The Matt Brown Podcast

The Panel:
Mojdeh Azad (formerly Mojdeh Cox) is the Founder and Consultant at Cox & Co. With Mojdeh’s name change, she tells us you can watch for a new brand reveal of her consulting company soon. Mojdeh is also a longstanding activist and prominent voice on equity here in London and right across Canada.

Steve Cordes, is the recently retired long time CEO for Youth Opportunities Unlimited. He is now the host of a video blog you can find on YouTube called, “Community Matters”.

Carol Dyck, is a Doctoral student in the faculty of law at Western University, Carol is also a previous - 5 time - Green Party of Ontario and Green Party of Canada Candidate for London North Centre.

Paul Hubert, is the Executive Director of Pathways. Paul served three terms on London city council as the councillor for Ward 8 from 2006 - 2018 and as deputy mayor for his final term. Paul is also the lead Consultant for Delta Consulting.

The Topic: State of the City Address, 2026
The State of the City Address has a long history here in London. It’s been said to be the largest of its kind across Canada. It is a London Chamber of Commerce event and it regularly sells out, with attendance coming in around 1200 tickets sold every year. Community leaders and businesses, for profit and not for profit, purchase seats or tables for this breakfast event. So do many of the city funded boards, commissions, city funded agencies and departments from the corporation of the City of London itself.

The mayor’s office usually works on the presentation for months - different mayors have used it to highlight different things, but you can usually count on hearing about the issues of the day, both the challenges and the opportunities, being experienced or anticipated ahead. You’ll likely hear about council successes, promises and plans, maybe a big idea or two and, if at all possible, an announcement about new jobs coming to London.

The event provides a great opportunity for the mayor of the day to highlight the work council has underway - and here is a fun fact - it is also a huge fundraising event for the host, the London Chamber of Commerce.

For any mayor, these addresses can be a high risk / high reward opportunity and especially so during an election year. It can even be seen by some as the unofficial kick off to the campaign season ahead.

This year’s address was held on Wednesday January 28th, one week ago from the day this episode was recorded. Today, we’re lucky to be joined by four London leaders who have seen more than their fair share of these State of the City Addresses over many years. The panelists have all watched the speech at least a couple of times and have likely read the transcript too. They are prepared to share their thoughts about some of the key issues highlighted within the speech, provide some analysis and maybe even make a prediction or two about the weeks and months to come.

Thanks for listening!

It’s been said that a city’s downtown is its calling card to the world and London is no exception. Here's why - geographically, London’s core represents less than 1% of the city’s overall space - and at the same time, the core is responsible for over 5% of overall assessment. It’s a closed economic ecosystem. When the core thrives there is more money generated for greener parks from Westmount to Huron Heights to Argyle. From Sunningdale to Old East Village to Wortley and Westminster - and all neighbourhoods in between.

It can mean better roads with fewer potholes across the city. The dollars and cents generated downtown can also help keep taxes affordable because new assessment from growth can cover the costs associated with running a city that would otherwise be paid by existing property owners.

The downtown is the heart of the city. It’s the meeting place for Arts, Music, Culture and our creative communities. The Grand Theatre, Covent Garden Market, Canada Life Place, Victoria Park, Centennial Hall, Museum London, RBC Place, Dundas Place and the multi use pathway system that links the forks of the Thames to every neighborhood across the city are all examples of City investments that have attracted all kinds of private, not for profit and institutional sector investments.

Billions of dollars in construction for thousands of apartments in the core. Fanshawe College opening a Downtown Campus. London Music Hall, the Boys and Girls Club, the YMCA, the Aelion Hall, 100 Kellogg’s Lane, the Hard Rock Hotel and more. Countless restaurants, shops and other businesses making investments of their own, too.

There is no question - the core is down right now, but it’s not out. The Covid years did significant damage. The homelessness and addiction issues are impacting London’s core just like they are in cities all across Ontario and Canada.

The good news? People are returning to the core and people are moving to the core by the thousands. Just this month TD announced the return of 2500 employees. Conventions have returned to RBC Place, Covent Garden market is booming - so is the Western Fair Market, Canada Life Place is sold out on a regular basis and, at the same time, there are more highrises coming on line on a regular basis - bringing thousands more Londoners to the core, for the first time.

With all of this happening - London City Council is conducting a review of the strategies they have in place. It’s called the Downtown Plan and it’s happening right now. Here to talk about it today is Ward 13 Councillor, David Ferreria.
So, lets go.

Steve Cordes led Youth Opportunities Unlimited, a local not profit here in London that serves youth from London in a myriad of ways. The growth the organization experienced under Steve’s decades long stint as CEO is nothing short of remarkable. Y.O.U. provides young people from London who are living complicated lives with things like housing supports as they navigate social services and sometimes the criminal justice system. Y.O.U. leads in social entrepreneurial endeavors too - providing employment opportunities and on the job training for youth, while, at the same time, having a positive impact on the London Community. Most importantly, Y.O.U. helps young people from London experiencing adversity understand that they matter and that people care about them and that they belong.

This past summer, Steve retired from this role. Steve is many things - he’s an expert at navigating municipal politics - really all level of politics. He’s a fundraiser extraordinaire, he’s always been an advocate for the underdog and a champion for doing what is right. Post retirement, we knew he wouldn’t simply disappear from the scene. We wondered what might be up to next - and - today, he’s here to tell us about what that's going to look like.

Maybe you're familiar with the term, “hiding in plain sight”, in other words something is right in front of our nose, but it blends in so well that we don’t even see it.
That’s often the case with the programs and services that St. Leonard’s Community Services provides. Today you're going to hear about terms like: half way houses, jail and prison, parole and probation and how the organization supports people as they take responsibility for their actions and transition from incarceration back to living in our community after serving time for a criminal conviction. You’re going to hear about some of the upstream preventative measures they provide too.
That’s the background. St. Leanoard’s Executive Director, Michael Oates is here to tell us all about it.

Graham Henderson is joining us today to talk about a draft economic development strategy that has been developed by Deloitte and is moving through the council review and approval process, right now.
The draft strategy includes 5 pillars”
1. Talent and Innovation
2. Investment Attraction and Retention
3. Regional Collaboration
4. Transportation and Access
5. System Optimization
Naturally, Graham and the London Chamber of Commerce, along with other community partners, have been supporting the development of this strategy throughout the process. He’s been at the table and he and his team have been involved in the community engagement discussions - during this time, he picked up on a theme - “fix the downtown” came up again and again, no matter who he and his colleagues connected with.

At the same time that this strategy is being developed, City Council is also developing a new plan for London’s Downtown. Graham sees potential synergies between the two initiatives and he’s submitted a letter and will be a delegate at a council committee meeting where he will request that council make a small “tweak” to the draft strategy, specifically - adding an additional round of targeted community consultation as well as adding a Pillar to the strategy that speaks directly about London’s Downtown: including a strong reference to London being a Unesco City of Music and identifying how a focus on Culture & Creative industries are significant potential economic drivers for London’s economy. Thanks for listening!