Small town and rural libraries feeling financial strain in Alberta

When cracks in the Elnora Public Library building’s foundation were discovered, an examination revealed asbestos and black mould, requiring a rapid move out and the beginning of a search for a new home.

Nearly four years later, the library is still in the temporary home it moved into next door. Library manager Mitch Munday and his team have had their sights set on a new permanent location, but he estimates the move would cost roughly $350,000, far exceeding their annual funding.

“Obviously $350,000 for a village this size is an extremely large amount of money," Munday said about Elnora, which has roughly 300 residents.

"Libraries of this size generally average about a four to six thousand [dollar] deficit every year. And that's money that every single library, rural libraries especially, have to scrape to find."

Munday's story is familiar to a lot of other libraries in rural counties, small towns and villages across Alberta. Some need larger spaces or building repairs, and many struggle to afford to offer all of the programs that their communities need, or even to stay open for as many days as their users want.

Alberta's population is growing, the costs libraries face are rising in a variety of areas, and the responsibilities libraries take on has dramatically expanded. But many library managers argue their funding hasn't kept up with these changes.

New efforts to advocate for updated library funding has come this fall from Alberta Municipalities and the Rural Municipalities of Alberta.

Both organizations recently passed resolutions calling on the provincial government to update per capita funding in its Public Library Board Operating Grants by $1.34 per person, and to index the grant to the rate of inflation and to more recent population statistics.

The motions note grant totals have only risen five cents since 2016, and library managers around Alberta have expressed frustration that they're funded at 2019 population levels, amid a population boom in the province.

When asked about the resolutions, the office of Municipal Affairs Minister Dan Williams said the money it already offers is helping libraries deliver essential services, including $33.6 million in operating grants and $5.4 million in network supports in this year’s budget.

"This stable, consistent funding supports communities of all sizes and plays a crucial role in ensuring smaller municipalities can access shared resources,” said Williams’s office.

But Ron Sheppard, director of the Parkland Regional Library System, notes the financial stress is increasingly difficult for libraries in his area to manage. He said a recent Parkland survey found around 35 per cent of its member libraries run deficit budgets.

He said his advocacy efforts to provincial ministers have received support, but that a budget deficit has prevented the province from offering more. Meanwhile, he said small municipalities are often stretched too thin to offer any more to their libraries to significantly close the gap many face.

“So if they can’t fund the public library in their community, the public library really doesn’t have anywhere else to go except back to the province to ask for some additional assistance," said Sheppard.