I told you it was a busy week, didn’t I?
City Hall is back and working like Willy Wonka’s factory, blooping and pinging out potential bylaws faster than you can say “No, I’m not comparing anyone to an Oompa Loompa, please do not sue me”.
And so we leap from our collective bed like 96-year-old Grandpa Joe realizing he can be Charlie’s plus-one and have a good nosey around his old workplace. That’s right - for some reason I’m doing Roald Dahl references1 but City Hall Notes will happen anyway. Hello everybody - here is your local government update for this wonderful wet Wednesday in London, Ontario. Have a snozzberry.
This is one of those summer weeks that schedules all the Standing Committees together, and three of them have enough business to go ahead: Monday was Community and Protective Services, Tuesday was Planning and Environment, and later today there is the committee that covers corporate services, which I will also keep an eye on. But those first two are plenty, producing a chocolate river of news that you should totally dip your hand into, Augustus.
Time to update everybody. Why? Because it matters. If somebody tells you to try an Everlasting Gobstopper, you want to know what’s in it first, unless you’re extremely stupid like four of the five children in that particular book2. Here at London Ontario Online News we know that good information matters when we lead, and we know the cost of extending a metaphor too far so let’s quit that and look at some local news.
Yes?
Yes indeed. Let’s go.
Homelessness services
As expected, this was the issue of the week at City Hall, dominating the reporting of the Community and Protective Services Committee on Monday. Much of the conversation was about the Unsheltered Homelessness and Encampment Initiative (UHEI), a $2.5 million federal fund that council was allocating.
There were, in fact, several related issues, leading to a variety of story selection choices among the media. The main ones are a new approach to winter support, and allocating that funding to Ark Aid Mission and 519 Pursuit, plus sending an amount into the City’s reserve fund.
Want more details? The media has you covered, although in not the most accessible way, sorry not sorry but we have a massive TMI problem. As usual, I’ll pick out the best and most relevant and take you through it. The reports overlap and use different eyeball-catching techniques because of course the outlets are competing for audiences.
Kendra Seguin at CBC wins the laurels. IMO she managed the best, most readable breakdown of it all in her omnibus piece here.
Here’s an extract from Kendra’s story:
Under the proposed plan, a mix of outside service agencies — including Ark Aid, Salvation Army, My Sister’s Place and Atlohsa — will be funded to provide daily beds and warming spaces from Dec. 1 through to the end of March. It’s a move away from last year’s plan, where most spaces only opened once temperatures dropped to a certain threshold.
Overnight beds at the Cronyn Warner Centre operated by Ark Aid Mission will be funded until the end of June, though city staff clarified this would be on a by-need basis.
More, if you want it:
Daryl Newcombe focuses on shelter guidelines updating the drug policy in his CTV report here.
And Daryl also reports on federal money flowing to agencies here.
At the London Free Press, Jack Moulton’s focus in his story here is on a perceived shift away from outreach services, though he does touch on many of the other issues there in a long piece.
Let’s also spotlight a great story by Kate Dubinski at CBC London, who offers this thoughtful, insightful interview with Chuck Lazenby of the Unity Project, which is marking 25 years. Delighted to see Kate knocking them out of the park like this.
And oh look! A sponsor!
ADVERTISEMENT
City Hall Notes is sponsored by Spero Law
www.sperolaw.ca
Supporting independent local journalism in our community
Next up, it’s…
Housing
In the other of our two most ubiquitous local issues, we have much to report about building houses. Let’s do a quick Lightning Round.
London beats federal housing target, per CTV London: link
The Planning committee approved (well, greenlit the first step) a 5,000-house subdivision - all densities. Here’s the locale:
The proposal includes a large swath of land near where Bostwick, Wonderland and Wharncliffe roads converge, at 3080 and 3514 Bostwick Rd., 1875 Wharncliffe Rd. S., and 3341 Wonderland Rd. S.
and here’s the CBC London LINK.
Changes to HST are leading to a boost in new home sales: LINK. That’s CTV.
