With David Pecaut’s passing, Toronto has not only lost a great civic leader, but Maytree has lost a great friend and partner.

David was the pivotal figure in the establishment of the Greater Toronto CivicAction Alliance, which he built into a dynamic civic presence which brought together leaders from business, civil society, government, labour, and academia. Using David’s preferred method of establishing a common fact base, he worked with a variety of coalitions to create solutions to persistent poverty, immigrant access to the labour market, diversifying the leadership in the city, environmental degradation, and connecting our regional research capability.

David brought a strong suite of personal abilities to the Alliance work. He had enormous energy, high intelligence with a keenly honed analytical ability, boldness, and a knack for finding the appropriate tactics. He assembled a small but strong Alliance team, headed by the irrepressible Julia Deans.

Maytree partnered with the Alliance in the creation of the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council, which focuses on strengthening immigrants getting into the Canadian labour market. Previous efforts had generally focused on making the immigrant fit for work in Canada, but TRIEC recognized that both employers and employees needed to get fit. David was invaluable in bringing the employer community to the table in a dedicated and powerful way. It has made all the difference. More than 5000 skilled immigrants today have work in Toronto. The model is being adapted in Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, Halifax, Edmonton and as far away as Auckland, NZ.

Maytree partnered again with David and The Greater Toronto CivicAction Alliance when we created “DiverseCity” a courageous look at how far diversity has permeated the structures of power and privilege in the city.

Through “DiverseCity”, slowly but surely we are seeing new faces around the board rooms, in the media, on election ballots, and the power plays in the city.

David also had a strong sense of how to shine the public light on important issues, to encourage the press to pay attention, and to create enthusiasm for shared participation in implementing solutions. His smart scheduling of events and meetings always helped to keep shoulders to the wheel and, where it was necessary, feet to the fire.

David was a great colleague for us at Maytree, and a great citizen of our city, province and country. He had that rare gift to leave things better than he found them. We will miss him.

Alan Broadbent, Chairman  |  Ratna Omidvar, President