FORT FRANCES — The union for public library workers in Fort Frances says the library is facing significant cuts, but Mayor Andrew Hallikas says funding for the institution on Reid Avenue will increase this year.
A news release put out March 20 by Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 65 said the town council is chopping $25,000 from the Fort Frances Public Library Technology Centre’s operating budget.
Hallikas, on the other hand, told Newswatch on Friday the library budget is going up this year to $613,256 from last year’s $611,392.
He said he found the union’s $25,000 assertion puzzling “because, you know, the numbers are there, they’re public knowledge. They got a $2,000 increase in funding.”
Library worker and CUPE member Evan Miller said Friday the slight budget increase is effectively a decrease in funding because the library needed “in excess of $27,000” in extra funding.
The CUPE news release also warns of “significant cuts to library services in the year ahead.”
Management has said they intend to reduce the child and youth services coordinator position to part-time from full-time, reduce library hours and eliminate student shelving positions, according to CUPE.
Hallikas said questions about such matters should be directed at the library’s management and board. “I’m not a spokesperson for the library.”
Richard Bee, the library’s CEO, told Newswatch “there has been no discussion about reducing hours.”
But the library board “has been forced to look at staff hours,” and reducing the child and youth services position to part-time is one option being considered, he added.
The student shelving positions, for putting items back on shelves in proper order, have been vacant for a while and might not be filled, he said.
Those cuts are concerning because “any kind of staffing decreases will affect the experience of our patrons,” said CUPE’s Miller, who works in IT for the library.
The union’s news release emphasized that it’s important for the public to know what’s happening at their library.
“A library is more than a book depository; it is the heart of the community,” CUPE member Evan Miller, who works in IT at the library, is quoted as saying in the release.
“We provide a huge range of services and are the one public space that is open to everyone.
“That means, even as we’re getting cuts, we’re having to provide more and more services to a population facing more and more challenges. We need our community to voice their concerns and for management to rise to the challenge, not abandon us in the face of it.”
Fort Frances library workers organized under CUPE, represents workers in 66 library systems provincewide, last year and are in bargaining for a first contract.
Tight funding “is not a unique problem to Fort Frances,” said Hallikas.
“There’s always tension in library funding between the library board and a municipality, because … the libraries are covered by the (Public) Libraries Act, which says the municipality has to fund them, but the municipality also has to fund all of the other departments, including recreation, clean water, parks and what have you.
“So the library board has always wanted to get more funding and municipalities are always trying to balance funding (requests) over all of their departments.
“That creates a little bit of tension and that’s happening right across Ontario right now, especially with the cost of living going up.”
For added context, Hallikas noted that the town had a relatively big tax increase of 5.5 per cent, last year.
“So our budget process this year was very thorough and went through very many rounds where every department was asked to sharpen their pencils, roll up their sleeves and reduce (spending) as much as possible without reducing services.”
At the end of this year's process, he said, “we were able to get away with a 1.9 per cent tax increase.”
He said every part of town operations was asked to keep costs down, “and that’s including the library.”
“And so the library was treated no differently than any other department. In fact, where some departments got cuts, they actually got a bit of an increase.”
