Annapolis Valley Regional Library requesting more money from province in next funding formula

BERWICK, N.S. — The Annapolis Valley Regional Library (AVRL) board is concerned for its future without a change to the funding formula.

Board chairperson Janet Ness wrote to Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage Minister Allan MacMaster on Dec. 5. The letter also went to the region’s MLAs, municipal governments and two senior members in MacMaster’s department.

Ness said it will have to draw on its reserves to maintain current levels of service through 2024.

“AVRL estimates that approximately 60 per cent of the reserve will be depleted as of March 31, 2025, and we will not be able to sustain current levels of service in 2025-26,” she wrote.

“Operational expenses are so lean that mitigating the shortfall would be the equivalent of closing five of the 11 library branches.”

The Department of Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage did not have anyone available for an interview, but spokesperson Susan Mader-Zinck provided a written statement.

“We recognize that our public libraries are affected by increasing costs and growing demand for library services,” she wrote. “We are committed to working with regional public library leaders to find solutions that will best support sustainable and affordable core library services.”

She noted it had also received communication from Cumberland Public Libraries and Western Counties Regional Library and is reviewing the funding formula.

Ness noted time is of the essence as it would need to communicate any changes to municipalities by March 31 to give them enough time to implement changes for April 1, 2025.

“This represents a very short timeline and increases the urgency of beginning the process,” she wrote.

The letter came up at recent town and county council meetings in the region.

Annapolis County Warden Alex Morrison wrote to the province and received a reply stating it was beginning the review process and would keep the municipality up to date.

Formula

Here’s how Nova Scotia public libraries are funded under the model that was implemented in 2020-21:

Outside the Halifax Regional Municipality

• 71 per cent – Province
• 26 per cent – Municipal
• 3 per cent – Board

Inside the Halifax Regional Municipality

• 71 per cent – Municipal
• 26 per cent – Province
• 3 per cent – Board

Source – Department of Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage.

“I don’t think, personally, that the provincial funding has been … put to a level at which it belongs,” Morrison said. “I would like to think that in the course of this next funding review that the provincial folks will realize that we’ve reached a critical point in the library service.”

The province has provided annual operating grants to library regions for several decades. Library funding is shared between the province, municipalities and the regional library boards based on a formula implemented in 2020-21.

The province provides $16.5 million in operational funding annually to the libraries. An additional $500,000 was allocated to them in 2023-24 to assist with operating pressures, Mader-Zinck wrote. There was also $200,000 for supporting women’s health and $300,000 in project funding.

AVRL received about $1.9 million in operating funds from the province in 2023-24.

The regional library’s funding from all sources has increased by $254,000 or about 10 per cent since 2011. Ness said in her letter the Bank of Canada estimated inflation from 2011 to 2023 had increased by 31 per cent.

“Current funding has been declining in purchasing power for decades, and AVRL is now in a precarious financial situation, with operating costs outstripping the current financial envelope,” she wrote.

Ness noted it has not been able to recruit and retain staff to perform core functions in 2023.

“As a result, AVRL has already been forced to reduce programming and open hours to the public,” she wrote.

Ness also noted staff recently unionized and negotiated a $1 per hour wage increase, bringing the starting wage to $15.81. The Annapolis Valley Regional Library has 11 branches from Annapolis Royal to Windsor with a head office in Berwick.

“They’ve really done a good job of providing a great service here in Berwick and I know through the Annapolis Valley library network,” Berwick Mayor Don Clarke said. “They’re operating on shoestring budgets and finding it difficult to keep up the level of service.”

The town has written a letter in support of the library to MacMaster.

The library has evolved over the years and now offers a variety of services, including people being able to borrow radon detectors or get COVID-19 rapid test kits at the branches. In 2022-23, a record-setting 5,252 people signed up in the Annapolis Valley for new library cards.

Morrison, who has been borrowing books from libraries for 75 years, noted the centres are more than books and computers. He said they have become community hubs as rural schools have disappeared, city schools consolidated and many churches see declining congregations.

“What keeps, for example, Annapolis County together is the library system and the community hall system,” he said, noting libraries are a valuable asset to the community. “Public libraries serve a purpose in helping people improve their literacy, they serve a purpose in helping to bind the county together and they serve a purpose in improving the theoretical and practical knowledge of those folks who patronize the library.”