London Chamber of Commerce Questionnaire
What do you see as the principal opportunities and obstacles facing London’s economy over the next Council term? What should the City do to support business growth, job creation, entrepreneurship and investment, and how should it work with employers, Western University, Fanshawe College and others to attract and retain the talent London needs?
A. The biggest challenge for council over the next term will be dealing with an economic downturn. Over the next two years we will see many Londoners lose their jobs due to trade disputes, a decrease in spending and a slowdown in developments. Of course this is speculative, but a reality that council needs to be prepared for. To counter this challenge, the city needs to draw more partnerships with international companies that are not American. We need to define ourselves and become a leader in new and emerging markets by utilizing the talent from both Fanshawe and Western to achieve this. With our location, London is the perfect situated to continue trade with the United States now and in the future for companies especially in emerging technologies, environmental innovations and manufacturing.
London now has a new Downtown Plan. Which elements would you prioritize and what results should Londoners expect to see during the next Council term? ? Please address the downtown business environment, public spaces, housing and office conversions, cultural and civic destinations, safety, transportation and implementation accountability.
A. The new Downtown Plan encompasses many areas that require further development funds. Office conversions, bringing more businesses into downtown, safety, public spaces, and transportation. While many of these items are linked, the primary one to address is the downtown vacancy. We need to encourage landowners to rent the space, even if it's for free, to help businesses get started, or to convert the space into housing. These items will draw more people downtown and begin to regenerate the vitality of the city's core. To help spur this, the city needs to look at incentive programs as well as punitive measures so that the city is not being taken advantage of. The other big matter is addressing the unhoused. There is a lot of money that goes into this currently, but is it working and is it effective? This is a spot that I feel needs to be analyzed, and scrutinized to determine what changes need to happen and what will be effective to address the problem.
London faces an urgent health and homelessness crisis. Residents, employees and businesses also have concerns about violence, property crime, public disorder and confidence in public spaces. These conditions require related but distinct responses. What actions would you support in each area, and what responsibilities should fall to the City, police, the health system, other orders of government and community partners?
A - London has a problem with the unhoused, and that problem has been drawing a lot of scrutiny from residents. $46 million dollars went into this matter last year with $16 million coming from property tax dollars. The problem for people isn't the money, it's the lack of results. The safe injection site and prescribing is closed and should stay that way. Police need to enforce the law and arrest drug dealers and remove drugs from people if being used in public. Our shelters and current resources need to be critically analyzed and audited to see what is and isn't working and they need to be combined into only one or two agencies that handle the recovery of an individual from beginning to end. We need a rehabilitation style recovery for the unhoused, not the piecemeal, hot potato style we currently have. We need to create space where those who do not wish help can set up their camp, where they have basic quality-of-life services available (bathrooms, food, water) so they are not in our parks or streets.
What changes would you support to increase housing supply and affordability and create neighbourhoods with access to employment, services, transportation and public amenities?
A. I would help subsidize development fees and lower the value of the land on affordable homes. The sale price and resale price would be locked, to ensure they remain affordable. Per the government of Ontario the affordable amount is listed at $357 thousand for a single detached home. I would create a policy mandating that 20% of all new developments and homes built are affordable. Ideally, all shopping super centers would be mandated to contain housing on the upper floors with the bottom floor used for commercial use, and the second floor for office use and follow the same 20% affordability mandate. The space between the buildings would be green spaces with parks, multi-use water features and patios. Car access and Parking would be located beneath the building or behind it, with public bus access located at the main roads.
What role should arts, culture and the creative industries play in London’s economic and community development? How should the City support cultural organizations, artists, venues, festivals and creative businesses while ensuring that municipal investment produces lasting public value?
A - As UNESCO city of Music, Music and art are a large part of our identity and we should lean into that more. By investing in our theaters, and venues, we will bring more artists to our city, drawing investment by bringing recording studios, and music labels to London. We should invest in our festivals, as they demonstrate to the world the beautiful multicultural elements of our city, and promote mutual respect while drawing more people here to celebrate.
London’s cultural facilities, venues and public spaces are essential to the life of the city, and several face age, capacity or funding pressures. What cultural infrastructure should be prioritized during the next Council term, and how should the City decide where to invest?
A - There are a number of city facilities that are facing financial pressures to deal with aging infrastructure, these include Centennial Hall, and Palace Theater, both of which require funding. Dundas Street in OEV has seen a lot of economic challenges and is also part of our city's core, and thus should be revitalized. This theater serves a sector of our community and while not a city property, helps draw patrons to an area of the city that needs it. The cost is minimal and can most likely be completed quickly. Centennial hall should perhaps be rebuilt as a large city capital project with parking underneath and be encompassed within a multistory affordable/subsidize residential building towers. City hall should be expanded at that time to bring all its services under one roof and eliminate paying overhead in numerous places throughout the city. These investments in our theaters should be viewed as pivotal to our downtown economy, as a UNESCO city of Music we should embrace and expand our venues to attract more artists, record labels and recording studios. Why not be the Nashville of Canada.
London’s economic success depends on reliable local, regional, national and international connections. How would you improve local transit and service to major employment areas and shift workers, intercity bus and air links, and passenger rail? What should businesses and employees be able to expect in terms of frequency, reliability and access?
