After months of back-and-forth discussions with municipal politicians, the Powassan and District Union Public Library finally has its 2024 budget in place with an increase that is only a third of its original request.
The municipalities of Powassan, Nipissing, and Chisholm share the cost of running the library and this past spring the library board proposed a budget increase of 26 per cent.
In defending the proposed increase, the board told the councils the budget was an attempt to move the library staff closer to pay equity with library workers in similar-sized communities.
The board also said the wages of the Powassan library employees have not kept up with inflation for more than a decade and that the workers were among the lowest-paid when compared to their counterparts in other communities.
The three councils countered with a seven-per-cent increase which they still considered on the high side.
At an Aug. 12 meeting, the library board passed a resolution indicating its employees would not receive a wage increase this year. However, that resolution also stated the board’s 2025 budget would plan for a 15-per-cent wage increase and the goal was to get that budget to all three town councils by January.
The board also said it would dip into its reserves to offset this year's shortfall.
That resolution was followed by a Sept. 9 letter to the Municipality of Powassan affirming the board would comply with council’s demand to cap the total library service fees at seven per cent “even though it is short of the necessary amount required to operate the library.”
It’s this letter that also informed the town council about the decision to close the library on Saturdays. The letter also states the board put a freeze on buying new books and DVDs and removed funds from maintenance.
The letter to council adds these cuts still weren’t sufficient to meet the budget and as a consequence, the decision was made to not give staff any wage increase this year.
The board says this decision ran against the newly adopted Strategic Plan which is to “ensure staff wages are competitive with other local libraries and are well over the living wage threshold.”
At the Sept. 17 Powassan council meeting, Mayor Peter McIsaac said the seven per cent was “a large increase” and added he could not understand why services were being cut.
McIsaac further indicated he believed the seven per cent could have been used to increase wages.
Although it’s still some months away, one point in the library letter that has McIsaac concerned is the reference to the board introducing a budget next year that’s proposing a 15 per cent increase.
“It’s going to cause another discussion at the council next year over how we budget the library,” said McIsaac.
Rocco Frangione is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter with Almaguin News. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
