Councillor Jan Harder
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Ward 3 BarrhavenJan Harder is serving her second term as a member of the Ottawa Public Library Board of Trustees. In January 2007 she was elected unanimously as Board Chair. She is the current president of the Canadian Library Trustees Association and is on the Executive Council of the Canadian Library Association. She recently served as a member of the Ontario Library Association 2009 Super-conference organizing committee with attendance of 5,500 and gave a presentation with the Ottawa City Librarian and the President of the Friends of the Ottawa Public Library on library advocacy. In July 2009 she was elected to the board of the Urban Libraries Council, based in Chicago, IL, for a two-year term. Jan has been an elected member of Ottawa City Council for nine years and of Nepean City Council for three years prior to amalgamation. Jan's strong business background includes a highly successful career in the grocery/mass merchandising industry. She has served as a member of City Council's Committees on Planning and the Environment, as well as Rural Affairs and Emergency Services. She was chair of the Community Advisory Committee and a member of the Executive and Director Boards of the Bruyère Continuing Care facility (formerly known as the Sisters of Charity Health Services Board - SCHSB). She is a member of Hydro Ottawa Holding Inc. She also chairs Plasco's (waste to energy gasification company) public advisory committee, reporting to the Ontario Ministry of Energy. She serves on the board of the Barrhaven Business Improvement Area (BIA) and previously the Carleton Lodge (municipal long-term care home) and Almonte General Hospital Board. Currently Jan is a Vice-Chair of the City’s Audit, Budget, and Finance Advisory Committee. She is President of the Canadian Library Trustees Association, on the executive Board of the Canadian Library Association and was recently appointed to the Board of Directors Urban Library Council based in Chicago. Born in 1951, Jan is a civic leader, a wife, a mom and now a "nana". She has deep roots in her Barrhaven community. She was President and Convener of Barrhaven Softball for eight years, funding chair for Cedarview Middle School Senior Band and Cedarview District Girl Guides, a founding member of the South Nepean Youth Organization, a member of the Barrhaven Lions Club and President of the Barrhaven Community Association. Currently Jan is a member of the Barrhaven Legion. For the last five years she has hosted the Jan Harder Golf Tournament to raise over $200,000 for a local cancer treatment centre. Despite her reputation as one of the city's most effective and hardworking councillors, Jan considers one of her finest accomplishments to be her family: husband Larry Harding, daughters Andrea, Elena and Brandi, two stepdaughters and now five grandchildren. |
