Sechelt’s chief librarian is hoping for a funding boost in 2018, the final year of a five-year funding agreement between the District of Sechelt, Sechelt Indian Government District (SIGD) and Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) areas A, B and D.
Margaret Hodgins told Sechelt council’s finance, culture and economic development committee last week that despite the agreement, the Sechelt Public Library’s per-capita funding has dropped well below the provincial average and the Gibsons Public Library (GPL) and the gap has been growing.
Hodgins said the GPL’s 2016 per-capita funding was $50.59 while the Sechelt library received $31.17 from its funding partners. The provincial average for similar libraries is $49.11
The province funds 11 per cent of the operating funds, which works out to $2.70 per capita for libraries serving populations greater than 12,000.
Hodgins also told the committee that funding is not enough to provide the services outlined in the agreement, in part because of staffing pressures and a steady rise in the number of library users.
“The biggest strain the Sechelt library currently faces is staffing,” said Hodgins. “There is pressure from the union representing library workers to reclassify jobs, many of which were under-classified when the first collective agreement was signed eight years ago. The library is currently short of one supervisor, because staffing funds were redirected where needs were the greatest.”
The Sechelt Public Library board is looking for a $331,408 overall increase, and the District of Sechelt’s share would work out to $145,027. Hodgins and the library board will be asking the SIGD for an additional $11,156 and the three SCRD areas for a combined $106,092
Mayor Bruce Milne, who chairs the committee, explained that any decisions on increasing the funding would have to wait and likely wouldn’t be made until Sechelt talks with the other partners to the agreement.
Milne also pointed out that the Sechelt library has seen healthy increases as a result of that deal.
“The funding increase over the last five years is almost 18 per cent,” said Milne. “The funding increase in this current contract is over three times the population increase… If you look at the actual capital contribution, it’s gone up 24-and-a-half per cent over those five years.”
Coun. Mike Shanks, who is the alternate council liaison to the Library Board, echoed the thoughts of others on the committee who said one of the factors in play is Sechelt’s lack of an industrial tax base to draw on, which isn’t the case for other areas.
“We’re going to have to somehow reconcile the two of those and try and gain a greater portion of that tax base which benefits only a portion of the Sunshine Coast,” he said. “I don’t think anyone disagrees with the fact there is that underfunding that has taken place.”
