Richmond Hill library makes ‘difficult' decision to cut Sunday service, reduce staff

Central branch to close its doors Sundays from June 9 to Sept. 1 this year

Yorkregion.com
April 29, 2019
Sheila Wang

Richmond Hill library is closing its Sunday service at the central branch for the summer.

It is one of a few tough decisions that the newly-appointed Richmond Hill Public Library Board had to make at their first meeting of the new term on March 28 in order to accommodate a budget increase which the board says falls short of what is required to maintain existing levels of library service.

The central branch -- the only library that offers Sunday service during the summer months in the Richmond Hill and Aurora area -- will close its doors from June 9 to Sept. 1 this year.

The library board is also cutting three positions from staff and another three new staff requests.

The three eliminated positions are responsible for direct customer service at the central branch and the new Oak Ridges library.

“In my 23 years of serving on the Richmond Hill Public Library Board, this is the first instance where I have ever had to participate in a decision involving cuts to library service,” board chair David Bishop said.

Bishop expressed his disappointment at the “pure arbitrariness of the budget cut” by Richmond Hill council that approved a 2.4 per cent operating budget increase from 2018 on Feb. 26, instead of a 5.9 per cent increase originally requested by the library board, yorkregion.com reported.

The council decision resulted in a reduction of $316,700 in the funding that was required for the library board to operate at the existing level and meet the growing demand, according to the press release issued by the library board on April 18.

Deputy Mayor Carmine Perrelli supported the 2.4 per cent increase at the second budget meeting on Feb. 19, noting this was well above the inflation pressures.

Statistics Canada’s consumer price index (CPI) in February increased 1.5 per cent compared with a year ago, and 1.9 per cent for March.
“Library expenses do not parallel those of the consumer price index, especially as the library transitions to a new Oak Ridges facility three times the size of the current branch,” said Louise Procter Maio, chief executive officer of the library board.

The new Oak Ridges Library -- a 19,000-square-foot facility -- is expected to complete construction by fall 2019 after several massive delays due to contractual issues, yorkregion.com reported.

The $11,863,000 project on the corner of Yonge Street and Regatta Avenue is expected to offer expanded collections and new programs such as a maker space that is going to have workshops, iMac Creation Station computers, a laser cutter and a 3-D printer.

With the limited funding, the library will no longer be able to hire the three new positions -- library technology specialist, administrative assistant and branch library technician -- who were expected to support the new programs at the new branch and help extend programming and service hours at Richmond Green Library.

“It’s really devastating,” said Rayanne Lees, vice-president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 905, the union representing the municipal workers and library workers in York Region. “I was surprised that at the same time they are becoming a city, they are reducing library services.”

The union is concerned about the reduction of positions, Lees said, and is troubled by the impact of the closure of the well-used Sunday services on the community.

“There will be no library services on Sundays this summer between Newmarket and Markham, so a broad patch of our community will not have access to the library. And we know not everybody can afford internet or a safe place to go.”

It will have an impact on the high school students who may want to use the study space to prepare for their exams on Sundays, she added.

Meanwhile, a number of recurring Sunday programs will be affected, such as Lego Duplo Storytime and ESL Café where newcomers and ESL learners practice their English skills.

The central branch at 1 Atkinson St. currently opens from noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays, where Bishop estimates more than 1,000 people visit on any given Sunday.

As of 2018, more than 72,000 people have registered for a library card in Richmond Hill, up by 9,000 people from 2014, statistics show.

In the library board’s initial proposal for the 2019 operating budget, the 5.9 per cent increase included a base budget increase of 3.3 per cent to maintain current service levels and opening the Oak Ridges branch, a 1.4 per cent increase to annualize staff salaries, and a 1.2 per cent increase to add three new staff positions, said the press release.

However, some councillors upheld the 2.4 per cent increase, despite Maio’s efforts to caution council about the potential impacts of the reduced budget increase.

“It’s been an extremely difficult exercise in developing options for the board’s consideration to realign the budget with approved funding," Maio said. “The library is Richmond Hill’s knowledge centre, a place where everyone is welcome and resources are offered that everyone can access. This will not change.”

“I think it’s a problem of responsible funding,” Lees said, noting library services primarily rely on municipal funding since the provincial funding has been "frozen" for the last 20 years.

Meanwhile, the Ontario government recently cut the budgets for the Southern Ontario Library Service and the Ontario Library Service-North in half for the 2019-20 fiscal year.