’ve donated over 65,000 pounds of food to the food bank. They are running their annual drive this year until December 1st. If you want to participate, it’s as easy as the steps below.
Interested donors send an email with their home address to Red.bagsmarkham@gmail.com. The team drops off the red bag(s) at their homes, and they then pick up the bags from their porch on pick-up day (Dec 1st).
Donate through local grocery stores.
Donation bins are inside most Markham grocery stores, so consider doing a food bank shopping run and dropping a bag off in those bins. Most grocers also offer a ten or 15-dollar pre-packaged bundle you can tack on to your usual shopping trip.
Donate feminine hygiene items.
Usually, the food bank saves them up throughout the year and gives them away to clients as gifts in December, so this is an essential time to donate these items.
Donate time or money directly to the food bank.
Find out how on the Markham Food Bank’s website here.
Get three neighbours to subscribe to The Markhamite.
As we grow, we want to give back directly to the community instead of spending a marketing budget on big tech ads. An email was sent out yesterday, but if you use the button below and three friends subscribe, The Markhamite will donate directly to the food bank. What’s better is that local realtor Markus Winkler has jumped in and promised to match our donations, so your work goes twice as far this holiday season.
City council set to vote on a $38 Million increase to the 2023 operating budget to keep projects on target into 2024
At Wednesday’s council meeting, councillors are expected to vote on a $38 million increase to the 2023 budget to keep projects on track in early 2024.
As background, in July 2023, Markham was awarded “Strong Mayor” powers due to the Ford government’s changes to the Municipal Standards Act. This effectively gives the Mayor the power to set and approve the budget for the year. Because of this change, the budget is expected to be finalized on February 1st, with an additional 55 days of budget review. This puts the budget approval times almost at the end of Q1, with many projects the city needs to undertake stuck in limbo until the budget can be officially approved.
Allocating these capital expenses to the 2023 budget allows the planning and procurement teams to get ahead of the budget freeze and greenlight critical projects that need to be started now.
Some budget items they are looking to fund include replacing the non-fire city vehicle fleet, new high-rise firefighting equipment, land studies and environmental assessments, library procurement, and improvements to community centres and parks.
A similar request for an additional 49 capital projects totalling $49M was approved this time last year.
Update from the province on adjusting municipal housing targets: “No.”
Earlier this month, we highlighted the housing dilemma Markham and several other municipalities face with the province. The biggest hurdle is that infrastructure funding tied to housing starts is measured against foundations poured rather than the building permits issued. The municipalities cannot control when developers decide to start construction.
Paul Calandra, Markham-Stouffville MPP and Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, was asked yesterday if he was open to considering a request from a coalition of Ontario mayors to change the eligibility to permits issued vs. foundations poured, to which he replied, “No.”
With one month left, 14 of 50 municipalities have achieved their goal or are on track to hit their target by the end of the year.
Community notes
Letters to Santa are due to Canada Post by Dec 7th, so if you have little ones, get writing!
Paolina Russo - Markham native and Knitwear fashion designer, chats with Macleans about how she went from scouring Value Village and the Salvation Army to dressing Phoebe Bridgers and having a collection at Nordstrom.
Coming up this week
Nov 29th, 1 PM City Council Meeting - Contribute or Attend here
Nov 29th, 8 PM Flato Markham Theatre - Classic Lightfoot: a tribute to Gordon Lightfoot Tickets here
If you would like to submit your photos of Markham - feel free to follow and tag our Instagram page, and we’ll credit you!
If you’ve got a story pitch, send it to themarkhamite@Substack.com