Library Grants Overdue, Concerns Mount they Won't Come At All

Monday, August 10, 2009 08:24 PM

Prince George, B.C. - Libraries in the Province are worried. The provincial budget is to come on September 1^st, and Libraries have yet to receive their normal funding for this year. They are concerned their normal grants will not be forthcoming.

By the time that budget is delivered, there will only be one quarter of the fiscal year left, and those grants from the province represent about 7% of the Prince George Library’s budget. Chief Librarian Al Wilson says that’s about $208 thousand dollars and his team has been trying to save dollars in anticipation of the loss of that money. “For us, it’s 7% of our annual budget, for libraries in McBride and Squamish, it represents about 22% of their budgets, and with so little time left in the year it will be a real hardship.”

Wilson says the provincial grants used to be about 20% of the Prince George library budget, but over the years, that has eroded to just 7%.

Prince George City Council will be sending a letter to the Ministries responsible calling for funding to at least be held at the current level.

“This is a time when more and more people are using the services of the library as they conduct job searches and use the internet to find work” says Councilor Cameron Stolz. He says he is concerned this is one more item that he sees as possibly being downloaded from the province to local taxpayers. Mayor Dan Rogers agrees “Certainly these are challenging times and we understand that around this Council table, there will be some tough decisions and difficult decisions made but we want to ensure its not a process of offloading.”

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Posted on Monday, August 10, 2009 08:24 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Junco on August 10 2009 8:54 PM

If the Library doesn't get thier grant it will be an outrage and I hope people will stand up and fight back. When they were selling the Olympics, PG and other northern communities were supposedly to benefit from the Olympics in the form of residual blah, blah whatever speak...fill in the blanks with bullsh&t.

Well this is how we are benefitting folks.
The Province will have taken your dollars to pay for the glorified olympics and to balance their budget. The HST should be more than enough robbery to pay for the mismanagement of this province but since everyone is sitting on their hats and swallowing it whole they will shove a little more at us in the form of downloading. Open wide.

Posted by: Chester on August 10 2009 9:21 PM

Let's face it, it is always the last guy in the line that will end up paying for everything. And we are a long ways down the line when it comes to priorities in this province.

So, what's the scoop with the Ministry? Are they going to keep everyone hoping, or are they expecting us to grovel for these crumbs? If we don't stand up and be heard, we will be ignored and forgotton. Let's get our municipal voices heard in Victoria. I would be disappointed if they just sent them an e-mail or letter.

Posted by: gus on August 11 2009 12:05 AM

This is only one of many areas that will be "suffering". I know of two completely different areas that total about the same amount as the library that have already been told they will not get their money for one of them and will likely not get it in the case of the other.

Very few people will hear about them. One of them involves direct layoffs of people.

I think the government should provide a full list of every "little" $10,000+ that will not be handed out with no real notice.

Posted by: Don Wilkins on August 11 2009 1:33 AM

Remember a few years ago when Minister of Education, Bond had a press conference to announce that every school child in BC was to get a library card? Something they already had. Well, I guess they are being screwed over again.
Oh, they will come through with the money at the last moment like the saviours they are not.

Posted by: acrider54 on August 11 2009 7:14 AM

Olympics are more important at this time so don't expect anything from this Liberal government except for new taxes higher taxes and sell off of the rest of the public owned things like BC Hydro.

Posted by: hartbooks on August 11 2009 10:25 AM

With the changes in the way Direct Access/Gaming grants are given out, the Friends of the Library can't even help to the extent it used to be able to. Funds from that source are very limited in what they can be used for. Mostly it has to be for "programs" such as bringing in authors to speak.

Tangible assets (such as shelving) have to belong to the Friends group - and can't be given to the library under the rules.

It makes for a frustrating time for the Friends of the Library in a lot of ways.