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The Matt Brown Podcast

The Matt Brown Podcast

By: Matt Brown
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About this listen

 Back in September 2025, Rogers TV invited me to host a twice monthly show called Newsmakers. The show is about all things local, and maybe some other topics too. After the show airs on Rogers TV, I’m posting abridged versions of the interviews here on The Matt Brown Podcast, sponsored by The Bicycle Café. You are a big part of this show. In fact, we couldn’t do it without you. So, please give a follow. Let us know what you think. Let us know if their topics that you’d like to learn about or maybe you’d like to be on a future show. Email: themattbrownpodcast@gmail.com. For now, this will be the main content for this podcast. We’ll see how it grows from here. I’m excited about this project and I hope you are too. Talk to you soon, London. PS, Buy me a coffee? There are some expenses connected to running a podcast and if you'd like to make a contribution here to support the show, I'd be grateful. Interested? Simply click here:https://buymeacoffee.com/the.matt.brown.podcast Thanks again for listening! MB Political Science Politics & Government Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Political Panel talks Mayor's Home Owners Incentive Plan, Council's Reaction,Strong Mayor's Powers and More.

    Political Panel talks Mayor's Home Owners Incentive Plan, Council's Reaction,Strong Mayor's Powers and More.
    Apr 6 2026
    Today, community leaders, Mojdeh Azad and Paul Hubert are joining me to talk about the Mayor’s “Home Ownership Incentive Plan”. He called it his “Big Announcement” at the London Chamber of Commerce State of the City Address held back in January. He used what are called, “Strong Mayor’s Powers” to direct staff to develop the plan quickly and, since that time, the idea has received a bit of a rough ride from many of London’s other 14 members of council. It left a lot of us wondering, what might happen next. The Back Story: In January, the mayor used his strong mayor powers to direct staff to develop, what he calls, an “Affordable Home Ownership Incentive Plan”. Essentially, and it’s more complicated than this, the plan could provide approximately 260 individuals and families, who purchase a newly built home within a certain time frame, with the equivalent of a Twenty to just over Fifty Thousand Dollar rebate depending on the size of the home - think of a small apartment all the way up to a single family home, all sold for less than $630,000, which is considered at or below the average for homes sold in London these days. What does this Twenty to Fifty Thousand Dollar rebate represent? Development Charges or DC’s. These are the fees developers normally pay to cover the capital costs associated with the cost of a growing city. Think things like Water, Waste Water, Roads, Parks, Transit, Emergency Services, Libraries and more. These Development Charges are then typically included in the purchase price of new builds, so existing rate payers don’t subsidise growth. In other words, growth pays for growth. Now, how would this incentive work? The mayor’s original plan suggested that council use city funds, sourced from a Federal Government Grant, to provide 60% of this discount and developers would then incorporate and deduct the remaining 40% of these costs at the time of sale. The City would front a total of $5 million dollars for its share. And keep in mind, this is one time funding, so once the money is gone, it’s gone. That was the original idea. Back in February, councillors had a lot of questions when this program came forward for their review. After a long debate, they sent those questions and the whole program back to staff for additional information. About a week ago, they got those answers at their committee of the whole and then, largely at the mayor’s request, they sent the plan back a second time - this time looking for even more options to consider. Council will likely get their second round of questions answered, as well as a new series of options to consider, near the tail end of April. These options will include the original plan, some potential changes related to how and when the rebate would be applied, as well as a potential granting program provided as a mechanism to incentives residents adding an additional rental unit to their home - think basement apartment for example. So - where does all of this go? We’ll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, we are joined today by Mojdeh Azad, an award winning consultant, conveyor and facilitator and Paul Hubert, Chief Executive officer of Pathways and founder of Delta Leadership Consulting, here to help us make sense of what’s going on - and what might be coming in the weeks and months ahead.
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    27 mins
  • Skylar Franke, Ward 11 City Councillor and Chair of the LTC joins us to talk all things London Transit, including BRT

    Skylar Franke, Ward 11 City Councillor and Chair of the LTC joins us to talk all things London Transit, including BRT
    Mar 26 2026
    Skylar Franke is currently serving her first term as Councillor for Ward 11, and serves on the boards of the Middlesex London Health Unit, Upper Thames Conservation Authority, various council committees and finally as the Chair of the London Transit Commission. That's why she's joining the podcast today. London Transit has had some ups and downs over the past year or so. In fact, 3 council appointed LTC commissioners resigned a while back and council made the decision to remove the remaining commisioners and populated the entire leadership board with members of City Council. Fun Fact, Councillor Franke voted against removing the remaining commissioners, but after the motion passed she put her name forward to join the commission with 6 council colleagues and ultimately she was elected as chair. During this podcast We talk about the governance decisions, the funding shortfall and the challenges LTC faces to meet the needs of our community. And, we can't talk transit without talking BRT - Councillor Franke will give us an update about that too. Including what she thinks needs to happen for the North and West routes that were cancelled during the 2018 - 2022 council. She outlines the plans and the challenge London faces to secure funding. That's because when those routes were cancelled a several years ago, the funding from other levels of government that had been secured in 2018 was cancelled too. Thanks for listening.
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    15 mins
  • Encore: Political Panel re: the Mayor's Proposed Home Ownership Incentive Plan

    Encore: Political Panel re: the Mayor's Proposed Home Ownership Incentive Plan
    Mar 23 2026
    Tomorrow, The mayor’s “Home Ownership Incentive Plan” that he announced at the London Chamber of Commerce State of the City address this past January is coming back to the council’s Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee, that’s council’s Committee of the Whole for a second kick at the can. The recommendation received a bit of a rough ride and a referral back to staff back in February, so we’ll have to stay tuned to see what happens next. Today’s episode is a portion of the podcast political panel that ran shortly after the chamber of commerce’ state of the city address was held back in January. During the mayor’s address, he announced that he had used his strong mayor powers to direct staff to develop, what he called, an Affordable Home Ownership Incentive Plan. Essentially the plan would incentivize purchases of some newly built homes in London by reimbursing or rebating home buyers' the cost of development charges for homes selling for at or below the average cost of a new home - which, these, days is $630,000. Depending on the build, development charges can run between $20,000 for a small apartment to just over $50,000 for a Single Family Home. These charges pay for the capital costs incurred and associated with the cost of a growing city. Think things like Water, Waste Water, Roads, Parks, Transit, and Emergency Services. Developers incorporate these costs into the price of a new home, so the incentive program being considered by council would reduce the overall cost of a new home purchase, until the one time funding source is exhausted. 60% of this rebate, $5 million dollars, would be paid for by city coffers - using funding from the Federal Government’s housing accelerator budget and the remaining 40%, approximately $3 million dollars, would be covered by the home building industry here in London by way of reducing the selling price. This is one time funding, so once the money is gone, it’s gone. Staff predict that about 260 new home sales could be supported before the funding source has been exhausted. Back in February, councillors had a lot of questions when this came forward, for their review. They sent those questions and the whole program back to staff for additional information. Tomorrow, Tuesday March 24th, the answer to those questions will be presented by staff again, for council’s consideration and possible direction. Will the incentive program, in whatever form, be approved tomorrow? We’ll have to stay tuned. In the meantime, this encore edition of a portion of this show’s first ever political panel can give you a better sense of the overall program and an idea of what the panelists thought of it at the time.
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    20 mins
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