Irene Jones is a former municipal councillor in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
, Canada. A member of the
social democratic
Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soci ...
New Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic:
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, she served on the
Etobicoke
Etobicoke (, ) is an administrative district of, and one of six municipalities amalgamated into, the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Comprising the city's west-end, Etobicoke was first settled by Europeans in the 1790s, and the municipalit ...
and Toronto councils from 1988 until 2003, when she stood down to seek election to the
provincial legislature.
Background
Jones was the director of Storefront Humber during the 1980s, providing home support services to elderly residents of Etobicoke and
Mississauga
Mississauga ( ), historically known as Toronto Township, is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is situated on the shores of Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Peel, adjoining the western border of Toronto. With a popul ...
. Jones, a Mimico resident,
also served as chair of Home Share Etobicoke, was a member of the Toronto District Health Council, and helped establish the New Toronto Nursery School.
Etobicoke councillor
Jones first campaigned for the Etobicoke council in
1985
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Events January
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** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...
. The election night returns showed her losing to her conservative rival, Helen Wursta, by only ten votes. Her requests for a recount were turned down by the city, and a judge ruled in January 1986 that too much time had passed for a court-ordered scrutiny of the votes (although the judge also ruled that the council was certainly aware of ballot irregularities when it turned down Jones's request). In the aftermath of these events, Bob Mitchell of the ''
Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...
'' wrote that the real result of the election would never be known for certain.
She sought election to the Etobicoke council again in
1988
File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...
, arguing that the city should purchase waterfront properties for recreational use rather than sell them to developers. She was listed as forty-one years old during the campaign. This time, Jones defeated Wursta by an almost two-to-one margin.
Jones was frequently critical of development projects approved by the Etobicoke council. She voted against a high-rise condominium project at Kingsway-on-the-Park, arguing that it set a "dangerous precedent" for the city. She also argued that the redevelopment of the Lakeshore Blvd. area was proceeding at too quick a pace. Jones was especially critical of the council's approach to development issues, saying "While we do planning studies, we frequently don't do financial impact studies. We have to look at the ability of the average taxpayer in Etobicoke (to pay for) the urban responsibility of servicing all the residential redevelopment."
She was also involved in securing a compromise for Etobicoke's motel strip area, promoting affordable housing for the region. In October 1990, Jones endorsed a report from former
Mayor of Toronto
The mayor of Toronto is the head of Toronto City Council and chief executive officer of the municipal government. The mayor is elected alongside city council every four years on the fourth Monday of October; there are no term limits. While in ...
David Crombie
David Edward Crombie (born April 24, 1936) is a Canadian former academic and politician who served as the 56th mayor of Toronto from 1972 to 1978. Crombie was elected to Parliament following his tenure as mayor. A member of the Progressive Conse ...
which asserted that the Etobicoke council was placing the interests of developers ahead of the public.
Jones was re-elected without difficulty in
1991
File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...
, and continued to oppose many of the city's development plans. In 1993, she criticized the prospect of selling land around the old
Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital
The Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital was a psychiatric hospital located in the town of New Toronto, Ontario (now part of the city of Toronto). The hospital grounds now form part of Humber College's Lakeshore Campus.
History
The hospital was built ...
to private developers. She was re-elected again in
1994
File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...
. She chaired the city's Board of Health after the election, and supported plans to designate Etobicoke as
smoke-free. She supported the Courtyards development project in Long Branch, arguing that the planning and development committee "for the first time" took community concerns into account.
Toronto councillor
The city of Etobicoke was amalgamated into the city of
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
in 1997. Jones was elected to the new
Toronto City Council
Toronto City Council is the governing body of the municipal government of Toronto, Ontario. Meeting at Toronto City Hall, it comprises 25 city councillors and the mayor of Toronto. The current term began on November 15, 2022.
Structure
The cur ...
