Every dollar spent on a public library generates an important return on that investment.
Libraries and their staff help to lift barriers and assist patrons on the path to a better life.
The non-profit organizations provide a gamut of services that go a long way towards improving people’s lives — even pointing a person in the right direction to prepare a resume that could make all the difference in the world for someone seeking gainful employment.
Also, not everyone in rural communities has access to high-speed internet — a whole other issue in its own right — or other technological services that, for example, make pursuing post-secondary education through correspondence or applying for certain jobs possible.
Research consistently indicates that for every dollar spent on a library, there is a roughly $5 return on that investment, sometimes even more.
Sundre Municipal Library’s manager, Karen Tubb, recently told council that on average since 2015, eight patrons have saved thousands of dollars courtesy of the library’s programs and services. That is a lot of money they can instead spend elsewhere in local businesses to stimulate our economy.
Sadly, this did not stop Doug Ford’s Conservative government in Ontario — whose popularity has in just one year plummeted lower than the former Kathleen Wynne administration’s approval ratings at their rock bottom worst — from slashing funding to Ontario Library Service in half.
This stunning lack of vision and foresight speaks loudly to how little Ford’s government thinks of libraries and the critical services they offer communities. Ontarians don’t seem particularly impressed by these — and many other cuts as well — if the resounding chorus of recent boos at events Ford attended, like the Toronto Raptors' celebratory victory parade, are any indication.
And considering how chummy Alberta Premier Jason Kenney seems to be with Ford, this should be cause enough for concern in our own province.
Now, I recognize that increasing funding is not about to happen as austerity measures ominously loom over our heads like a sharp, slowly descending pendulum.
But as a Sundre Municipal Library board trustee, I feel compelled to implore, beg, grovel and plead the UCP government to refrain at all cost from so much as even considering cutting a dime of funding to libraries.
Unfortunately, I certainly won’t be holding my breath, as conservative governments have time and again paid for tax cuts for the wealthiest at the expense of social services they clearly undervalue.
I hope this time they'll prove me wrong — after all, stranger things have happened.
