The election is over and we have a new government so I thought I would review the province’s public library service. Alberta provides about $30 million in operating grants to public libraries. This represents 14 per cent of total library operating revenue. Medicine Hat’s provincial grant was just under $350,000 last year and the same amount is hoped for in 2019.
In addition to these grants, the province provides some other support including Supernet (the computer network that connects libraries and other public institutions to each other and the world), interlibrary loan software that allows you to borrow books from other places when we don’t have them, delivery service that gets those books moved where they need to go, electronic resources like ebooks and a few other things that added up to a little more than $4,446,000 in 2018. The provincial government also provides grants and support to our library systems, which provide back end services like our catalogue.
I have often heard people say that the province should be providing more support to public libraries. This is an especially popular refrain among those who might be asked to provide more funding themselves. Unfortunately, having recently come from the government department that provides the grants, I can tell you the chances of this happening are slim to nil. The provincial government is quite aware that their funding is not unreasonable when compared to previous years and other provinces. Public libraries are a municipal service in Alberta and ultimately the responsibility is local. Each municipality can choose to adequately fund a library, or not, the same way they could choose to pave their streets or leave them gravel to save money. (Sometimes it seems like Medicine Hat chooses to have both paved and gravel streets at the same time, at least in spring.)
The other possibility with provincial grants is they could go down. This is a real risk with a tough economic situation and a new government that preaches fiscal restraint, but I am cautiously optimistic this won’t happen. The UCP election platform and policy statements have talked about capping spending more than cutting it. Also, the last couple of attempts at cutting provincial support of public libraries have not gone well. Both Saskatchewan and Newfoundland reversed library cuts as a result of public outcry. Cutting library funding is a bit like taking money from your grandmother’s purse — you don’t get much and it looks really bad.
After I wrote the first draft of this column I heard Ontario has cut funding to its library systems in half. Even when I try to channel a non-library lover’s perspective this does not seem like a good idea to me. For a savings of $1.5 million, not a lot in the grand scheme of things, a lot of libraries will be broken by the loss of critical support. Imagine your business losing its inventory system and cash registers — it would be tough to go on. The last time now-Premier Doug Ford tangled with libraries, Margaret Atwood got involved. I can’t wait to see what happens next.
Ken Feser is chief librarian at Medicine Hat Public Library.
