A A

SYDNEY, N.S. —

The library may be known for its quiet setting and tranquil atmosphere, but it appears the traditional cornerstone of the community has become the latest battleground in the fight for equitable funding from the province.

The James McConnell Memorial Library is shown in this file photo.

Long underfunded, the Cape Breton Regional Library Board is now at odds with Nova Scotia’s Department of Communities, Culture and Heritage over the province’s latest library funding proposal.

The dispute began on Jan. 19 when board member and Cape Breton Regional Municipality Coun. Amanda McDougall traveled to Truro for a presentation from the department’s deputy minister Tracey Taweel. But, it turns out she didn’t like what she heard at the meeting of the Library Boards Association of Nova Scotia.

Earlier this week, McDougall reported to fellow councillors that she was told what was said in the presentation was not to leave the room. And, she expressed further frustration that the province’s new proposed library funding plan gave the Cape Breton board the lowest percentage increase (1.65 per cent) of all of Nova Scotia’s libraries. Cumberland would enjoy the largest increase at 10.54 per cent, while Halifax would see a 3.17 per cent increase in the provincial monies it receives.

After she reported back to the local library board, an emergency meeting was called and it was decided that board members would boycott last week’s consultation session in Sydney.

“We decided that we weren’t going to attend these public consultations that were being thrown together by the province ever so hastily,” said McDougall.

“We need more time – we need to figure this out and understand what kind of effect this formula will have on our services here.”

Amanda McDougall

Kendra Coombes

The first-term councillor from Main-a-Dieu noted that she was especially irked by the fact the province’s funding formula doesn’t recognize Cape Breton as the second largest municipality in Nova Scotia.

“In this case we are not being considered a network of libraries that span rural, urban and suburban – we are being considered to be a rural area, although sometimes we are considered to be the second largest region when it is convenient for our funding to be diminished and this has got to stop,” said McDougall.

Fellow library board member and councillor Kendra Coombes also expressed her frustration with the province’s alleged disregard for municipal consultation. And she said that to her the exclusion of the Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities and the Association of Municipal Administrators Nova Scotia was a “red flag”.

“To me that was wrong, and all consultation should have stopped the moment that improper consultation took place at this level of the proposed funding and I think that is another reason why the councillors on the library board did not attend,” said Coombes.

But not all CBRM councillors agreed with the tactic of boycotting the public consultation meeting.

Steve Gillespie

Darren Bruckschwaiger

“If I wasn’t happy with the funding formula then I want to face them and tell them I wasn’t happy with the formula and here are my reasons,” said District 10 Coun. Darren Bruckschwaiger.

“I do know that we’re dealing with this department and we’re looking for funding for a new library and I don’t think it’s smart to boycott a meeting with the department that we’re looking to for a new library as well.”

Meanwhile, council’s third library board member, Steve Gillespie, said the board is only keeping its financial head above water because it planned ahead.

“We’ve done a really good job of putting money away for a rainy day – we’re able to purchase the vehicles we need and keep the services that we have because we’ve been able to save and have a reserve fund,” said Gillespie.

CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke ended Tuesday’s hour-long debate at council’s general committee meeting by recognizing the right of library board members to not attend last week’s session with the province.

“The next step is for us to say, ‘we’re not happy, but here is what we’re asking for’, so I think it’s council’s mandate to take this and focus our energy on what we’re going to ask for,” said Clarke.

Cecil Clarke

“We want to have what we can afford — we want to have the best central library, the best regional library service and the best bookmobile that we can have,”

Under the province’s funding proposal, the CBRLB will, like all other library boards, receive a one-off sum of $52,000. Then, beginning in 2020, the province will begin doling out the $2 million it is allocating for Nova Scotia libraries based on a complex formula that local board members admit they don’t quite understand.

Related:

• Family key to literacy, say Cape Breton advocates

• Cape Breton libraries hope food donations will erase late book fines

• OP-ED: CBRM needs new regional library