Being accountable means keeping promises. That’s the reason I’ve kept my 2018 campaign commitments visible for you to see that I’ve been working to deliver and have made a lot of progress on the commitments I made to you.

Items with a green check mark indicate a commitment that has been kept or is underway:

BETTER SERVICES & INFRASTRUCTURE:

FIX EAST LONDON ROADS: Ward 2 residents pay property taxes too and we shouldn’t be last on the list every time when it comes to road repairs. I’ve been able to deliver more road and infrastructure upgrades to Ward 2 than we’ve had in a generation!  The following road & sewer renewal projects have all gotten done:

• Dundas from Highbury to First Street
• Frobisher & Champlain
• Spruce & Haig
• Winnipeg (Wavell-Churchill) and Churchill (Edmonton to Winnipeg)
• Seaforth Court
• Jena Cres
• Marconi (Noel to Trafalgar)
• Avalon
• Calgary
• Manitoba (scheduled for 2022)
• Dundas from First to Second plus Burdick & Leonard (scheduled for 2022)

GET THE EAST LIONS COMMUNITY CENTRE OPEN, and invest in our parks and playgrounds.

• Well behind schedule before the 2018 election, with contractor problems, material standards issues, and then with COVID-19 and the added problems that brought, I worked extensively with city staff to first get the schedule adjusted so that the park space wasn't left until after the building was open, but instead got done while the building was still under construction so that some park space could be used as soon as possible, then to ultimately replace the contractor and get the facility open. Londoners were finally welcome inside in COVID restricted numbers in December of 2021 and since have been able to fully enjoy it without capacity restrictions through 2022 and will continue to do so for generations to come.
• A brand new park, Vimy Ridge Park at Hale and Trafalgar, was created providing a quiet park setting that honours our veterans
• New playground structures in Kiwanis Park and Nelson Park, with work underway on Grampian Woods Park
• Helped Lord Nelson, Bonaventure, and JP Robarts public schools obtain private and public funding to install new playground spaces and a new basketball court at Princess Anne French Immersion school. 

Safer School Zones & Streets: Families are understandably concerned about traffic speeding through neighbourhoods and the  congestion around schools that leads to unsafe situations. I've worked with residents to get traffic calming measures and crosswalks where they live.

• speed bumps installed at St. Pius Catholic School
• speed bumps installed at Bonaventure Meadows Public School
• new crosswalk on Hale St. to connect Trinity United Church, Kiwanis Park, London Housing & London Transit stops
• two new crosswalks on Trafalgar at Thorne and at Condor
• new crosswalk on Wavell at Vancouver for St. Pius and Prince Charles elementary schools student use
• new curb bump out and crosswalk on Admiral Dr. slowing traffic and connecting Admiral & Nelson city park spaces
• new crosswalk on Bournemouth to connect to Grampian Woods Park
• new crosswalk linking pedestrian walkways from Merlin Cres. to Dawn Dr.
• new sidewalk on Joliet St. connecting to Hudson
• new crosswalk on Bow St. for JP Robarts students

Better Bicycling: Whether for recreation or as their main means of getting around, many Londoners enjoy biking, but it needs to be safer to do so. That means planning for and including new bike lanes as we rework and repave our roads and in our future growth.

-the Argyle area is getting it’s first protected lane cycling infrastructure with the installation of the Brydges/Wavell bike lane that will run from Hale to Clarke Rd, providing safe biking connections to Kiwanis Park, two elementary schools, the East Lions Community Centre, Clarke Rd. Secondary School and ultimately through to Argyle Mall.

A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO A BETTER LONDON:

Relaxing Overnight Parking Rules

-in the spring of 2020 Council passed my motion to change the overnight parking restrictions. As a result restrictions do not take effect until November 1st and end April 30th. The time to occupy the same on street parking space has also been extended from 12hrs to 18hrs. This gives Londoners flexibility as families juggle shift work, carpooling, or being responsible and not getting behind the wheel after a few drinks.

Free Public WiFi: You shouldn’t have to use your data plan to send a picture of your child playing hockey or post a score at the end of a game. Open WiFi also makes it safer and easier for youth to change plans and connect with their parents when they are out. 

-Council approved my motion to proceed with this project as part of the 2020-2023 Multi-Year Budget. Public WiFi came on line at the Argyle Arena in Ward 2 in November of 2021 and is rolling out to all our recreation facilities.