A - Local transportation is important to moving people. Roads need to be properly made to allow efficiency moving through the city. Traffic lights should be structured not to stop people at every light (increasing emissions, driver frustrations, travel time, and increasing speeding) but to promote good traffic flow. Buses should be present at the end of shifts, so that workers are not standing around for excessive periods of time, and those routes should feed directly into main arterial roads or transit hubs. Buses should run to meet requirements including night shifts to the business park areas (dial a bus concept to the central bus hub). We need to have reliable and affordable train rail service that matches business hours (7 am London departure and 5pm return train from Toronto) and entertainment requirements (3pm London departure with a 11:30 pm return train from Toronto. We should have regular connecting flights to Toronto, or a free shuttle to Pearson via Air Canada just like Sarnia and Kitchener/Waterloo. Ideally we have more international oversea routes added direct from London during the May-Oct, and warm vacation services Nov-Apr. While intercity buses are a nice idea, they are not practical in terms of ridership and are not cost effective. Most living outside of London own cars and can drive into town, this service would not be in the benefit of the London tax payer, as the revenue stream would not be returned to the London community. (If cost was not a factor, or was paid for by the province, the Intercity Buses should operate from a central terminal to local communities daily on an hourly schedule from 7:15 am to 6:15 pm to allow people from other communities to access work, or come in for the day.)
What changes would you make to municipal approvals, regulation, procurement and customer service to make it easier to invest, build and operate a business in London?
A - I would look at shifting a number of services online, including scheduling building inspections with 48 hours notice, so that there are minimal delays in the building process. I would have bids and tenders for construction projects or civic employees with firm deadlines and accountability, including no over budget funds and punitive fines for incomplete/incorrect work. I would like to work with landowners to establish free rent for a year for new business in lue of punitive measures, vacancy taxes, fines, or inspections on vacant property. I would be willing to create loans, grants and waive development fees for developments that are affordable housing (or rent controlled/subsidized units). I would allow businesses to establish themselves anywhere within London over losing them, and would look at creating better parking structures and deals to help bring business downtown.
London City Council approved the 2025–2035 ReconciliAction Plan in May 2025, committing the City to 155 actions over ten years. What should the next Council do to translate these commitments into a clear, properly resourced implementation plan developed with Indigenous partners? How would you advance reconciliation through economic development, procurement, planning, cultural investment and municipal services?
A - I would begin by giving the indigenous people a seat on the planning and development committee, as land stewards, and placing them in charge of reviewing and reporting, alongside city staff, on environmental assessments and recommending if an area should be approved for development. I also believe that we should have a permanent area at Museum London which recognizes the history of the indigenous people, their art and culture, as well as helping the Museum of Ontario Archaeology to bring in a role that teaches students about indigenous peoples history, stories and historic way of life as well as leading community educational activities (annually renewable).
London’s growth depends on roads, transit, water and wastewater systems, emergency services and community facilities. How would you determine which investments proceed first, pay for growth fairly and maintain competitive property taxes?
A - First, I don’t believe that the cost of growth should fall onto existing tax payers. New developments should fund themselves and only affordable homes (under 357K) should receive any form of development or land fee relief. Second, I don’t believe in spending money more than once on the same thing, do it once and do it right! Do not make a road that can not handle the expected capacity, only to change it 10 years later. Transit is a negative revenue stream and will always be, it will be updated as required to maintain a good functioning system, while minimizing overall expenditures. Public safety is important and requires investment in human resources and equipment, their services respond to crime, enforce traffic laws, and protect the public from harm at events, thus it requires ongoing funding in direct response to city growth and crime levels. The same is true for Fire and Paramedic services. Sewer and wastewater treatment is critical infrastructure and must be maintained. Dumping partially processed sewage into our waterways is not acceptable and has large environmental impacts, and is not respectful of communities downstream making these types of infrastructure projects a spending priority. Community Facilities should be accounted for in development fees, planned for and collected to self-fund as much as possible as the city is developed (pay as you go) exemptions would be for affordable housing in which case the city would cover that levy charge.
London City Council approved the Climate Emergency Action Plan in 2022. The Plan calls for a 55 per cent reduction in community-wide greenhouse-gas emissions from 2005 levels by 2030. Which elements of the Plan would you prioritize, accelerate or change during the next Council term? How would you ensure that climate action strengthens resilience, affordability and economic competitiveness for residents and businesses?
A - The fact that the plan was approved in 2022 and backdates itself is disappointing, this is taking credit for something that isn’t your work. That aside, there are a number of items in the Climate Actions Plan, that given the minimal amount of time to meet the targets can be achieved. The largest one is rethinking development. We need to think about minimizing urban sprawl responsibly, not by changing existing neighbourhoods, but by changing commercial shopping plazas into high density developments where housing is on top, with businesses and commercial stores occupying the lower levels, parking is underground and park/green space is in between. We also need to improve our transit system, so that it makes sense and is more efficient to encourage ridership. This includes smart routes to places people want to go, fewer stops but better located, better scheduling/frequency, free or subsidized fares, or tax credits. We can also make changes by encouraging developers to use green initiatives, or make them available to customers when building their homes. Smart roofs that hold water and reuse it for watering lawns and gardens, toilets, or simply to reduce strain during storms on our waste management facilities would be an easy modification to begin to implement as flat roofs are replaced.
Ontario’s strong-mayor legislation gives the Mayor of London enhanced authority in areas including the municipal budget, senior administration and matters connected to provincial priorities.
If you are a candidate for Council: How should Council respond when strong-mayor powers are exercised, and how would you use your role as a councillor to provide effective scrutiny and accountability?
A - I believe that as council we should heavily scrutinize what the mayor does when he uses his/her mayoral powers to see why they did so and whose interest is being served. If the interest of the public is not at the forefront of that decision, then they need to be called out on it, challenged and pushed into rescinding it and instead having council as a collective make the decision.
