OSBOURNE

Data centres are coming to Ontario. The provincial government has made that clear. The provincial government has also made clear that it has the power to override municipal moratoriums when it wants to. Oakville, Hamilton, and Mississauga are examples of this.

City Council has the responsibility to protect the interests of London and Londoners to make sure any data centre project meets legally binding requirements that are tied to project approval and operation of the site.

My position is that no data centre application moves forward in London without meeting all of the following written into the site plan agreement:

• •No use of London's municipal drinking water for cooling. Closed-loop cooling or equivalent technology is required.
• •Powered entirely by renewable energy, verified annually.
• •Noise impact assessment with enforceable limits.
• •Local hiring and training commitments with annual reporting.
• •A community benefit agreement negotiated for the ward before construction begins, with claw back provisions if commitments are not met.

This is the only path forward that protects London against the agenda of the province.

A resident in Old South solved a road safety concern in months that the city could not resolve in years. A $375 AI sensor captured what one manual count missed. Council approved the 4-way stop. Residents should not have to arrive at the solution themselves.

When someone raises a concern about their street there should be a transparent process to address the concern. The current system is not working. Manual counts taken in winter or on rain days are being used to evaluate complaints.

Fix the process

The process needs to be easier for residents to request safety measures to be added to their neighbourhood and to have calming measures that were added years and decades ago to be audited for their current effectiveness.

The city already has the data from police and other emergency services about accidents and resident complaints. This aggregated data should be used to proactively address road safety concerns. Action cannot be solely based upon traffic volume.

In general, manual counts need to stop being used as the means of data collection.

The money is already there

Ontario's Road Safety Infrastructure Fund covers speed cushions, raised crosswalks, and radar speed signs in school and community safety zones. London's initial share is $1.29 million. Federal active transportation funding covers bollards and bump-outs. It requires someone at Council making sure London is applying these measures proactively or with more urgency when residents identify the issue.

London adopted a Climate Emergency Action Plan in 2022.

The implementation gap is visible. Ward 3's newer northern neighbourhoods have significantly less tree canopy than older parts of the city. London averaged 27 percent coverage citywide and was named Forest Capital of Canada this year, but the distribution is uneven. Meanwhile, downtown London has potted plants on its main streets instead of trees. To be serious about the urban heat island effect, we need permanent trees in the downtown core, not seasonal planters, so people can actually use these spaces again.

What I would push for at Council

• •Require bee bricks as a condition of approval for new residential and commercial developments. Bee bricks provide nesting habitat for solitary bees whose populations are declining. A London, Ontario company makes them. Montreal ran a pilot this summer. The cost to a developer is negligible.
• •Develop an eco-roof incentive for green, blue-green, and cool white roofs on existing buildings. Toronto offers up to $100,000. London does not have an equivalent.
• •Make BetterHomes London a program every Ward 3 homeowner knows about. Low-interest loans up to $40,000 for heat pumps, insulation, and windows, tied to the property so the loan transfers if the home sells. It launched this spring. It needs uptake to matter.
• •Expand parklets and pocket parks in Ward 3's higher-density corridors and the city.

London builds parks. It does not always design destinations. A park for adults is not a park with benches around a field. It is a space people choose to spend time in, with pathways that draw you in, trees that create shade and atmosphere, and a design that makes the space feel like an oasis within the city.

A circular basketball court designed into a naturalized landscape serves three times the players on the same footprint and creates a space worth watching from the outside too.

A naturalized playground built from boulders, logs, earthforms, and native plantings creates a richer sensory experience than a manufactured structure, costs less to maintain over fifteen years, and gives children something they cannot get from a metal slide.

As a school board trustee I watched schools struggle to replace aging playground equipment. A typical mid-size municipal playground installation runs $75,000 to $150,000. Most of them are just a place, not a destination or an experience. There are better ways to design these spaces, cost effectively.

A uniquely designed splash pad with a dual-use surface becomes a community gathering point in summer and a skating surface in winter. One installation. Two seasons. A destination rather than a concrete pad sitting empty half the year.

What I would push for at Council

• •Require a design standard for park renewals that considers naturalized materials and plantings as the starting point rather than an option.
• •Pilot a uniquely designed splash pad in Ward 3 that converts to a skating surface in winter. Twice the use and fun for a neighbourhood.
• •Open park renewal decisions to resident input before the design is set, not after.