-In December of 2021 we FINALLY opened the new East Lions Community Centre, this multi-use facility includes public WiFi access and device charging stations.

Move ahead with a Green Bin program: A Green Bin Program will have some upfront start-up costs, but expanding or creating new landfill sites is even more expensive. We must take steps to reduce waste.

-a Green Bin program has been approved and funded by council. Unfortunately supply chain issues for the collection trucks have delayed the rollout scheduled for the fall of 2022 until 2023, but all the funding is in place to start when the equipment arrives.

Get Building Overpasses and Underpasses: City Councillors have been talking about getting the trains out of London for over 20 years, but we are no further ahead. EVEN IF CP and CN Rail agreed to move, it would cost well over a billion dollars and take a decade or more. It’s time to get building the overpasses and underpasses.

-unfortunately the immense costs of an over/underpass makes moving these forward difficult.  The Adelaide St. underpass work has begun. But because of budget limits I’ve not had success in pursuing Clarke Rd. at this time.

Tourism that makes sense for London: With me you won’t get proposals for plowing matches that belong in rural communities, or bridges to nowhere over the Thames River. I will work with Tourism London on the initiatives that make sense. From baseball and hockey tournaments to east end attractions like East Park or Fanshawe Pioneer Village, I will work to promote opportunities to bring people to visit us.

-I’ve served on the Tourism London Board this term of council and before COVID shut things down.  Unfortunately, the pandemic put many events on hold and cancelled others. However, we continued to successfully support the Tourism Sector in London and attract events like the Junos. We also kept Labatt Park’s historic record as the oldest operation ballpark in the world going with a special single game during the COVID summer of 2022. Most recently we also secured the 2023 Tim Horton’s Curling Brier. And as the summer of 2022 unfolds our local festivals, destinations like Eastpark, the Factory at 100 Kellogg are back in action!

Affordable Housing and Tackling Homelessness: A city council can’t “end poverty in a generation”, and shouldn’t pretend it can like the last council did.  And City Council is not going to end homelessness either. But, city council does have a role to play in tackling this problem. That starts by working with partners to get shovels in the ground and getting housing units built.

-Over the term of council we’ve invested over $90 million in NEW funding for homelessness prevention and affordable housing projects. The city has built a new deeply affordable housing building on Baseline Rd West (rents 60% or less of market rates). A second building underway on Thompson Rd. We’ve worked with Indewell to support two new supportive housing developments for those with high needs. In Ward 2, working with Zerrin Developments a new 65 unit on Clarke Rd. was built. In that building 37 of units are affordable at mix of 70-80% market rent. We provided winter interim housing shelters, and thanks to provincial funds were also able to support people experiencing homelessness with hotel rooms during the COVID pandemic as places to isolate.

And after dissolving the old board at London Housing and replacing the leadership, our public housing units are finally getting repaired and reoccupied more quickly when tenants leave, and we’re working to renovate older locations, including intensification with more new units on those sites.  The last mortgage on London Housing properties was paid off in 2022, paving the way to start building new rent-geared-to-income units for the first time in 50yrs!

It’s still an uphill battle, but we are making progress for the first time in years.

BETTER TRANSIT:

Put the Brakes on BRT: Everyone agrees London needs better transit, but many people don’t feel the Bus Rapid Transit Plan currently proposed is what will get the job done and I agree. I support revisiting the BRT plan to reconsider our options.

-Council eliminated 2 of the 5 main components of the BRT plan, keeping only the Downtown Loop, Wellington Gateway and East London Link to Fanshawe College. I voted NO on the North and West proposed routes, which were the least sensible components. I was also able to support the East London Link because it now includes a new Express Bus service to Argyle Mall in the plan.

Better Bus Shelters at More Transit Stops: Riding transit shouldn’t mean standing in the rain for half an hour waiting for your bus. I will work with fellow councillors and the London Transit Commission to ensure bus shelters at more bus stops.

-as a result of not going ahead with the full BRT plan, funding for 60 new transit shelters was approved. Many stops still need shelters but we are making progress toward filling in the gaps that make riding the bus more realistic for more people.

Restore Seniors Discount Bus Tickets: It is great that London has provided free transit service for children under 12 and discounted service for teens but seniors on fixed incomes are already having a tough time making ends meet. Helping youth access transit shouldn’t come at the expense of seniors who rely on transit to get groceries or get to a doctor’s appointment.

–seniors bus tickets were restored, and the youth passes were kept in place and were all approved in the City’s Multi-Year Budget.