Toronto Reference Library patrons use a bank computers with free Internet access in January of 2007.Deborah Baic/The Globe and Mail
Less than a month after Toronto city council spared library branches from the chopping block, more than $17-million in cuts are on the table, including reduced Sunday openings, fewer weekday hours, less spending on collections and the elimination 100 full-time jobs.
The money-saving measures are in a report by Toronto's head librarian in response to a demand for a 10-per-cent reduction in all city operations for next year. The report will be considered next week at the first meeting of the library board since the appointment of eight new members. It stops short of recommending all the cuts, instead proposing the board back $9.7-million in savings, or about 5.7 per cent of the amount requested.
To meet the 10-per-cent target, the chief librarian says in the report that the board would have to consider an additional $7.3-million in added belt-tightening, which would include eliminating Sunday service at eight branches, and summer closings at the remaining 19. Also among the options not recommended to the board were reducing weekday and Saturday hours seven per cent, with some morning and evening closings at lesser used branches. It added that the collection budget could be chopped by nearly $1.9-million or about 11 per cent, resulting in longer waits for high demand material.
"This is devastating," said Maureen O'Reilly, head of the library workers union, who this summer helped organize a massive public campaign to save library branches, backed by several prominent authors, including Margaret Atwood. In response to public outrage – vented in around-the-clock committee meetings and in countless messages to councillors and an online petition – mayor Rob Ford pledged not to close branches as part of his hunt for savings at city hall.
The latest proposals, Ms. O'Reilly said, show that people who believed the battle over the libraries was over need to renew their efforts to preserve services at the best-used system in the world. "A lot of people were reassured by the mayor's comments that he would not close libraries. This shows he wasn't presenting the full picture," she said.
The report also recommends that the public be consulted on the proposed cuts with a report on the results to the board before the end of the year. As well, to smooth the effect of the cuts, it suggests taking $2-million from an acquisitions fund.
Library board member and councillor Janet Davis, an opponent of the mayor, said there is no telling how the newly appointed members will receive the proposal to cut a total of 20,000 hours in library service.
"We have a new board, so I can't predict it," she said. "I trust these are members who've come forward to serve on this board because they have an interest in public libraries and in serving our communities. I hope they recognize how important libraries are to our communities."
Ms. Davis said plans to reduce hours make no sense because demand has not diminished. "You walk into any library branch in this city on a Sunday or during the week and you will find them packed," she said.
Patrick White