Jennifer Hounslow, candidate for Ward 3 councillor.

I was pleased to meet Jennifer in an interview last week. Jennifer is running in the 2022 municipal election, for the office of Ward 3 councillor. She lives in the ward with her family.

Jennifer’s website is now live at https://www.jenniferhounslow.ca and includes support from John Taylor, who was the councillor in Ward 3 from 1988 to 2018. In our meeting, Jennifer described the most important priorities for the incoming council:

  • A cohesive council: to work effectively, debate viewpoints, and overall show citizens effective leadership.
  • Transit: Jennifer noted the large budget expenditure for this service and would like to see what opportunities there are to evaluate ridership and efficiency.
  • Community and road safety: she sees this a priority, particularly for Ward 3 residents, as there are intersections within the ward where accidents have been narrowly avoided. Jennifer also noted that protecting greenspace and farmland in Ward 3 is important.
  • Growth strategy: affordable housing stock, scale of development and integrity within neighbourhoods were some points noted.
  • Plans and projects: Jennifer wants to see them executed. The climate action plan and Beachway Park project were two examples mentioned.
  • Communication: what decisions have been made and why needs to be better communicated to the community. She also wants to improve responsiveness to the community.

Jennifer described the experience so far as “drinking from a fire hose, so much to learn.” She is doing her research, and has ideas in a variety of areas: tree bylaw, snow removal, and leaf pickup, for example. She wants to maintain and grow service levels and supports additional parks.

The strengths she says she would bring to the council chambers: she is strategic, a big thinker, she has business management experience, a financial background, she is a team leader and member, has the ability to execute and control, assess risks and opportunities.

Jennifer worked in real estate for about eight years, where she says she developed a customer service mindset. Her employment experience shows work in product management for Honeywell, from concept through to delivery, which gave her lots of transferrable skills. She indicated that the role of councillor would be full-time for her. “My role is to be here for people.”

It was clear in our interview that Jennifer is keen, committed, and focused.

At this time, Jennifer Hounslow and Rory Nisan are the candidates for councillor in Ward 3.