Support for Youth Cricket Initiatives - by Councillor Michael Ford, seconded by Mayor John Tory

Cricket Across the Pond scholarships and the Toronto Mayor's School Cricket Championships are two examples of such initiatives. The Toronto Mayor's Youth Cricket team has proudly represented Toronto in England, Sri Lanka, and Trinidad and Tobago through the Cricket Across the Pond program since 2008. In 2018, the Toronto Mayor's Youth Cricket team received an invitation from Jamaica's Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sports to consider a Toronto-Jamaica youth cricket exchange program via the Cricket Across the Pond program. The organizers are actively pursuing this initiative for 2020. Despite its growing popularity in Toronto, youth that passionately play this sport face a tremendous accessibility barrier. Recognizing the need for leadership, Parks Forestry and Recreation partnered with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) to introduce the CIMA Mayor's School Cricket Tournament in 2011. The objectives of the CIMA Mayor's School Cricket are to remove barriers for young people to enter locally responsive organized sport, to engage young people from Toronto's diverse communities through the game of cricket, to fill the gap that exists in current school recreational programs and provide year round cricket programming, and to help provide equipment support, capacity building, and leadership development. CIMA Mayor's School Cricket paved the way for youth to showcase their skills in a sport that they are passionate about and allows for recognition by the Mayor through the annual Mayor's School Cricket Awards. CIMA Mayor's School Cricket provided young Torontonians with a sense of hope, increased self-esteem, motivation and a desire to succeed and become positive role models. Our City's neighbouring municipalities quickly followed our lead and joined CIMA to play a Greater Toronto Area-wide Mayors' School Cricket championship for the time in 2013. This year, the program reached another milestone when CIMA engaged corporate partners Canadian Tire Corporation and the Jumpstart Foundation to expand the program Province-wide. The Mayor and the City of Ottawa officially joined the program and the champions of individual City teams took part in a Provincial championship, the Premier's Cup Cricket. The 2019 School Cricket Program provided over 4,000 young Torontonians (and 8,000 youth Province-wide) the opportunity to access the game of cricket through equipment support, training and interschool cricket tournaments.

3. City Council express its appreciation to CIMA Canada, the Canadian Tire Corporation, the Canadian Tire Jumpstart Foundation, the Toronto District School Board, the Toronto Catholic District School Board and other partners for working successfully with the City to provide these initiatives at no-cost to the City of Toronto. 4. City Council recognize the Parks, Forestry and Recreation Division for its leadership in the promotion and development of cricket, the fastest growing sport in the City of Toronto, through community partnerships.