Rural N.S. libraries narrowly avoid service cuts

Rising costs have pushed a group of public libraries in Nova Scotia to the brink of service cuts, but a last-minute injection of money from local and provincial governments will allow them to keep going for another year.

Cumberland Public Libraries were planning to reduce hours at six of seven branches starting this month, and summer programs were likely to be cut back, according to Dale Fawthrop, chair of the libraries' board and deputy mayor of the Town of Amherst.

"People were not pleased," said Fawthrop.

"The library is a social gathering place. It's far more than a place where you go to pick up a book."

Branches in Amherst, Oxford, Parrsboro, Pugwash, River Hebert and Springhill were facing reduced hours and programming, Fawthrop said. Each branch faced a different scenario, with either fewer days, shorter days, or both.

The towns of Amherst and Oxford and the Municipality of Cumberland have pooled $67,335 and the provincial government has given $37,700 to create bridge funding that will see the libraries through to the start of the next budget cycle in 2025.

The libraries will also dip into their reserve funds to fill in whatever else is needed. In a news release, the libraries estimated they'll take about $55,000 out of their reserve.

Inflation to blame

Fawthrop said the library system is in the final year of a budget that was set four years ago, and it no longer matches the economic reality.

The cost to operate the libraries has risen dramatically, he said, listing wages, fuel for the van that transfers books between branches, new materials and oil to heat the buildings.

"It's no one's fault," he said.

"If I sat down now with my home budget and said 'OK, what do I think I'm going to be spending in five years from now?' I think it could go anyway, couldn't it? Who would have thought that we'd be in the situation we are in now?"

Calls for growth

Fawthrop said he's pleased the bridge funding will maintain services, but ideally he wants to see the libraries grow along with growing demand.

"Matter of fact, it would be lovely if we could increase hours. That's where the emphasis should be."

Rebecca Brown shared that sentiment.

Brown, a resident of Parrsboro who frequents the local library, said she learned about the pending service cuts a couple months ago through the library website, which prompted her to write to her MLA.

"[I] just said that libraries are so important for our smaller communities, especially these rural communities, and we just need access to it, we need more hours, not fewer hours."

Brown said she was thrilled when the office of her MLA, PC cabinet minister Tory Rushton, responded to her letter last week informing her of the bridge funding.

She said her branch is always busy and she'd like to see it better resourced, and perhaps even get a new building.

"Our branch is not on the main street.… I would love to see it on the main street so that people could go there and even just socialize, not just go for reading books or magazines … but to be a support for each other, for the community."

Fawthrop said planning for the 2025-30 budget cycle begins next week.