Candidate Statement

I am running for city council because changes at the municipal level are necessary to decarbonize our energy consumption and to build affordable housing. I am uniquely positioned to make these changes, because I have 35 years of hands-on experience with the process of getting housing and buildings approved in the City of Toronto. I have hard-won ideas about how to reform planning. 

Sixteen years ago I decided to refocus my architectural firm on the problem of decarbonizing buildings, working on LEED, Passive House, and Zero Carbon projects. Despite these successes, I realized that we can’t meet our climate goals one building at a time. We need government to make decarbonization easy. At the municipal level, this means changing planning policies, standards, and by-laws. I can see a viable, affordable path to decarbonization in 20 years, which is the goal we need to achieve to stabilize our climate. 

I can skillfully navigate committees with competing interests, which I did during my time on the governing council of the Ontario Association of Architects. My accomplishments include putting the association on a sound financial footing, streamlining the process of becoming an architect and transforming the OAA’s headquarters building to be net zero carbon. My goal is to bring these kinds of common sense changes to the city.

I volunteer for the Toronto 2030 District, co-chairing a project that is mapping pathways for Toronto’s buildings to decarbonize. Together with building owners, designers, and utilities, we debate options.  Our main conclusion is that we need to switch from natural gas to electricity for heating, we need to start now, and we can afford it.  

Don’t vote for me if you don’t want change.

I have lived in the present-day boundary of the Don Valley West / Ward 15 for more than 25 years.