Name: Naomi Nadea

What position are you running for? Councilor Ward 6

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?

Dear Members of the London Chamber of Commerce, thank you for the opportunity to share my perspective. I believe London's greatest economic opportunity is to build an economy where everyone has an opportunity to contribute, regardless of their academic background. One of our obstacles is that qualified, hardworking people can be overlooked because they lack formal diplomas or degrees.

As someone with zero academic background, I understand this personally. My skills and experience have been developed through practical, labour-intensive work and lived experience. I would like to see more employers embrace skills-based hiring, recognizing demonstrated ability, work ethic, and experience alongside formal credentials. The City should work with employers, Western University, Fanshawe College, and workforce organizations to expand apprenticeships, paid training, mentorships, short-term certifications, and employment pathways for people without traditional academic credentials.

I also support reducing unnecessary barriers for small businesses and entrepreneurs, encouraging investment, and creating opportunities in skilled trades, construction, manufacturing, clean energy, technology, tourism, and other growing sectors. London needs both university graduates and people whose education comes from experience.

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.

I believe London's downtown should be a place where people want to live, work, visit, invest, and build businesses. My priorities would be supporting a stronger downtown business environment by reducing unnecessary municipal barriers, encouraging entrepreneurship, and attracting responsible investment. I would also prioritize clean, accessible, welcoming public spaces with more events, greenery, seating, and community programming.

I support creating more downtown housing, including affordable and accessible housing, and making it easier to responsibly convert underused office space into residential units while maintaining appropriate safety and accessibility standards. Downtown should remain London's cultural and civic heart, with strong support for arts, festivals, tourism, entertainment, and community events. Safety must also be a priority. We need to address crime and disorder while simultaneously addressing homelessness, mental health, addiction, and poverty through appropriate supports.

Transportation should make downtown accessible by transit, walking, cycling, and other mobility options. Finally, accountability is essential. The Downtown Plan must produce measurable results, not simply remain a policy document. I would support public reporting on timelines, spending, projects, and outcomes. By the end of the next Council term, Londoners should see more people living downtown, stronger businesses, safer and more vibrant public spaces, increased investment, and visible progress.

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?

London needs a coordinated response to homelessness, health, and public safety. These issues are connected, but they cannot be solved with a single approach.

Homelessness: I support increasing supportive and affordable housing, expanding shelter and warming/cooling capacity, and connecting people experiencing homelessness with mental-health, addiction, employment, and housing services. The City should coordinate local services and housing, while the provincial and federal governments provide appropriate funding and health and social-service resources.

Health Crisis: Mental health and addiction require health-care responses, not simply enforcement. I support stronger partnerships between the City, hospitals, health providers, community organizations, and provincial services to expand treatment, crisis response, prevention, and recovery programs.

Public Safety: Residents and businesses deserve safe public spaces. Police should respond to violence, property crime, and criminal activity, while the City should invest in lighting, maintenance, safe public spaces, by-law enforcement, and prevention. Community partners can help address underlying social challenges.

No single level of government can solve this alone. London needs the City, police, health system, provincial and federal governments, businesses, housing providers, and community organizations working together with clear responsibilities and measurable outcomes. My goal is a London that is compassionate, safe, and accountable—protecting vulnerable residents while ensuring everyone can feel secure in their community.

What changes would you support to increase housing supply and affordability and create neighbourhoods with access to employment, services, transportation and public amenities?

I support increasing housing supply while ensuring that new housing is affordable, accessible, and connected to the services people need. The City should encourage appropriate higher-density development, infill, and mixed-use communities near transit, employment, schools, health services, shopping, parks, and other amenities. This can reduce transportation costs and create neighbourhoods where people do not have to rely on a car for every daily need.

I also support increasing the supply of affordable and deeply affordable housing, protecting existing affordable rental units, and using public lands where appropriate for housing development. The City should explore incentives, expedited approvals, and partnerships with non-profit and private-sector housing providers where these measures can deliver long-term affordability.

