2022 London, Ont. municipal election: Meet the Ward 3 candidates – London

Londoners are gearing up to head to the polls on Oct. 24 for the municipal election as residents of the Forest City will elect their next mayor, city councillors and school board trustees.

Sixty-one candidates are running in 14 wards across the city.

But Ward 3 is set to have someone new as Coun. Mohamed Salih announced that he will not be seeking re-election, leaving five challengers on the ballot.

A full list of mayoral and ward candidates can be found on the city of London’s website.

But with a lot of new faces coming to the table across the wards, Global News has reached out to all those in the running and emailed a list of five questions on some of the key issues in the city, among them combating homelessness, addiction and mental health issues, affordable housing, and accessible public transit.

The responses for every candidate who replies will be shared below.

Now it’s time to meet the candidates for Ward 3:

Bob Wright

Q1. Over the summer, the group The Forgotten 519 put out a call to action to come up with urgent solutions to address London’s homelessness crisis. If elected, how would you tackle homelessness, addiction and mental health issues in London?

As city councillor, I would immediately support the goal of the Forgotten 519 to create two indoor spaces, one in the core, one in the east end,  that provide 24/7 hour support to people who are deprived of housing and shelter, or who simply need a safe place.

We need to provide resources to support transition to housing and other needed services, especially addiction and mental health issues. But this is not a city job alone. It will require a lot of cooperation from the province as the funding for these services comes largely from that level of government.

Q2. London business owners have recently highlighted some of the economic challenges they’re facing particularly in the downtown core. What strategies do you propose to revitalize London’s downtown core to help businesses thrive?

Dealing with homelessness downtown will be a vital first step as we need to develop a sense of community and welcoming in the downtown area. Currently it is an area that many Londoners avoid and don’t even consider visiting. Increased and proactive bylaw enforcement and visible police presence is a good step in conjunction with dealing with the homelessness, mental health and addiction.

Q3. Affordability in the housing and rental markets is the most pressing issue for many Londoners. If elected, what changes would you push for to ease the burden on Londoners when it comes to the cost of living?

Unfortunately, there is very little that city council can do to ease the stress of a rising cost of living. The only direct means is through maintaining or reducing taxes and that is not likely in the face of rising inflation. This makes efforts to address the need for more housing in the city a challenge.

Our municipal government and local school boards are not permitted by law to run deficits. As your city councillor, I hope to be able to provide incentives to developers to build and or to convert more industrial and commercial spaces into affordable residential housing, but only if the province allows us to do so.

Q4. London is in the process of building three legs of bus rapid transit, but challenges remain for the north and west end of the city. What is your vision for the next phase of public transit in the city?

We need to focus the city’s efforts on providing quality service to all of London, but the solution is not adding expensive infrastructure that will do little to enhance service.

At the moment, we have buses running on some routes that skip stops because they are full and we do not have the buses, nor the staff, to add additional capacity. We need to add buses and expand staffing. We also don’t reach a lot of the city with our current routes and we need to remedy this as the city continues to grow.

Q5. What is your vision for London in the next 10 years and how do we get there?

I would like to see London as a thriving centre of culture and learning with the best medical system in the country and greenspaces that are envied by all. A city that attracts visitors and helps our economy to thrive. A community that all people are happy to call home and where all are welcome regardless of race, creed or orientation.

I believe we start by getting involved in our community, run for office, volunteer, or help your neighbour. A small but significant step would be for all Londoners to take the time to inform themselves about their candidates and vote.

Prabh Gil

Q1. Over the summer, the group The Forgotten 519 put out a call to action to come up with urgent solutions to address London’s homelessness crisis. If elected, how would you tackle homelessness, addiction and mental health issues in London?

Yes, I am committed to tackling London’s homelessness, addiction and mental health issues. When elected, I am determined to work with The Forgotten 519 to provide every possible resource to tackle homelessness. I am committed walk the extra mile to end homelessness; therefore, I will elevate my voice by collaborating with the MPPs to raise this issue and work towards the solution at the larger platform.

As a Humanitarian Aid Coordinator, I have been serving the homeless community with the vision of reintegrating the homeless into society. I am also a coordinator of a mental health campaign within London and will work towards sustaining psychiatric clinics and mental health programs. I will work to have a more efficient and accessible rehabilitation centre.