Here’s an unusual story: a dispute over whether a landlord kept a commitment to support tenants during relocation. Councillor Skylar Franke is taking up cudgels here and the landlord has a different view, per Daryl at CTV: LINK.
And we also have an ongoing conversation, as a City, about our built heritage. Here’s an intriguing plan for property tax credits: LINK. It’s that man Daryl again.
Election 2026 - update
Bloody hell, the City Hall elections office is a busy spot. The list of candidates on the City website now shows an amazing 94 people keen to be elected, with the deadline still to come on August 21. We’ll update/create a guide at some point, or share somebody else’s, and for now here are some highlights:
Ward 10 gets busy. In this south London ward, habitually late filer Paul Van Meerbergen has now completed the paperwork, and picked up another challenger, Steven Edwards, making it five people fighting in Ward 10, including Lois Ward, who launched her website this week. The other candidates are Juman Al-Jumaili and Alexander Moore.
A full set of incumbents. PVM was the last of the incumbents, confirming our only departures from council are Jerry Pribil, Steve Hillier, and either Susan Stevenson or Josh Morgan or both, for only one person can be mayor.
Ten candidates for mayor. A familiar name in the mayoral race, Dan Lenart, is back - this serial runner-for-mayor shows up down the ballot every time. Last election he polled 743 votes, up from 245 in 2018 and 110 in 2014.
Here’s the whole list:
John Feher
Lawrence-Zachary Howe
Kirsten Krose
Dan Lenart
Bronagh Joyce Morgan
Josh Morgan
Christine Rosehart
Susan Stevenson
Jeff Yam
Mustafa Zeboon
Two wards with nine candidates. There are extremely crowded fields in Wards 7 (north west) and, with one Alan Lieknins filing this week, also in Ward 4 (east).
Here are the full lists for just those two:
Ward 4
Bonnie Baleck
Elivis Birindwa
Alicia Caskey
Tom Cull
Mario Jozic
Stephen Orser (Ors)
Randi Prunner
Bob Wright
Alan Lieknins
Ward 7
Kamrul Ahsan (Kam)
German Gutierrez
Sam Hajar
Waseem Kazzah
Bensy Mathew
Dan Meinen
Djuma Moïse Sharifu
Jonathan Sher
Praveen Varkey
Next up: The final day of nominations is usually a busy one, although it’s hard to see how many more Londoners can fit on the ballot papers. We’ll keep watching and report back. Thanks to the staff at the clerk’s office for all their work!
Education
And we’ll finish with just one education story for now, all about school bus monitors. Some positions are being eliminated, to the dismay of parents of special needs children, as you can read in this story from Kate Dubinski at CBC London.
Enough
There’s your local government update. Thanks for paying attention and, if you do, for subscribing. Your clicks (and in special, wonderful cases, Canadian dollars) are powering us forward and helping us to establish The Loon as a service that can support us all.
If I was a better writer, at this point I would return to the Willy Wonka idiom but I just remembered the thing about licking wallpaper and I’m not endorsing that nonsense. Let’s just move on with our week and perhaps ask someone why the wall is wet.
That’s it. Have a wild one.
- Mike
The Loon (London Ontario Online News) lineup
New content every day!
We’ve teamed up to send you a new feature every weekday:
Monday - Buckle Up - podcast with Matt Brown - SPONSORED BY HAMILTON ROAD BIA
Tuesday - Ward Tours with Cedric Richards - SPONSORED BY LONDON BICYCLE CAFÉ
Wednesday - City Hall Notes by Mike Donachie - SPONSORED BY SPERO LAW
Thursday - the Forest City Arts and Culture Roundup by Diana Tamblyn - SPONSORED BY DOWNTOWN LONDON
Friday - Reflecting, with Steve Cordes - SPONSORED BY OLD EAST VILLAGE BIA
And free on Fridays: the ROUNDUP, briefing you on the stories you need to know, gathered in one place. Regular analysis of the issues affecting London and the region.
I feel like you should do your own Googling when I’m this predictable.
Yes, he was a horrible man who reputedly disliked children.