Jobs, transit, housing: Ed Holder looks back on his first year as mayor of London, Ont.

The first year of the Ed Holder era is now in the books.

A former cabinet minister of the Stephen Harper regime, Holder officially took office on Dec. 3, 2018 in what marked his first step into municipal politics.

London’s 73rd mayor spoke with Global News Radio 980 CFPL to look back on 2019.

Holder’s inaugural state of the city address was marked by a focus on London’s jobs crisis, where he announced the creation of a task force with a goal of lifting 13,000 people out of unemployment.

“In the last four months, on a net basis, we’ve added 17,100 new jobs.”

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The mayor’s first-ever state of the city address was also marked by a call to streamline work on bus rapid transit (BRT) — a contentious transportation project that originally began as $500-million plan.

“The challenge was to get this done in 60 days,” Holder said.

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London went on to secure more than $200 million in combined funding from Ottawa and the provincial government for a partial version of the original BRT plan.

The financial commitments came months before the general election and served as a highlight of Holder’s first year in office.

“Council got it done, the province got it done, the federal government got it done and it’s now the largest infrastructure project in London’s history.”

Another fond memory stems from London’s first-ever housing stability week.

The pilot project came amid a housing crisis that saw a governance overhaul in two of the city’s housing agencies, following reports of high vacancies and long turnaround times among homes in London’s housing stock.

A month later, city staff drew up the core area action plan — a laundry list of actions for city council that aim to brighten London’s downtown.

The housing stability week was one of those actions oand went on to house dozens of Londoners without homes.

“That was a credit to our administration’s efforts. There are two people in particular, Sandra Datars Bere and Craig Cooper from the city, who worked tirelessly to make that happen,” Holder said.

“Plus, they provided support services for around 200 people in that first week.”

The first year of Holder’s tenure was also marked by the completion of Dundas Place, London’s first turn at hosting the Junos, the declaration of a climate emergency and the prelude to a months-long budget process that aims to lay out the city’s finances for the next four years.

Holder will conduct his second state of the city address in January 2020, at which the mayor has teased the announcement of a transit initiative.

“I’ve run this idea through a number of people. It will put London on the map, but more importantly, it’s the right thing to do for Londoners,” Holder.

“I’ll save that particular announcement until then.”