Public libraries are not facing a funding cut despite an announcement they will receive only 50 per cent of their annual grants from the provincial government until a budget has been passed in the fall.
"Funding has not been cut for library boards," said Minister of Municipal Affairs Kaycee Madu in a prepared statement. “Our full budget won’t even be finalized until the fall. In order to ensure libraries have the resources they need to get through the interim period, funding has been approved so they can obtain 50 per cent of their operating grants before the budget is finalized. This allows them to keep things moving and is how interim supply works.”
There will be no changes this year for local libraries.
“We are just going to carry on as business as usual,” said Okotoks Public Library director Lara Grunow. “We do have to have reserves – the Province wants us to have it for three months – but we have more than that, we will be fine.”
Grunow estimates the provincial grant, of $155,000, is about 15 per cent of the library’s just over $1-million annual budget.
The hold on funding for libraries is not unprecedented. The NDP government paid out 75 per cent of its funding after it was elected in 2015. The remainder was announced after the 2015-16 budget was set.
The UCP is in a similar situation as it won a majority in April. It is scheduled to set its budget in the fall after what the party is calling a blue-panel review of Alberta’s finances.
In his statemen, Madu accused the Opposition NDP of spreading misinformation concerning library grand funding.
Grunow is optimistic it will get its full funding from the Province.
“I believe that whatever political party is in power in Alberta, it will recognize the importance of public libraries,” she said. “And that they do know we do serve the entire population. We are one of the most used public spaces where everbody feels comfortable to come.
“I am not that worried.”
Th Okotoks library administration is soon going into the budget process for 2020.
The library’s funds for buying materials, such as new books for 2019, has already been put into place as well its hours have been extended on Fridays to 8:30 p.m. as of Sept. 6.
“That money is already spent,” Grunow said. “We are not looking at any cuts right now, we will just have to see at the end of the year how it washes out.”
She said the library is fortunate to have a solid relationship with the Town of Okotoks.
“In my 15 years, I have never known them come back to us and say: ‘You better go back to the drawing board.'
“Fingers crossed, we are hoping that as long as we show we are being fiscally responsible they will continue to support us.”
The library is also working on expanding its facility as part of the proposed arts and campus building in the future.
Jan Burney, manager of the Sheep River Library in Turner Valley, said the provincial grant is not its biggest source of funding.
“Our largest funders are the Towns of Turner Valley and Black Diamond,” Burney said. “But it’s not an insignificant amount of funding either.”
She said typically the Sheep River Library gets a provincial grant of around $27,000. The Sheep River Library’s budget is a touch over $300,000 a year.
She said fall programming has been set.
