After a decade at the Peterborough Public Library and in the middle of leading a controversial staffing reorganization, Jennifer Jones is no longer CEO of the library or an employee of the City of Peterborough.
In addition to being the library’s CEO, Jones was appointed the city’s director of cultural services only five months ago, after acting as the city’s director of arts and culture for almost a year.
Her sudden and unexpected departure from the city was announced in an email sent on Tuesday afternoon (June 17) from the city’s community services commissioner Sheldon Laidman to members of the arts and culture advisory committee — a citizen committee that Jones led in her director role — prior to the committee’s meeting that evening.
“I don’t expect there to be any disruption to the work of this committee as part of this staff change,” Laidman wrote.
According to Laidman’s email, Jones’ last day with the city was on Monday (June 16) — the same day the city issued a sudden and unexpected announcement that a planned staff reorganization at the library has been “paused” so that the city can “consider other options for meeting budgetary constraints.”
Laidman does not indicate in his email whether Jones resigned from the position or was let go, only noting “The City of Peterborough thanks Jones for her service to the city and wishes her well in her future endeavours.”
As library CEO, Jones was responsible for implementing a decision made by city council during deliberations on the 2025 budget last fall to eliminate two positions and reclassify some positions as lower-paid positions at the library to save $120,000 of the city’s $411 million operating budget. The library has a budget of $4.4 million.
After the city’s budget was approved earlier this year, the library subsequently decided to lay off three of the library’s four full-time unionized librarians, including a children’s librarian, the adult and teen programming librarian, and the librarian who manages the library’s information systems. Two positions (an outreach coordinator and a programming assistant) would be created, resulting in a net reduction of one position.
When the public became aware of the planned changes to staffing at the library (especially the elimination of the dedicated children’s librarian) earlier this year, there was strong community opposition, particularly by a number of concerned parents who launched an online petition that has garnered 2,480 signatures to date and founded the Our Future Peterborough grassroots advocacy group.
Our Future Peterborough recently issued an open letter signed by more than 100 celebrated writers, artists, educators, and performers — Margaret Atwood, Neil Young, and former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson among them — that was covered by both local and national media.
“The city has heard and appreciates the support for library services expressed by residents and others who have advocated for the Peterborough Public Library,” stated the city’s media release announcing the staffing reorganization pause. “While the approved budget needs to be followed, the city is exploring all options to ensure the most effective means to reduce the budget while maintaining the same level and quality of service, through constructive meetings with Peterborough Public Library staff.”
As library CEO, Jones was the public face of the staffing reorganization decision, speaking to the media to explain the rationale behind the decision and the impact — including to CBC’s Ontario Morning as recently as last Thursday (June 12).
Host Nav Nanwa asked Jones whether there was any possibility of saving the dedicated children’s librarian position.
“It’s possible. We can certainly save things, but there still has to be some changes. I have not gotten the money back,” Jones said, referring to the $120,000 eliminated from the library’s budget.
“I’m also a librarian. I am so thrilled and touched and I love that people in the community and the superstar names that you mentioned are standing up for their libraries. I think that’s phenomenal and I want that to continue, but we have to make some changes internally to make things function.”
“At the end of the day, I still have to balance my budget — which sucks to talk about people that way — but I’m $120,000 short at the end of the day, so I’ve got to find a way internally to do this … this has not been fun … this has been absolutely awful to go through this situation.”
Jones had been at the Peterborough Public Library for 10 years, first joining the library in 2015 as head librarian after serving as a librarian in New Brunswick. She began acting as library CEO in 2016 before being appointed to the position the following year. In February of this year, she was appointed as director of cultural services in addition to the library CEO role.
Jones oversaw the library during an 18-month $12-million renovation and expansion of the main library branch on Aylmer Street, during which the library was temporarily relocated to Peterborough Square until the branch reopened in 2018. During her tenure, the DelaFosse Library branch on Park Street South was closed in 2022 and a new branch was opened in 2025 in the Miskin Law Community Complex on Lansdowne Street just east of Park Street.
According to Laidman’s June 17th email, the city’s innovation and quality assurance manager Joe Crooks will serve as acting director of cultural services while the city recruits a new library CEO, with the selection of the role to be done in consultation with the Peterborough Public Library board.
