I’m excited to announce my first day at City Hall!

I have officially started a one-year contract with the City of Toronto under the Economic Development and Culture (EDC) division. My primary responsibility will be to develop the Public Markets Action Plan and work with the City division to present it to Council in 2025.

This opportunity is the culmination of efforts that began at the Toronto Food Policy Council in 2015. Our journey started with informal meetings aimed at mutual support, which led to the establishment of the Public Markets Working Group, supported by the Toronto Food Policy Council, and ultimately resulted in the creation of marketcityTO. This initiative perfectly exemplifies grassroots action and advocacy leading to policy development and resource allocation.

Now, market managers and entrepreneurs will have a community champion at City Hall!

For the first time, the City will have a Public Markets Action Plan that enables City staff, marketcityTO, and stakeholders to collaborate and take concrete actions. This plan will better support residents, market operators, and entrepreneurs in making existing public markets more resilient and in establishing new community markets, especially in neighbourhoods that currently lack them.

While I am excited about this endeavor, I also feel a bit intimidated by the process. As many of you know, I have a deep passion for this work. I believe our residents, urban entrepreneurs, and our city deserve community-based markets in every neighbourhood. These markets provide public spaces where residents can access locally produced fresh food and other goods, entrepreneurs can meet their customers and sell their products, and everyone can shop, trade, work, connect, and feel a sense of belonging.

I understand that this will require significant effort. Many colleagues have warned me that it takes time to advance multi-division projects, but I am eager to learn how to make it happen and to share that knowledge within the community.

To avoid any conflict of interest, I will be stepping aside from the leadership of marketcityTO. The Task Force members—Kyla, Becky, Charlie, Lori, and Laura—will continue to push this work forward by collaborating with market managers across the city. If you wish to support their efforts, please do not hesitate to reach out. They have important work to do this year. To contact the Task Force, please email info@marketcityTO.org.

If you would like to reach me, here is my new city email: Marina.Queirolo@toronto.ca.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this process. I look forward to seeing you all at Toronto Markets!

Marina Queirolo

The first time we tested the Market Cities concept was during the Honest Ed farewell party organized by the Centre for Social Innovation in February 2017. Participants love it!