The finely honed axe of the Doug Ford government is cutting in half, funding for services that libraries across the province say they rely on heavily.
Ontario Library Service North and its southern counterpart are having their budgets reduced by 50 percent. They’re both agencies of the provincial culture ministry.
Timmins Public Library CEO Carole-Ann Churcher says they serve every library in the province, regardless of size.
“They manage our provincial inter-library loan system,” Churcher says, beginning a long list. “They offer skills development training, advisory skills and support by librarians. They offer rotating book pools, governance resources to our board and they also manage and negotiate our current contracts with vendors for our non-print resources.”
…That means audio books and e-books.
“It’s a huge cut and we’re very concerned,” Churcher comments. “The library community is rallying and we are working on advocacy to protest these cuts.”
Churcher is encouraging library patrons to contact their MPPs about this. You can also follow this link to a petition that protests the funding cut.
