Weekly Regional Business Intelligence | | | Written by Kieran Delamont, Associate Editor, London Inc. | | | Morgan delivers campaign-style State of the City address Mayor Josh Morgan delivered his annual State of the City address at RBC Place London earlier this week, a speech that included the announcement of a new EmPack Spraytech factory (bringing with it an estimated 150 jobs), a new homeownership program (see story below) and touting his political record as he heads into an election year. His speech hit on themes familiar to anyone who’s tracked his mayoral tenure as a middle-of-the-road consensus builder: he touted his record on economic growth, particularly through a challenging trade environment for the region; the progress made on boosting housing stock in the city while reducing homelessness; improvements public safety; and the city’s investments in critical infrastructure and services, among other areas. “It wasn’t about campaigning ahead of time,” he told CTV News London following the event, organized by the London Chamber of Commerce. “It’s about keeping that accountability for the commitments I’ve made, and on all the pieces I’ve touched on in previous States of the City and explaining how far we’ve come.” The upshot: Few would have been all that surprised with what they heard this week: a well-delivered, politically careful, speech from a veteran politician seeking re-election this year. It didn’t mean everyone was pleased. Old East Village BIA Kevin Morrison was unhappy with the focus on downtown rather than OEV, saying he “wanted to hear some substance today,” and that “honestly, I was disappointed,” suggesting OEV was being left behind. (the mayor later said that talking about downtown includes OEV). “The speech isn’t going to cover everything,” the mayor said. Read more: CTV News London | London Free Press | | | City and housing industry launch new ownership incentive program In addition to the EmPack announcement, the news to come out of the State of the City address was the introduction of a new homeownership incentive program that will see the city cover 60 per cent of the development charges, while the London Home Builders’ Association (LHBA) will cover the remaining 40 per cent on any new homes under $630,000. “We’re going to try something new here,” Morgan said. “It’s not going to help everyone in the city; it’s going to help maybe 200 to 300 homeowners get into a home for the first time.” The mayor touted the program — one that he pulled out the strong mayor powers card for — as a way to address the homeownership puzzle alongside the city’s progress on boosting rental stock. “We continue to lag on homeownership,” the mayor said during his speech. “If you can build a home below those [prices], the city and the housing community will partner with you and pay those fees throughout 2026.” The program has a budget of around $5 million drawn from funding arrangements with upper levels of government, applies to previously unoccupied units and will expire at the end of 2026. The upshot | The homebuilding industry is hurting, so most seem pleased to see that the city getting into the business of subsidizing development charges, if only for the rest of the year. Some councillors were less enthused. “I think it’s good that the mayor is trying out some new tools…but at first glance, it appears to me that the developers would benefit the most from this approach,” said Councillor Skylar Franke, who said she was concerned about whether there would be a guarantee that buyers see the savings directly. How much uptake this gets overall is anyone’s guess — while the subsidy could bring down the sticker price on some the new units (the LHBA estimates the program will cover roughly $20,000 to $50,000 in DCs on eligible homes), it may not be quite enough to overcome the larger market dynamics and economic environment keeping many potential buyers on the sidelines, particularly for new builds. And because of its average-price cap, it’s more applicable to condos and townhomes rather than single-family homes. Nonetheless, for anyone only $30,000 away from pulling the trigger on a new home purchase, it’s likely going to be a helpful program. Read more: CBC News London | London Free Press | | | Toyota reaffirms its commitment to Woodstock plant In a week consumed with GM Canada’s move to cut a shift at its Oshawa plant (putting more than 1,000 employees out of work), there is a little bit of good news: officials from Toyota toured the Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Woodstock facility last week and reaffirmed its commitment to the plant, recently reconfigured to build the latest model of the popular RAV4 electric hybrid. “We make decisions carefully, for the long term,” said director of corporate and external affairs for Toyota, Scott MacKenzie. “It is turbulent now, but we do not know what the landscape will be like years from now. We ride out storms.” Tim Hollander, president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, said “being selected to build the all-new sixth-generation RAV4 reflects the trust that Toyota Motor Corporation has in our world-class team members, our commitment to quality, and our customer focus.” The upshot: The reaffirmation of Toyota’s commitment says a couple of things about the state of the auto industry in Canada at the moment: one, if you’re going to be an autoworker in Canada, it’s probably better to be employed by a global manufacturer with a long-term view rather than