Powell River Public Library has made financial presentations to City of Powell River and qathet Regional District (qRD) finance committees, requesting increases for 2023 of 7.65 per cent and 9.5 per cent respectively.
At the November 24 city finance committee meeting, chief librarian Rebecca Burbank outlined the library’s request and said she was appearing on behalf of the library board to present the 2023 budget, plus several highlights from 2022.
“Going into 2023 we are looking at a 7.65 per cent grant request increase,” said Burbank. “That said, over the past four years, the average annual increase is 3.8 per cent, so 11.4 per cent over those four years.
“While we are looking at a jump of 7.65 per cent going into 2023, the rise since 2020 is only 11.4 per cent, so it is quite tempered.”
Burbank outlined the total proposed budget for the library. This includes a request of $966,701 from the city, a $433,883 request from qRD and $8,436 from Tla’amin Nation. The library also receives grants from the province and other sources.
In the 2023 budget, there is a reduction of $23,337 because the safe restart municipal grant and the regional district COVID-19 cleaning portion are not required. There is also a $57,163 transfer from library reserves planned to offset the 2023 budget
Burbank said provincial per capita funding the library has received has remained static for more than 10 years, which puts pressure on local governments.
“I’m proud to say that our city council, and our regional district, have supported motions at the Union of British Columbia Municipalities encouraging additional provincial funding, which would offset our local grant requests,” added Burbank.
She said the 2023 budget is planning to maintain service levels. There is a contractual rise in labour costs, the largest portion of the library’s budget at 63.3 per cent of expenses, according to Burbank’s statistics.
Councillor Cindy Elliott said she wanted to know if there is back pay due to be implemented in the proposed new contract.
Burbank said the collective agreement between the library board and CUPE Local 798 staff, for which terms have been suggested in the recently conducted bargaining process, has not been ratified. She said she would not be speaking in more detail on the collective agreement.
Elliott asked if the money for the increase was in anticipation of what the collective agreement might say, or would it change?
Burbank said the library board has assessed this is a reasonable request based on the information it has for labour.
“I’m unable to provide more detail,” added Burbank.
Councillor George Doubt said he assumed the library board had worked in their estimation of what the collective agreement cost is going to be for the coming year.
“We see the increases around seven per cent and I don’t think it’s unusual or outlandish to look at that for 2023 costs,” added Doubt.
Councillor Rob Southcott said the provincial minister responsible for libraries has changed and this possibly affords a new opportunity for the city as far as advocacy goes.
“I think there are new opportunities now,” said Southcott.
