Two representatives of the Town of Bowden plan to write a letter calling on the province to provide more funding for the Parkland Regional Library (PRL), including the library in Bowden.
Coun. Sheila Church and Bowden CEO Andy Weiss are expected to work collaboratively to write the letter.
Councillors made that decision in response to a memo from PRL Director Ron Sheppard.
In that memo, Sheppard said operating grants for the library system remain at 2010 levels: $4.60 per capita (per person) for regional library systems and $5.45 per capita for municipal libraries, despite the fact that the population has increased since then.
“Provincial operating grants are still calculated using 2010 population figures, so funding has effectively decreased,” Sheppard wrote. “Unless provincial funding to libraries increases, municipal libraries and regional systems will be forced to pass all cost increases on to the municipalities or eventually begin reducing services.”
He said overall provincial per capita funding for library services has dropped by 6.8 per cent since 2009, due to population growth. In addition, purchasing power for the Public Library branch of Municipal Affairs has fallen by 9.47 per cent since 2009.
“We need almost a 10 per cent increase, just to be where we were in 2009,” Sheppard wrote.
He also noted that in 2010, Alberta Infrastructure evaluated PRL's headquarters building and came to the conclusion it needed approximately $1 million in upgrades.
“To date, no money has been provided by the provincial government and the report is nearly four years old,” Sheppard wrote. “Provincial operating funding for regional library systems and municipal libraries has also not increased in the last few years.”
Coun. Church agreed with those concerns.
“I think the old Parkland building was built when I was in high school,” she said, sparking laughter and whistles.
Church said to her knowledge, one library staff member didn't get a raise this year.
“She has done a good job over there, and you don't find people very easily in this economy to do a good job, but I think probably they thought they couldn't afford to give her a raise,” Church said.
Church said the Parkland head office provides invaluable services.
“They provide a huge amount of services for us – a tremendous amount – especially with all the computer systems that they've got now,” Church said. “They supply the computers and they look after them and so on so that we don't have to be hiring technicians and that kind of thing.”
PRL officials are urging those upset about the library's predicament to write letters to local MLAs as well as Municipal Affairs Minister Greg Weadick.
Church said she and Weiss would be happy to write such a letter, so Bowden councillors passed a motion calling on them to do so.
Mayor Robb Stuart said that sounds like a great idea.
“I think it's an excellent idea to try to show our support for this community and the library's been a huge part of the town for as long as I can remember,” he said. “I think that you and Andy would be ideal, because you have so much knowledge (about the library system).”
Church agreed.
“One point that Andy brought out is that in every survey that we've ever done about what services are important to you in Bowden, the library comes out in the top three,” Church said.
“It's never been number 1 – usually the arena is. But it's either second or third. You go in there and there are always kids in there; moms with young kids and so on, so it's a good service for our community,” she said.
