Ward 13 City Council Candidate John Fyfe-Millar Meets With Greenspace Alliance

John Fyfe-Millar is London’s City Counsellor for Ward 13. John was a city council candidate for this ward in 2018 and came in second. When the first-place winner vacated her London City Council seat, John was appointed to represent Ward 13. John has been Ward 13’s city counsellor since October 26, 2021.

John is a candidate for London City Council in Ward 13. He is seeking to be his constituents’ first choice this October and retain his seat.

I met with John and we discussed issues related to London’s downtown and need for more greenspace.

Fyfe-Millar Focused On Downtown Core

John is focused on London’s core, where most of his constituency lives. He has a good grasp of the challenges of growing London’s forest canopy in the downtown core, and he was eager to to talk about solutions.

For example, John said routine pavement renewals could be used as opportunities to identify locations for new trees. (Pavement renewals involve replacing or restoring broken, degraded, crumbling, or sunken sidewalks and parking lots.) While parking lots and sidewalks would still be replaced as needed, trees would be integrated into their restorations.

The first win for Londoners with this strategy will be economic. The City will save some of the cost of replacing pavement.  The second win will be more shade for those using our sidewalks and parking lots. The third win will be that adding trees will expand our overall urban canopy. Growing the urban canopy will be crucial to keeping our city’s core from becoming dangerously hot in the future, and John seems to understand the urgency.

I like John and enjoyed speaking with him. As a constituent in his ward, I can attest that he is accessible, respectful, and eager to find solutions for our city’s problems. I look forward to hearing more from him and his campaign to retain his City Council seat in Ward 13.

Public Service Announcement

Because homelessness is of such concern to John – and to all downtown Londoners – here is his advice about dealing with encampments, taken from John’s government webpage on which he discusses the issue at length:

“Attempting to remove an encampment or individuals can be tricky at the best of times. I can’t stress enough that should you or someone you know be affected by an encampment or individual, contact service@london.ca and ask for assistance. Please visit the Service London portal to report needles; or contact Dispatch at 519-661-4965. This phone number is answered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. City staff, in co-ordination with the relevant city partners, will work together to respond.”