New developments should include accessible housing options for seniors and people with disabilities and be supported by sidewalks, cycling infrastructure, reliable transit, parks, and community facilities. Housing affordability must also consider the cost of living in the neighbourhood, not simply the purchase or rental price.

If elected, I will support practical policies that allow London to grow while ensuring that residents can afford to live, work, travel, and access essential services within their communities. London should build neighbourhoods—not simply buildings.

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 prioritised during the next Council term, and how should the City decide where to invest?

London's cultural facilities, venues, and public spaces are essential to our city's identity, economy, tourism, and quality of life. I believe the next Council should prioritize maintaining and improving existing cultural infrastructure before allowing important facilities to deteriorate.

Investment should focus on facilities that are heavily used, accessible to people with disabilities, serve diverse communities, and have clear cultural, educational, economic, or tourism benefits. The City should also prioritize projects that address urgent safety, accessibility, capacity, and maintenance needs.

I support strengthening London's arts, festivals, museums, libraries, theatres, community cultural spaces, and public gathering areas. We should also ensure that emerging and grassroots artists and cultural organizations have opportunities to participate in London's cultural economy. The City should make investment decisions through transparent, evidence-based criteria, including public consultation, community benefit, usage, economic impact, accessibility, environmental sustainability, lifecycle costs, and available funding.

I would also support partnerships with provincial and federal governments, businesses, foundations, cultural organizations, and community groups to leverage municipal investment. Our cultural spaces should be welcoming to everyone, including newcomers, youth, seniors, Indigenous communities, racialized communities, and the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

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?

Reliable transportation is essential to London's economy. Workers should be able to reach their jobs safely, affordably, and reliably—regardless of whether they work traditional daytime hours. I support improving London Transit frequency, reliability, accessibility, and connections to major employment areas, with particular attention to shift workers who may start or finish work outside conventional hours. Transit planning should reflect actual employment patterns, not simply daytime schedules.

I also support stronger connections to regional and intercity transportation, including intercity bus services, London International Airport, and passenger rail. London should work with provincial and federal partners and transportation providers to improve connections and advocate for more frequent and reliable service. Businesses and employees should be able to expect transportation that is predictable, accessible, safe, and frequent enough to support employment. Real-time information and better coordination between transportation services should also be priorities.

I would support transportation planning that connects residential neighbourhoods with employment centres, post-secondary institutions, health-care facilities, and commercial areas while encouraging walking and cycling where practical. A strong economy requires a transportation system that keeps people moving. If workers cannot reliably get to work, businesses cannot reliably operate. London should invest in transportation as essential economic infrastructure, not simply as a convenience.

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?

I would support making the City of London easier, faster, and more predictable to do business with, while maintaining appropriate safety, accessibility, environmental, and community standards. For municipal approvals, I would support clearer timelines, streamlined processes, better coordination between departments, and a dedicated concierge-style service for businesses navigating permits, planning, and approvals.

Regulations should be reviewed regularly to identify unnecessary duplication, outdated requirements, and barriers that do not provide meaningful public benefit. Businesses should know what is required, why it is required, and how long the process is expected to take. I would also support improving municipal procurement so that local businesses and small businesses have a fair opportunity to compete for City contracts, while maintaining transparency, value for taxpayers, and appropriate procurement rules.

Customer service should be responsive, accessible, and accountable. Businesses should have a clear point of contact rather than being passed between multiple departments. Finally, I would encourage the City to measure approval timelines, customer satisfaction, and economic outcomes publicly.

London should be open for business without compromising the public interest. My goal would be a municipal government that works with businesses, communicates clearly, removes unnecessary barriers, and treats entrepreneurs and employers as partners in London's economic success.

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?

I support fully implementing London's 2025–2035 Reconciliation Action Plan and ensuring that its 155 commitments are translated into measurable, properly funded actions.

The next Council should work directly and respectfully with First Nations, Inuit and Métis partners, ensuring Indigenous voices are involved from planning through implementation—not simply consulted after decisions have already been made. The City should establish clear timelines, responsible departments, dedicated resources, measurable outcomes, and transparent public reporting.

