Communities across the Southeast consider combining libraries

Steinbach hosted a dozen municipalities at city hall for a presentation from Manitoba Public Library Services touting the idea of regionalization.

A dozen communities representing 77,000 people from across the Southeast, some with libraries and some without, attended the Sept. 18 meeting. For the last month since then, municipalities have been passing a resolution put forward by Public Library Services that “supports in principle the establishment of a regional library in Southeastern Manitoba,” and to appoint one representative and alternate to a working group to “establish a framework for the regional library.”

Steinbach hopes to convince as many towns and RMs ranging from Springfield to Piney to join them as possible, possibly creating satellite libraries across the region that would be better funded by the Province. They would also share resources to provide better services without driving up costs.

Six municipalities do not have a library service. Niverville is the largest town to not have a library in the Southeast. Hanover is the largest RM, but has an agreement with Steinbach that gives its residents a discount and has expressed disinterest in regionalization in the recent past.

Niverville Coun. Meghan Hansen was very excited with the prospect.

“Obviously, libraries are very important to a lot of us in Niverville because the demographic in Niverville is really quite young,” said Hansen.

“So when the suggestion of possibly discussing a regional library for southeastern Manitoba came up, I jumped at the opportunity to at least be a part of the conversation.”

Niverville is opening a lending library with donated books at Centennial Arena. But the possibilities that come with a regional library system are many.

“One of the big messages I got from that meeting in Steinbach is that aside from the guidelines on how to fund libraries, which are quite written in stone, what a regional library can look like is extremely open-ended,” said Hansen.

That could be having membership to other libraries without building a new one in Niverville, or being a member of libraries already built or newly built in other communities.

Director of recreation and wellness Warren Britton is expected to be the Niverville representative with the working group, with Hansen as alternate.

Steinbach Coun. Bill Hiebert is the council representative on the Jake Epp Library board and is also very excited about joining forces with other municipalities. He said the Southeast is missing out on the benefits other regions of Manitoba are getting through regionalization.

“I’m a big-time reader and I’m passionate about what’s happening at the library, and we want to serve everybody at our library,” said Hiebert.

“Right now we’re funding a large, large portion – more than most other municipalities. We’re a large center, it’s going to cost us more. But if we did regionalize, we can offer more services and we wouldn’t need to increase the money we’re putting into the library every year.”

Big funding boost

The provincial funding does increase dramatically when more municipalities come together, increasing more as more join on.

The support grant from the Province takes a little bit of arithmetic and is as follows:

First, the library gets the lesser of $20,000 multiplied by the number of municipalities, or the total amount the municipalities give (if there is only one municipality and it only gives $5,000, the province only gives $5,000).

Then, any municipal funding above that maxed out $20,000 per municipality nets more provincial funding. That is a percentage that goes higher depending on how many municipalities are part of the library: 25 percent for one or two, 50 percent for three or four, 65 percent for five to 10, and 75 percent matching dollars for regionalized libraries with more than 10 municipalities.

This big boost in funding is why the Town of Ste Anne has been seeking to regionalize. The RM of Ste Anne has already expressed interest in joining the town, and now there are more potential partners that could bring in more provincial funding to the recently upgraded library on Rue d’Eglise popular with students from the schools just down the street.

Ste Anne is currently looking for a new librarian, and regionalization will be a priority for whomever is hired according to board member Coun. Jeremy Wiens.

“It makes a lot of sense. It is something that’s on our radar. When we go for a librarian, that’s going to be one of the things that we’re looking for: that they have that same vision and idea,” said Wiens.

He is not sure too many municipalities make sense, with bigger boards potentially being a bit cumbersome to get things done. But he did say the province is really encouraging that they work together.

The next step is to form a working group. Steinbach’s library administrator Emmalyn Latigay responded that the anticipated deadline from Public Library Services is this December.

That is where municipalities like the RM of De Salaberry which voted to respond that they are interested will meet to see how regionalization might work. De Salaberry is part of the Jolys Regional Library with the Village of St Pierre, but as a library of only two members does not get more financial benefit.

St Pierre was holding a public hearing on the possibility of moving its library from the French immersion school to its own property that can be available to the public outside of school hours.

La Broquerie also has a library in the French school. Board member Coun. Fernand Piche said the RM is focused on getting its own building before moving ahead on any regionalization.

“That is the long-term plan because the school also I think in the end, they do want it out also eventually. So the plan would be to get it out and ideally in a community centre or somewhere in town here,” said Piche.

“We’re not planning to reach out to anybody yet is the way to put it, I guess.”

La Broquerie may not feel pressure to hurry on library regionalization as the process is expected to take a while. Inter-municipal and provincial bureaucracy is not always a speedy process, and Hiebert expects it to take over a year.

Public Library Services listed staffing, library locations, operating funding, French services, logistics and geography all as things for the working group to work out.