Ward 11

Skylar Franke

1.    What do you feel is the #1 accessibility issue facing the city of London?

For the past four years the largest accessibility complaint I heard was navigating our streets. Whether it was during the winter, with snow and ice accumulating on sidewalks and at crosswalks, or from folks trying to get into buildings without ramps – the biggest accessibility issue I heard was getting around the city and into spaces.

2.    How will you commit to improving accessible housing opportunities in our city?

The area we have the most control over is the municipal owned and non-profit housing, as opposed to private development. That said – I am interested in seeing if there would be federal or provincial funding for accessible units – similar to how the city was able to allocate Housing Accelerator Funds to build new ARU’s – could we envision a similar incentive program for the private and public markets to access. I would explore this kind of Community Improvement Plan (CIP) offering – and welcome any advocacy support from the accessibility community to push for accessible housing incentives.

I know that the new affordable housing building at 345 Sylvan St. for example was made to be low barrier, with showers without edges, wide doorframes, elevator, wide hallways and large rooms. I would continue to support this kind of development which has a focus on universal accessibility by design. The City has made it a priority to support more affordable units through the London Middlesex Community Housing group, and by buying land (like the Fairmont School and Duluth area projects) and offering to nonprofits to build on those locations. This is a way we can continue to grow our base of accessible and affordable homes.

The city also offers an Ontario Renovates grant to seniors who want to age-in-place, and want to make their homes more accessible. I’ve promoted that to folks who reach out to me with accessibility concerns regarding their homes, and would continue to promote this renovation program.

3.    How will you work to improve accessible transportation including conventional transit, Paratransit, taxis and ride sharing?

As you can see on the August London Transit Commission agenda, paratransit is doing much better than it has in the past, given the historic investment that this term of Council made into the service. There will be a new service provider in fall 2027, the booking app has rolled out and has between 20-28% usage rates, the call times for booking are on average under 2-3 minutes and the unmet trips are under 1-2 per day. As the Chair of the London Transit Commission, I will continue to meet with the APTSAC Chair to discuss concerns and bring policy improvements forward (such as I did with the bags on busses policy update. I would also work to ensure a smooth transition to the new paratransit service provider in fall 2027.

Conventional transit I would work towards improving the bus stop locations from a variety of ways. APTSAC recently provided feedback on how to make some improvements (for example including the improvements on the new Rapid Transit stations to have a post near the front so those who are visually impaired are able to find the front-most location). I would push to see all sidewalks connected to bus stop locations (where some location just has a bus stop pad poured, but no connecting sidewalk, for example along Springbank Dr west of the Civic Gardens). 

I remain open to meetings with members of the accessibility community to hear their input on transportation related items and how we can improve them.