Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako (RDBN) directors are making a renewed push for provincial library funding, citing a financial crisis caused by more than a decade of stagnant provincial support.<\/p>\n
“It’s been 15 years since there’s been an increase,” said RDBN Director McGuire, mayor of Granisle, responding to a letter from the Ministry of Housing at the board’s Oct. 23 meeting.<\/p>\n
The letter, signed by Christine Boyle, minister of housing, is a response to a letter the RDBN board sent in July calling for more funding.<\/p>\n
“I recognize the ongoing challenges related to long-standing operational funding pressures at both the local and provincial levels,” the letter from the minister reads. “As outlined in government’s current three-year fiscal plan, provincial operating funding for public libraries remains at $14 million for the upcoming year.”<\/p>\n
RDBN Director Gladys Atrill, mayor of Smithers, agreed that library funding “hasn’t increased at all in about 10 years,” forcing municipalities to cover the shortfall.<\/p>\n
RDBN Director Judy Greenaway, Fort St. John rural, was blunt in her assessment.<\/p>\n
“The libraries are really strapped, really struggling,” she said. “There was a resolution that came through at [the Union of BC Municipalities conference]… and it passes, but it doesn’t go anywhere.”<\/p>\n
McGuire proposed a new advocacy strategy, suggesting each of RDBN’s directors gather data from their local libraries to quantify their impact.<\/p>\n
“I wondered if we could maybe get everybody… to come up with how many visits did your librarian have for the year,” she said. “We can actually put those numbers in a letter to the minister,” McGuire said.<\/p>\n
Director Greenway immediately provided an example for Fort St. James: “On Tuesday, we had 200 people walk through the library,” she said. “200 people in Fort St. James [is substantial], it’s not very big.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cost increases shouldered by municipalities, directors say, as they try to come up with new strategy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":158978,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-158970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n