As a councillor, I will collaborate with non-profit charitable organizations such as Ark Aid, Mens Mission, and Salvation Army to bring solutions forward. To tackle homelessness, we also need to tackle poverty; therefore, I will propose the incentive towards sustainability and employment by bringing in skill trade and hands-on training workshops for those not fortunate enough to access the university and colleges.

Q2. London business owners have recently highlighted some of the economic challenges they’re facing particularly in the downtown core. What strategies do you propose to revitalize London’s downtown core to help businesses thrive?

When elected, I will support and empower the local businesses. They provide more jobs and create career opportunities. Thriving local businesses put money back into their local community through paychecks and taxes, which can support the creation of new small businesses and improve local public services. I will propose an incentive to attract businesses to the core.

There is approximately a two-million-dollar tax break for the business landlords, but we also need to empower the businesses to maintain sustainability. Downtown is the city’s heart, but businesses are hesitant to invest and sustain due to the homeless and drug problem. I am committed to reintegrating the homeless into society and attracting business downtown.

Q3. Affordability in the housing and rental markets is the most pressing issue for many Londoners. If elected, what changes would you push for to ease the burden on Londoners when it comes to the cost of living?

I will support and collaborate with charitable organizations such as faith groups, Indwell, and Acorn to build affordable housing. I will also encourage to have inclusionary zoning to have mix income housing.

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As a councillor and leader, I will work with the developers to fulfill the basic housing requirements than just building single-family housing. I will work towards genuinely affordable housing rather than the 85 per cent market price. Absentee landlords are one of the reasons since the majority are from out of town, and international housing investors are high.

The city has too many vacant homes because of the international investors. Currently, the social homesn waiting list is approximately 6000, and the waiting time is ten years. I will focus and will give preference to the local housing investments and will work towards the affordable rent strategy

Q4. London is in the process of building three legs of bus rapid transit, but challenges remain for the north and west end of the city. What is your vision for the next phase of public transit in the city?

Efficient transit system also links with employment. Sadly, we have only two leg transit systems, downtown to the east and downtown to White Oaks. We are missing downtown to Masonville and downtown to the west.

I will support connecting the four legs around the city and I will work with London Transit to create frequency and hubs for better transit connections.

Q5. What is your vision for London in the next 10 years and how do we get there?

My vision is to bring communities together and involve all the pillars of the city of London, like Western University, Fanshawe College and skill trade schools, and the business community working together to create good-paying jobs.

I will work to have an efficient transit system to link London together, so that everyone has an efficient and equal travel opportunity.

To have a sense of pride and ownership, I will work with the developers and non-profit organizations to build affordable housing and affordable rental housing. To have sustainability and pride in our home city London, I will work towards having tourism and attractions.

London has always been known as the Forest City. I am committed to working towards our environment and a cleaner Thames River so we can have tourism, attraction, and pride in our home city.

I am determined to see London as a homelessness-free and flourishing city, and it is possible if we all work together as a team.

Peter Cuddy

Q1. Over the summer, the group The Forgotten 519 put out a call to action to come up with urgent solutions to address London’s homelessness crisis. If elected, how would you tackle homelessness, addiction and mental health issues in London?

Tackling homelessness, addiction, and mental health is not a one-person job. There are many elements to these issues in our community that need to be addressed, from the stigma of these issues, to the effects it has on our community, to the impacts it has on our emergency services. There are many stakeholders involved in the management of these issues and to the solution of these issues.

For this to happen, it takes the coordination and cooperation of the entire council, city, and community stakeholders to tackle this issue together. If elected, I would work to ensure all these groups come together to collectively tackle this issue.

Q2. London business owners have recently highlighted some of the economic challenges they’re facing particularly in the downtown core. What strategies do you propose to revitalize London’s downtown core to help businesses thrive?

I think this question directly ties into the first question.

When knocking on doors, one of the top concerns I hear from constituents and the downtown core is safety. People in general feel unsafe in the downtown core. Many constituents often tie this to the mental health, addiction, and homelessness issues that are prevalent in the downtown core.

I truly do not think the answer to revitalizing the downtown core goes without tackling homelessness, addition, and mental health. So again, I would relay back to my answer in the first question.

Q3. Affordability in the housing and rental markets is the most pressing issue for many Londoners. If elected, what changes would you push for to ease the burden on Londoners when it comes to the cost of living?

This question addresses an issue that has a great burden of responsibility on our provincial partners. That’s not to say municipally, we do not share a role in working to solve this issue. I think there needs to be cooperation and teamwork between our provincial counterparts to help address affordable housing.

