The delegates for Southeast Regional Library have voted in favour of a rate increase to replace the large cut in funding from the provincial government, and defeated a motion to start winding down the regional library if the cut funds are not replaced by the government.
The regional library held their annual meeting on Saturday in Weyburn, and also passed a motion to send a letter to the government requesting them to rescind the cuts to the regional libraries.
The original proposal put in front of the delegates, representing the 47 branch libraries, as well as the cities, towns and villages who comprise the southeast region, was to increase the amount paid by municipalities by $3.35 per capita — but it was an increase that came with a long list of cuts to personnel and services provided by Southeast Regional Library.
Delegates were concerned that the region would be making such a long list of cuts, and first proposed an increase of $4.35 per capita, and then the original increase of $5.77 per capita, which would replace the amount cut from the budget by the provincial government. In the end, the delegates voted by secret ballot by a margin of 48 to 28 in favour of increasing the amount to be paid by municipalities by $5.77.
The 48 votes in favour represent 41,596 residents, while the 28 against represent 20,553 residents. This will be added to the $11.01 per capita that is currently being charged to town, villages and RMs, and $33.39 paid by the Cities of Weyburn and Estevan, as they provide full-service public library branches.
The new director for the regional library system, Kate-Lee Nolin, who has been the branch manager of the Estevan Public Library since 2009, noted this increased funding amount will only run the regional library system until the end of 2017, and will not be asked for again next year.
With this in mind, board chair Ken Sutherland introduced a motion to give the executive the power to begin winding down the Southeast Regional Library as of June 30 if no additional funds are provided by the provincial government to replace what was cut, but the delegates disagreed and voted the motion down in a show of hands, with only three people supporting it.
In explaining the motion, vice-chair Dianne Sander said this would only happen “if the province does not give us an indication of restoring our funding. … The $5.77 increase is a stop-gap, good for this year and this year only.”
The intent of the motion is to put in place a plan to wind down the regional library, as it will take a lot of planning to accomplish, if there are no further funds to ensure the region can continue to operate.
The delegates were told that the impact of the cut has been widely felt, with Palliser Regional Library laying off six employees, Parkland laying off five plus three part-time workers at the library, and Lakeland laid off six at their headquarters.
Southeast laid off two full-time employees, and Nolin said after the meeting that even with the additional money of $5.77 per capita, those positions are gone and will not be replaced this year.
Sutherland pointed out that if the regional system has to be shut down, “it will impossible to start up again” in the future. “I think there’s a failure to understand that once the system is shut down, if the province wants to bring it back later, they’ll have to start from scratch,” he added.
Nolin said that she and the library directors of all regional library systems will be meeting with the assistant deputy minister in Regina today, where she will lay out the situation as it exists for the southeast. Delegates pointed out it would be wrong to go in to that meeting with a motion like this that would put the government’s back to the wall.
“If we’re going to disperse, we need to plan for it carefully, not with a gut reaction,” said Sander.
The delegates had also been informed that the province-wide Saskatchewan Information and Library Services (SILS) inter-library sharing system has closed due to the cut in funding. Asked if the minister questions this move, Sutherland pointed out, “He can’t stop us, because we’ve got no funds to operate it.”
Sutherland also pointed out that the entire provincial system of regional libraries could be lost entirely just for the cost of paving less than a kilometre of highway.
Nolin was appointed as the new library director after long-time director Allan Johnson took retirement, which he announced last year. Johnson has served the regional system for near 25 years, and spent 42 years as a professional librarian.
In an interview after the annual meeting, Nolin said of her new appointment, “I’m encouraged, and with the rest of the management team we’re going to pull it together and keep going.” Asked if the list of cuts that were proposed with a $3.35 rate increase would still be in place now that the increase is $5.77, Nolin said it was too early to tell how many of those cuts would be rescinded, if any.
The two full-time positions were already cut and won’t be refilled. The proposed cuts, which would take $187,350 off the budget, included limiting trustee and executive expenses (saving $10,000), cutting honorariums, the two full-time positions ($66,000), the immediate retirement of Johnson ($12,000), no janitorial staff or alarm system ($14,000), limited office supplies and supplies for books($8,100 combined), reduced number of telephone lines at headquarters ($1,650), reduced funds for staff workshops ($4,000), reduced postage ($1,800), removing the registration plates from two vehicles (saving $8,000) and the elimination of all e-services except for Flipster (saving $50,000).
The budget would also include using reserves of $63,249, but again this was assuming a rate increase of $3.35 per capita. The shortfall, with the cutback retroactive to January 1, meant that Southeast Regional had already spent $270,000, as of March 31, as they had already begun spending for the year and had no prior notice these funds would be retroactively cut. The provincial grant in 2016 was $961,723, and this year, with the cut, it was down to $396,230, a loss of $565,493. Nolin told the delegates that if there was no funding increase from the municipalities, Southeast would have to close their doors by Labour Day this year.
In his opening comments for the annual meeting, Sutherland noted that the regional library system was born under then-Premier Ross Thatcher, who “was a very strong supporter of libraries”, and noted the current regional system has been held up as one of the best library systems in all of North America.
“We are the envy of a lot of people. This last provincial budget is a slap in the face to these builders,” said Sutherland, adding another “slap in the face” is that libraries are particularly useful to the many new Canadians who have now moved to Saskatchewan, as they learn all about the new country they have adopted.
“Libraries are an important part of our communities. Several years ago, we thought we could amalgamate libraries, and were we in for a fight. We found out in a hurry, you don’t touch libraries. I’d like to thank the provincial government for one thing. They’ve woken a sleeping giant,” said Sutherland.
