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Name: Jonathan Sher

What position are you running for? Councilor Ward 7

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?

Seismic shifts in the global economy pose a threat but also present opportunity to London’s economy. Escalating tariffs by the Trump Administration threaten manufacturing. Investment and growth require stability. Like Canada as a whole, London companies must seek to diversify its customers and supply chains so we aren’t as exposed to the risks posed by American tariffs.

Global and continental supply chains have been disrupted often, not only by tariffs but also by global conflict, most recently in the Persian Gulf. That threatens supply routes to Canada but might create new opportunities to export across oceans free from such conflict.

The shift the green energy and the growing dependence upon data centers present challenges and opportunities too.

I recognize those challenges and opportunities because I have researched and written about them for the past three years for Virginia’s economic development agency, a state whose economy is about the same size of Ontario. Writing for that agency’s quarterly publication, Virginia Economic Review, I learned how cities are pivoting to find and grow the jobs of the future. The more successful approaches involves the following elements:
• Collaboration among business, colleges and universities, economic development agencies, government and foundations.
• Long-term strategic thinking. Communities and regions that focused on the future economy rather than become anchored to the past.
• Identifying core strengths and growing them to support start-ups and established, multi-national companies. In London with its hospitals, Western University and the Lawson Research Institute, that should include a Biohub incubator that identifies how best to support start-ups by learning from entrepreneurs where we fall short.
• Further partnership between Fanshawe, industry and the LEDC to target training that could support new or growing business.
• Study and learn from best practice elsewhere in North America, Europe and Asia. Successful start-up hubs don’t reinvent the wheel; they seek out to learn from what has worked or failed elsewhere, then use that to build better.
• Do more to commercialize core research by building spaces where academics and business leaders can exchange expertise to the betterment of both.

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.

Civic administration identified 35 short-term priorities and will report back to Council in Q4 2026 which ones can be delivered within existing approved budgets, which require additional investment, and how priorities should be timed and sequenced. I would:

• Align demand for new residential development downtown with existing housing stock and demographic trends.
• Build supportive housing with wrap around services for vulnerable populations and track progress, working with the London Community Foundation to seek continued support for the Whole of Community Response and the Fund for Change.
• Guard against the loss of affordable housing by implementing a plan to replace those losses.

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?

The city should continue to support Indwell and others providers of supportive housing and
create a program to replace the loss of affordable housing when rental units are gentrified to
produce luxury apartments.
London must effectively lobby Ontario to support those with mental illness and addictions rather
than download costs and responsibility to cities, police and hospitals. As a journalist who
persuaded previous Ontario governments to better protect the vulnerable, from foster kids to the
elderly, I hope to sharpen the case for help. As a health advocate who worked for the Canadian
Mental Health Association, I know that when we short-change care in the community, we
abandon those in need and leave their care in the most costly of settings, acute care hospitals.
The retreat of Ontario governments over the decades have left police to fill a void that doesn’t
match their training and saps time they could otherwise spend promoting broad, public safety.
That loss includes time police wait at ERs to offload care to hospital staff. As a journalist I
documented the massive loss of paramedic hours, reporting that led to reform and
improvements, and I would support doing so with police too.

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

The provincial freeze on development charge pits the goal to increase housing against the need to provide neighbouroods with key services because lower charges will make it harder for cities to afford new libraries, community centres and better transit. I would advocate for measure that promote both housing and the services to support new residents, especially in Ward 7, where services already badly lag growth – our ward already lacks adequate transit, a community centre and sufficient road and active transportation infrastructure.

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?

The city should restore venues and facilities we have already and decide about whether to replace or restore Centennial Hall. We should work with community partners to grow or build in ways that are sustainable, capitalizing upon our designation as a UNESCO City of Music. We should listen to the Arts and Cultural community to learn their priorities, then seek ways to partner that manage costs and seek matching funding from private foundations and other levels of government.

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?

Council should support LTC plans to provide a “booking service” for underserviced areas. This will help determine demand. We should support too a long-term plan by LTC to reverse the loss of ridership hit first by the pandemic and later Federal limits on international students. We need to make transit the preferred choice for more people to commute to work and school, and that will mean expanding capacity and frequency.

We should lobby the Federal government not to exclude London and Southwestern Ontario for high-speed rail. Inadequate service by Via had led to the growth of private bus service. The competition among those services has led to reasonable prices and frequent service. But if rail is to restore its relevance, we need high-speed rail.

BRT will be operational in South and East London during the next term of Council and we should consider its impact as we weigh more broadly how to improve transit across the city.

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?

Ask staff to track processing times and feedback. Seek meaningful feedback from customers. Serves as a conduit between my constituents and staff so the good customer service is acknowledged and lacking service addressed. It is not enough to have processes that make sense in the abstract; we need to monitor their implementation.

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?

The Plan set out low cost and potentially high impacts ideas including the following. The new Council needs to provide sufficient funding and direction to help make them happen:

• Increase the use of municipal Recreation and Sport facilities and Parks system for Indigenous-led programs, services, and sports.
• Partner with Indigenous organizations to provide specialized training for City staff to support Indigenous-led tree and vegetation planting plans.
• Increase grounds maintenance support for the Mushkeeki Gitigan (Medicine Garden) at South Branch Park.
• Fund in part, the Aboriginal Babies and Beyond Coalition book bundle program distributed by local First Nation and urban Indigenous organizations to families with infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.
• Leverage professional and community networks and Indigenous-led organizations to encourage Indigenous employment by the City of London.
• Develop a targeted outreach program to educate and connect Indigenous businesses and First Nations with the City’s procurement opportunities, ensuring they have the knowledge and support needed to navigate the competitive bidding process.

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?

The Development Charges Study and the Growth Management Implementation Strategy do this in concert with the development and homebuilding industry. This process has worked well for many years. The fly in the ointment is the Provincial government’s intervention in development charges legislation that will reduce revenue City reserve funds that pays for the growth related costs of new infrastructure. This risks slowing new infrastructure or greatly increasing property taxes.

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?

The City should adapt to pressures created by our changing climate; we should install backflow prevention, disconnect weeping tiles and other connections to our waster water system, and continue work on dykes, particularly, the West London Dyke. Council should also partner with upper levels of government to slow the pace of climate change.

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?

If a mayor exercises veto power and in a way that harms the interests of London, I would seek to persuade at least nine other councillors to override that veto, using skills I demonstrated as a journalist. I would also push to track, monitor and measure the use of strong-mayor powers so that Londoners can hold the mayor to account.

What role should arts, culture and the creative industries play in London’s economic and community development? How should the City support cultural organisations, artists, venues, festivals and creative businesses while ensuring that municipal investment produces lasting public value?

When arts, culture and the creative industries thrive, they add value to London as a place to spur economic activity and enhance community. The City can and should continue to support the arts through its current budget and programs. As our city grows and our tax base widens, we can and should increase our investments.

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