Mayoral candidate Josh Morgan makes pitch for your vote

Josh Morgan outlined his vision for London in a weighty 23-page platform unveiled at a campaign event in front of supporters, four council colleague, and several council candidates on Wednesday.

The five pillars in his platform are:

• Housing and affordability
• Economic prosperity
• Mental health and addictions
• Inclusive city; safe and vibrant neighbourhoods
• Climate change: A greener London

Morgan began laying out his campaign platform by focusing on its boldest commitment — addressing the housing crisis by setting a target of 50,000 new homes over the next decade, at least 10,000 of which would be in the city’s core neighbourhoods.

His plan includes, “creating a new development charges waiver Community Improvement Plan (CIP) (for developers) in the transit villages” identified in The London Plan, and pursuing a new CIP for affordable housing to incentivize below market rents.

Mayoral candidate Josh Morgan unveiled his election platform in downtown London, Ont. on September 14, 2022. (Daryl Newcombe/CTV News London)

Morgan adds that The London Plan predicts the creation of just 20,000 new housing units over the next 10 years, so he supports updating the 2016 planning document, saying, “We have this massive housing crisis that was never contemplated during the development of that plan, so yes the plan needs to be updated.”

Among his other commitments, Morgan supports the police chief’s request for 52 additional officers, he wants to reallocate $4 million to advance parks and recreation projects, and will finalize the Mobility Master Plan of transit and transportation improvements in just one year.

“Our opportunity here is to use the Mobility Master Plan to refine that process and get the right infrastructure for this volume of people over the next 25 years,” he explains.

To achieve his platform’s goals, his strategies lean heavily on expanding existing programs launched over his eight years on council.

But he pushes back on claims his candidacy is about “more of the same” at city hall.

“It’s more of the good stuff that’s been happening on council,” he asserts. “So you can say people articulate it as ‘his platform is more of the same,’ but these are incredibly popular, incredibly important initiatives council has set a direction on.”

Josh Morgan declaring his candidacy for mayor on May 26, 2022. (Daryl Newcombe/CTV News London)

Having served as budget chair in the past, Morgan is hesitant to make a commitment regarding future tax rate increases, adding, “I don’t have a number, I think some [candidates] have given a number naively in the past.”

Morgan explains that city hall has the ability to absorb some inflationary increases, and having paid down municipal debt in recent years creates the potential to fund the rising cost of capital projects using that new debt capacity — though he emphasized prudence.

When asked if a tax rate increase might exceed five per cent he replied, “I would be unsatisfied over five percent, but I honestly believe we could do much better than that.”

Councillors Mariam Hamou, Steve Lehman, Shawn Lewis and Elizabeth Peloza attended Morgan’s platform announcement.

Morgan is currently the deputy mayor and two-term city councillor representing Ward 7.

The nine other candidates for mayor are: Brandon Ellis, Daniel Jeffery, Dan Lenart, Norman Robert Miles, Carlos Murray, Johanne Nichols, Sean O’Connell, Khalil Ramal and Sandie Thomas.

Election Day is October 24.