I believe in also working with our developers to help address the issue. When we talk about housing, we need to work with the people who build housing.

London has seen both a population boom and a housing build boom for several years now with no end in sight. Increasing the supply of housing, including affordable housing, will be vital over the next short-term period.

Q4. London is in the process of building three legs of bus rapid transit, but challenges remain for the north and west end of the city. What is your vision for the next phase of public transit in the city?

As I am a candidate in the northeast end of the city, I am going to focus on the issues I have heard in Ward 3 regarding transit. A big issue now I hear from constituents is a lack of transit in neighbourhoods connecting to the existing BRT routes.

Ward 3 has the east-leg of BRT heading to Fanshawe College. However, there are very few roots that expand off this leg of the BRT leaving many neighbourhoods disconnected from transit. Ward 3 also has an issue with transit in the industrial areas. These industrial areas are rapidly expanding, and with that, it will be important to include transit in these developments.

Q5. What is your vision for London in the next 10 years and how do we get there?

London is becoming a hub for many industries such as agriculture, technology, and logistics. With many new employers eyeing London as a new home, we can also expect our population to continue to grow. It will be important to ensure that the City of London and council carefully plan out London’s future and ensure its infrastructure, such as active transportation, community services, roads, etc., meet the pace and growth of London over the next 10 years

Ainsley Graham

Q1. Over the summer, the group The Forgotten 519 put out a call to action to come up with urgent solutions to address London’s homelessness crisis. If elected, how would you tackle homelessness, addiction and mental health issues in London?

Councillors need to take the time to sit with frontline workers and people who provide outreach services in the community. Outreach workers and volunteers are the ones who are experts in this field and leaders should be basing policy off of conversations and input that they receive from them. They are the ones who need to be leading those conversations.

Q2. London business owners have recently highlighted some of the economic challenges they’re facing particularly in the downtown core. What strategies do you propose to revitalize London’s downtown core to help businesses thrive?

Parking, accessibility, and safety are some of the biggest issues when it comes to downtown. We need to be creating infrastructure that works with what is already there and look at more creative ways to get people to want to come downtown. An example being, why are we decreasing parking in the core? If we want people to come downtown we need to be building parking structures, not paving parking lots.

For people who are looking at using active transportation, why do we not have protected bike lanes on the main arteries of roads and more secure bike parking? Also, are we making our infrastructure friendly to those that have accessibility issues?

Safety is also another issue for people when visiting or working downtown. This goes back to having stronger mental health services and programs in place to help our most vulnerable population. By trying to fix the systemic issue at hand, this will create a trickle down effect into neighbourhoods.

Q3. Affordability in the housing and rental markets is the most pressing issue for many Londoners. If elected, what changes would you push for to ease the burden on Londoners when it comes to the cost of living?

The City of London needs to officially declare a “housing emergency.”

Low and middle income earners have been priced out of the rental market in London. Most young people can’t even imagine home ownership as an option. But the city can’t solve this housing crisis alone.

There are many proposals that have been put on the table, from ACORN, RentSafe programs and working with partners like LifeSpin, to help improve the housing stock in London, build better communities, and hold derelict landlords accountable.

Q4. London is in the process of building three legs of bus rapid transit, but challenges remain for the north and west end of the city. What is your vision for the next phase of public transit in the city?

The Rapid Transit Plan is a good tool to use as an outline for what the current reality of London is. With the pandemic, London has seen a drastic increase in its population growth in a very short time frame, putting stress on every facet of our infrastructure. The Rapid Transit Plan needs to be revisited and adjusted to what the landscape of the city is sitting at.

The new council needs to work together with city staff, London Transit Commission (LTC) and community advocates to bring London into 2022. Re-assessing our infrastructure and how it is laid out and used by drivers, cyclists and LTC by looking at other major cities and using what has worked for them and how we can transfer that knowledge over to London.

Q5. What is your vision for London in the next 10 years and how do we get there?

I would like to see a city that we are proud to call home.

I see a London that is more equitable for the people living here, working directly with unions and small businesses to address their needs and create more sustainable jobs.

More focus on walkable neighbourhoods and continuing to support community markets and events making it easier for people living within that community to access them. We need to be building a “world class city” that people want to visit, raise families and contribute to our growing economy.

— Questions by Global News’ Jaclyn Carbone and Maya Reid.