Ward 3 has business potential the City has not fully developed. The London International Airport sits in our ward with over 1,000 acres of development-ready land, 50 businesses already on site, and $623 million in annual economic impact.

The VW battery gigafactory 30 kilometres south of us in St. Thomas starts production in 2027, with 3,000 direct jobs and an estimated 30,000 spillover jobs across the region.

City Council approved an Aerospace Innovation Corridor near the airport as part of the 2026 to 2030 Economic Development Strategy.

Small businesses across London get hit hard when road construction happens. The current support from the City is ineffective. When a street tears up the road to the front door of a business, the business loses months of revenue. Toronto's construction mitigation program pays affected businesses directly and is predominantly funded by senior levels of government. It is unclear whether London has pursued that funding.

Ward 3 does not currently have a Business Improvement Area.

What I would push for at Council

• •Along with the Council-approved Aerospace Innovation Corridor, advocate for a London economic corridor along Veterans Memorial Parkway that supports the growth happening in St. Thomas with the intention of creating a provincial transportation corridor across London's northern border. Creating shared prosperity for St. Thomas, London, and surrounding farming communities, with London leading.
• •Pursue Toronto-style construction mitigation funding for London businesses impacted by construction.
• •Support a Ward 3 Business Improvement Area if the businesses in the ward want one.

In 2023, 44 percent of Torontonians in their 20s said they felt lonely at least three days a week. For those 30 and older, it was 31 percent.

London may not be that far off. We have all re-evaluated our connections to each other and the world since the pandemic.

In general, we do events well here in London. Sunfest, Home County, and Rock the Park all bring thousands out. But going to an event is not the same as connecting with someone new.

As a residence life manager at King's University College, my job was creating the conditions for people to find their fit, not just running programming. This is work London can do too if we want to grow the city, make people proud of where they live, and be happy they live here.

What I would push for at Council

• •Bring The Longest Table to London. Residents pull up a chair at one continuous table down a public street or park and share a meal. Miami hosted its first this year and drew 350 people to 35 tables. Their own research shows more than 8 in 10 participants meet someone new.
• •Look at ways for our existing events and festivals to create real moments where people walk away having connected with someone new, feeling more like they belong in London.
• •Pilot a Hey Neighbour-style initiative inspired by the City of Vancouver's original pilot in 2018, which reported measurable gains in social connection and satisfaction.
• •Collaborate with neighbourhood associations to build their capacity to engage new and existing residents. Coordinate with city resources to create intentional opportunities to connect with fellow neighbours, and act as a liaison between the city and the ward councillor.

The current Londoner experience.

Wellington under construction. Oxford in front of Fanshawe, under construction. Highbury Ave, under construction. All the major arteries torn up at the same time. A traffic nightmare, and the same collective frustration every year: can this be done differently, better, and not all at once?

Ever wonder why a newly paved road gets torn up again a year later?

Because nothing stops it. Utilities like Bell, Rogers, Enbridge, and London Hydro pay a pavement degradation fee when they cut into city roads. The fee just makes them pay. The process doesn't take into account the experience of Londoners.

Did you know.

London has a Utility Coordinating Committee that meets with the major utilities to schedule road work. Its decisions aren't public. Residents can't see what's coming to their street until the cones show up.

London's road construction contract sets a penalty for a contractor finishing late at only $1,000 per calendar day. The contract also charges the contractor cost recovery for city staff time still on site during the delay. On a $10 million project, two months late costs the contractor $60,000 in actual penalty. Their idle equipment costs them more than that in a week. The penalty exists, but it doesn't ensure timely completion of the road.

What I would push for at Council

• •Update the late penalty to reflect what a day of closure actually costs Londoners.
• •Add a bonus for finishing early, structured so the city comes out ahead. Bonus smaller than the road user savings the city captures. Both sides win.
• •Amend the Streets Bylaw to put a three to five year moratorium on cutting into any newly reconstructed arterial, except emergency work. Forcing utilities to coordinate their work while the road is still being worked on.
• •One artery at a time. No two major roads in close proximity of each other be torn up in the same season.
• •Publish the Utility Coordinating Committee's decisions on a public dashboard tied to the annual Renew London report. If a utility is cutting your street next spring, you should be able to see it coming and sign up for notifications.