an American one sensitive to political whims in Washington; second, it’s probably a better bet to be employed in a plant building the most popular SUV in Canada than, say, a new-to-market electric delivery van (driving.ca recently called the RAV4 line “a license to print money” for Toyota dealers). MacKenzie also brushed off concerns raised by Doug Ford and others, that a deal to bring in 49,000 Chinese-made electric vehicles would decimate the industry. “I don’t think it’s of huge significance here and I don’t think it’s going to affect our operations here in Canada,” MacKenzie told the CBC News London. Read more: CBC News London | | | North London Beer Store to shutter as part of latest round of closures The Beer Store unit in north London, at 1727 Richmond Street (The Hyland Centre), will be closing on March 22, as the company continues to pull back on brick-and-mortar locations following the end of its retail contract with the Ontario government. “The retail marketplace in Ontario continues to evolve and stabilize,” said Ozzie Ahmed, the company’s vice-president of retail. “As a business, we are focused on operating a retail network that meets evolving consumer needs, providing the largest selection of beer and a world-class deposit return system.” This marks the fourth London Beer Store to close since 2024, including the Wonderland and Gainsborough location, an Adelaide Street location (now a Pet Valu) and the Piccadilly Street location, which was subsequently purchased by the owners of Cintro on Wellington. Other units being closed this March include locations in Brampton, Etobicoke and Hamilton. The upshot: According to the agreement it struck with the Ford government, which paid the retailer $225 million in exchange for beer in grocery stores, the Beer Store can now close as many stores as it wants in Ontario, so watch for more. “In 2026, they can close how many they like,” said John Nock, president of the union that represents workers at The Beer Store, speaking to Global News in mid-2025. “That scares me.” The Beer Store has been tight-lipped about how many stores it is aiming to close overall — including not ruling out closing all of its stores — but you can bet the number they will close this year will be higher than just these four. Read more: CBC News London | | | City to get limited-edition Moonbits box in honour of Londoner headed to the moon A Londoner, Jeremy Hansen, is going to be the first non-American ever to visit the moon, in Artemis II — the first manned trip back since 1972. That in itself is very cool, but that’s not important right now, because have you heard that Timmies is releasing something called Moonbits, available only here, in London?! To celebrate, Tim Horton’s announced this week that it was rolling out a “limited-edition commemorative Moonbits box that will be available exclusively in London, Ont., the hometown of Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. What’s in the Moonbits 10-pack Timbits? Well, that’s where the hype comes back to earth: it’ll just be regular old Timbits. The upshot: Hansen is a pretty neat guy, and definitely worth the celebration. He once spent six days underground on an excursion with the Canadian Space Agency and lived a week underwater for a NASA trip. And speaking of treats, he told Maclean’s he is bringing maple syrup and maple cookies on the excursion, “because, well, it just has to be that way.” He’s got a moon-themed playlist he’s bringing up there, too. Here on earth, we’ve got old-fashioned plains and a couple chocolates in a ten-pack, if you’re lucky. The Moonbits Timbits box will become available after the Artemis II launch date is confirmed (the earliest potential launch date is currently set for February 8). Read more: Tim Hortons | | | Fanshawe joins Ontario colleges in plea for provincial funding boost Fanshawe president Peter Devlin (pictured) joined other Ontario colleges at the province’s pre-budget consultation process, making yet another plea for urgent and stable funding for Ontario’s college sector. Devlin is among the college officials trying to stem the bleeding in the provincial education sector. Colleges Ontario told the provincial committee schools had already slashed $1.8 billion, 600 programs and 8,000 jobs, and are looking for support. The province has so far remained mum on whether they plan to do anything substantial with education funding, which the colleges say would at least help them stabilize. The upshot: Ontario colleges are in a death spiral, and the message to the government seemed to go something like this: we have cut what we can cut, and it is time to deal with the root of the problem. The colleges are looking for $1.5 billion in additional funding this year, which they believe is badly needed after two years of near-constant program cuts, layoff notices and financial crises going largely unnoticed at the political level. “That’s just to sustain us at the level that we’re at,” Devlin told the committee. Without it, they warn, the province will see fewer grads in industrial sectors that are of importance to the provincial government. “I think it’s the relevancy of the programs in the local industries that are supported by that region,” Devlin told the committee. “And I am entirely committed to supporting those programs.” Read more: CTV News London | | | Dispatch: January 30, 2026 A summary of recent business appointments and announcements, plus event listings for the upcoming week. View listings here | | | | |