The cost of planned renovations at the Sechelt library caused upset among some councillors at the April 5 committee of the whole meeting where the new $1.7-million price tag was presented.
At a previous meeting in November, the expected cost of upgrades was $1.5 million, which would create a new entrance and glass façade, rejig the layout inside to make it more usable for all ages, and result in about 20 per cent more space.
After building contingency into the budget and getting some firmer numbers, chief librarian Margaret Hodgins said on April 5 that the cost would be $1,744,375.
“I think those numbers are probably quite a bit higher than anyone on council was expecting,” said Coun. Noel Muller during the meeting.
“This began as a $50,000 [Canada 150] grant to deal with [accessibility issues in] the front and now we’re looking at $1.7 million and change for an upgrade to a building that, in our strategic plan, indicates that we’re going to vacate.”
Muller said the district’s long-term plan is to leave the current municipal building, which houses the library on its bottom floor, and purchase or build a new municipal building “five to seven years out.”
That was the first Hodgins had heard of the plan to move.
The strategic plan calls for council to “explore different scenarios for expanding the municipal space and the library.”
Mayor Bruce Milne noted the issue of moving to a new municipal building in the future was not in writing anywhere but it was “the elephant in the room.”
“The elephant of moving the municipal offices has been looming for several years and it’s not out that much because councillors are afraid to speak to that,” Milne said.
Muller noted council had already spent $250,000 to renovate the district’s front office during the current term and now the library wanted “more money going into a building that we are intending to vacate. So I have some serious concerns about this,” he said.
Coun. Doug Wright followed suit, saying the proposed cost for renovation was just too high. “Talking about the library is like talking about motherhood and apple pie. But this is not about the library, this is about tax dollars,” Wright said.
“We just spent the morning slashing budget, cutting budgets in community areas within the District of Sechelt, and now I have a project sitting in front of me, that this morning was $1.5 million and now it’s closer to $1.8 million.”
Wright said he looked at previous district budgets and didn’t notice any time in the past five years that the library had asked for funding to address renovation needs. “Now all of a sudden, like an emergency item, it rises to the top of the pile and here we are discussing a library for $1.8 million,” Wright said.
“When I look at a building like this and it’s nowhere on the radar and all of a sudden it gets moved into the capital budget and boom it’s front and centre. It begs a lot of questions.”
Hodgins was visibly upset at Wright’s comments. “When I arrived in 2014 we had just finished signing a five-year funding agreement, which was extremely controversial and gave some brief hope to a library that has been chronically underfunded in a shameful way in this community, since its inception” Hodgins said.
“When you talk about ‘all of a sudden this is on the radar,’ I’ll tell you what’s different. I’m here.”
Hodgins said she took the renovation plans to the public to gauge their feedback and found the majority of the public was in favour. “What we are doing today is bringing this forward for discussion and that $50,000 project is still on the table. What we’re saying is ‘here’s the $50,000 project and here’s what we could do if we want to look at the long-term livability and all of those great ideas that we see expressed in the SCRD strategic plan, the DOS strategic plan and even the Sechelt Indian Government District plan,’” Hodgins said.
Milne noted it would be “up to the public to decide” whether it was willing to foot the bill for the library renovation through a tax increase as there were no funds available in the district for the reno.
That tax increase would work out to about 1.7 per cent, according to director of finance Doug Stewart.
Council thanked Hodgins for her presentation and said they would look closer at the library’s ask during budget deliberations. “There will be, obviously, some more detailed discussion,” Milne said.
“If it gets to that stage of going to the community it’s going to have to be a very tight question because a 1.7 per cent increase on what we know is probably five per cent every year for the next four to five years – the community has to weigh all that.”