Reconciliation should also be reflected in economic development and municipal operations. I support increasing opportunities for Indigenous-owned businesses through fair and accessible procurement, while respecting applicable procurement requirements. The City should also explore partnerships that support Indigenous entrepreneurship, employment, training, and investment.

Planning decisions should incorporate Indigenous perspectives, treaty responsibilities, cultural heritage, environmental stewardship, and relationships with the land. Municipal cultural investments should create meaningful opportunities to recognize and celebrate Indigenous histories, cultures, languages, and contemporary contributions.

Municipal services should be accessible, respectful, and responsive to Indigenous residents and communities. Most importantly, reconciliation must be more than a document or annual ceremony. It requires sustained action, resources, accountability, and relationships. If elected, I will support working collaboratively with Indigenous partners to ensure London's commitments result in measurable and lasting change.

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?

We must ensure that infrastructure keeps pace with growth while protecting taxpayers from unnecessary financial pressure. I would prioritize investments based on public safety, urgency, capacity, population growth, economic impact, and long-term value for taxpayers. Roads, transit, water and wastewater, emergency services, and community facilities should be planned together so infrastructure is available when and where residents need it.

Growth should pay its fair share. I support using appropriate development charges and other growth-related tools so that existing taxpayers are not unnecessarily burdened with the costs of infrastructure required primarily to support new development. At the same time, the City should avoid creating excessive fees that discourage housing, business investment, or entrepreneurship.

I would also support careful lifecycle planning, preventative maintenance, and transparent cost-benefit analysis before major projects proceed. Where possible, the City should pursue provincial and federal funding and public-private partnerships that provide genuine value to taxpayers.

Maintaining competitive property taxes requires discipline: prioritize essential services, eliminate unnecessary spending, seek efficiencies, and invest where the long-term benefit justifies the cost. London should grow responsibly, build infrastructure strategically, and ensure that both existing residents and new development contribute fairly to the city's future.

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 prioritise, 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?

I support the goals of London's Climate Emergency Action Plan and believe the City must move from commitments to measurable, accelerated action.

During the next Council term, I would prioritize renewable energy, energy efficiency, low-carbon transportation, building retrofits, urban tree canopy, waste reduction, and climate-resilient infrastructure. I would also support restoring adequate funding to the Climate Change Reserve Fund and ensuring climate investments produce measurable results.

I am especially passionate about harnessing solar energy. I support expanding solar rebates and incentives for homes, apartment buildings, hospitals, businesses, community facilities, and cooling and warming centres. Where practical and permitted, I would encourage residents and organizations to explore solar panels with battery storage and greater energy independence.

Climate action must also be affordable. Programs should prioritize lower-income households, affordable housing, and small businesses so that the transition to cleaner energy does not become another financial burden. I would support public reporting on emissions, spending, targets, and progress so residents can see whether commitments are actually being achieved. Done properly, climate action can create jobs, reduce energy costs, improve resilience, attract investment, and strengthen London's economy. We should not view climate action as a cost alone—it is an opportunity to build a cleaner, healthier, more affordable and competitive London.

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?

As a candidate for City Council, I believe strong-mayor powers must be exercised with transparency, restraint, and accountability to London residents. When enhanced powers are used, Council should carefully review the decisions, financial implications, legal authority, and impacts on residents. Councillors must have meaningful opportunities to question decisions, request information, and communicate concerns to the public.

I would use my role as a councillor to provide constructive scrutiny—not simply oppose decisions because they come from the Mayor. I would support initiatives that benefit London while asking difficult questions when decisions may negatively affect taxpayers, essential services, neighbourhoods, or vulnerable residents.

I also believe residents deserve clear information about how strong-mayor powers are being exercised. Significant decisions should be accompanied by publicly accessible explanations, financial information, supporting evidence, and measurable objectives wherever possible.

The Mayor and Council should work collaboratively, even when disagreements occur. Strong-mayor legislation should not mean that the voices of elected councillors or residents become irrelevant. I would respect the Mayor's lawful authority while fulfilling my responsibility as a councillor to represent Ward 6 residents, scrutinize decisions, protect taxpayers, and demand accountability. Strong leadership and strong accountability should exist together.