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The imminent closure of five rural Nova Scotia libraries has municipalities working to find funding solutions to keep the doors open.
Annapolis Valley Regional Library (AVRL) announced on June 1 it would be closing its Kentville, Hantsport, Lawrencetown, Middleton and Port Williams branches due to a lack of sustainable funding.
The libraries are slated to close on July 20, a move that has sparked concern and protests from community members who use those spaces.
AVRL says it currently has $160,000 in reserve funds and is looking at its options.
“So the board is in good faith taking a look at the reserve funds that are remaining to it and seeing if there is an opportunity to extend service for a number of weeks,” said Julia Merritt, AVRL’s CEO.
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A letter from the Council of Regional Librarians to Dave Ritcey, Minister of Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage, says that libraries in the province are currently facing a funding gap of almost $12.8 million.
Merritt says AVRL has been open about its struggles, cutting staffing by 25 per cent and programming by 50 per cent since 2015.
“No matter what, there was going to be some major disappointments due to the fact of having 11 branches and no longer being able to afford to operate that many,” she said.
Speaking to reporters after a cabinet meeting last week, Ritcey said the province has no more money to give beyond the $16.4 million in the provincial budget.
“We’re here to work with the AVRL and the library system, as well as our municipal partners. We’re both the funders and we want to continue to work them on a sustainable model,” Ritcey said on July 9.
News that the province will not provide more funding wasn’t surprising to Kentville Mayor Andrew Zebian, but he says it was disappointing to hear.
“I think right now the main focus is to keep those five branches open. So I think really we need to go back to the municipalities and collect that shortfall to keep them all open,” he said.
The AVRL’s board is meeting Monday night to discuss options to keep the branches open until the end of the fiscal year and is eyeing support from the local municipalities.
“That is an option. It’s one of the options that the library board pursued this year already. It asked its eight funding partner municipalities for an increase of 50 per cent to their regular annual operating contribution and the majority of municipal units decided not to contribute the full increase as requested,” said Merritt.
“So having this conversation about whether the library board can extend service also includes a secondary conversation with the municipalities to see if there’s any appetite to change their funding decisions from this spring.”
Zebian says he’s hopeful for a positive outcome, but adds it needs collaboration between all the local governments.
“Because the library is used by the entire region and just because you live in another area doesn’t mean you don’t use the Kentville branch or another branch,” he said.
“So we all have to kind of look at this collectively and if the province isn’t going to commit any more money, then it is going to fall back on us.”
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