, winning one of two seats in the Lakeshore-Queensway ward. She sought an appointment as Etobicoke community council chair after the election, but lost to Elizabeth Brown. When committee positions were determined, she was appointed to the Toronto Board of Health and the Urban Environment and Development Committee. Jones quickly emerged as an opponent of
Mel Lastman
Melvin Douglas Lastman (March 9, 1933 – December 11, 2021) was a Canadian businessman and politician who served as the third mayor of North York from 1973 to 1997 and 62nd mayor of Toronto from 1998 to 2003. He was the first person to serve ...
's style of government, arguing that the city's first budget had been created in secret.
She supported the city's plans for redeveloping the motel strip area of Etobicoke in 1998, saying that environmental concerns had been taken into account and that property unit prices had been scaled back to reasonable levels. During the same year, Jones supported calls for increased government funding to combat domestic violence. In 1999, she called for Toronto to be made smoke-free by 2001.
On December 14, 1999, Jones was appointed as a member of Toronto's newly created Food and Hunger Action Committee. She sought a position on the Toronto Police Services Board in 2000, but was passed over in favour of
Gordon Chong
Gordon Joseph Chong (October 28, 1943 – July 13, 2018) was a Canadian politician and public servant active in Toronto.
He served as a Toronto city councillor and was vice-chairman of the Toronto Transit Commission in the 1990s. He served on the ...
. Late in 2000, Jones opposed a plan (which was ultimately rejected) to ship Toronto's garbage to the Adams Mine in
Kirkland Lake
Kirkland Lake is a town and municipality in Timiskaming District in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. The 2016 population, according to Statistics Canada, was 7,981.
The community name was based on a nearby lake which in turn was named after Winnifre ...
.
Toronto's ward system was restructured prior to the
2000 municipal election. Jones was re-elected without difficulty in the new sixth ward, covering the southern part of
Etobicoke—Lakeshore
Etobicoke—Lakeshore (formerly known as Lakeshore and Toronto—Lakeshore) is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1968.
It covers the southern part of the Etobi ...
. She was appointed to chair the West Community Council after the election. In late 2001, she spoke out against the city's practice of contracting out services to private firms.
In February 2002, Jones was appointed as the new City of Toronto Water Advocate in a joint program with the
federal government
A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...
. She later criticized a municipal plan (later abandoned) to create an arm's-length board of private citizens to oversee Toronto's water system, arguing that this was simply a means of evading responsibility for necessary rate increases. In October 2002, she announced that she was seeking public input on future cleanup efforts for Toronto's waterfront. Jones also expressed concern, late in the year, that the proposed arm's-length board would be the first step toward contracting out water services to private developers.
Jones was one of the first Toronto city councillors to endorse
David Miller's successful bid for mayor of the city, joining him at his campaign launch in January 2003. Jones herself did not seek re-election municipally, choosing instead to campaign for the provincial New Democratic Party in Etobicoke—Lakeshore for the
2003 provincial election. She finished third in this contest, against
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
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Arts, entertainment and m ...
candidate
Laurel Broten
Laurel C. Broten (born 1967) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. She was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 2003 to 2013, who represented the Toronto riding of Etobicoke—Lakeshore. She served in the cabinet ...
.
After politics
Jones worked in the volunteer sector after the election, and served on a committee organized by the
Toronto Region Conservation Authority
The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) is a conservation authority in southern Ontario, Canada. It owns about of land in the Toronto region, and it employs more than 400 full-time employees and coordinates more than 3,000 voluntee ...
. In 2004, she joined the lobbying firm
Urban Intelligence as a senior consultant. In August 2006, she was listed as co-chair of the
Etobicoke-Mimico Watersheds Coalition, fighting for creek preservation and reclamation.
[Peter Kuitenbrouwer, "Up on cripple creeks", ''National Post'', 4 August 2006, A7.]
References
External links
Former City Councillor Irene Jones
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Irene
Toronto city councillors
Women municipal councillors in Canada
Women in Ontario politics
Living people
People from Etobicoke
Year of birth missing (living people)