(Editor’s note: Ken Kellar sits as a volunteer member of the Fort Frances Library Board. To avoid conflicts of interest, he played no role in the writing or editing of this story.)
The 2025 budget for the Fort Frances Public Library Technology Centre has caused some friction between the town, library administration, and staff, as cost-saving measures are implemented across the community.
The library had requested $638,000, an increase from the previous year. However, CEO Richard Bee said the town found the increase too high and asked the library to find $25,000 in savings.
While the library ultimately controls how its budget is spent under the Public Libraries Act, the total amount still requires council approval.
“The budget we submitted to the town was for $638,000, which they reviewed,” he said.
“They determined that the library needed to find $25,000 in savings from the budget that was submitted.”
Although the final amount is slightly higher than in 2024, Bee said it still falls short of what’s needed.
“Technically, it’s not a cut, because that $25,000 actually means the library got $2,000 more from what we had been given by the town in 2024, so technically, we still got an increase,” he said.
“But when you factor in inflation, it’s sort of a de facto cut.”
The proposed budget was designed to maintain current staffing, operations, and services. Bee said the revised budget meant those areas had to be reduced, with student shelving positions eliminated and hours reduced for other roles.
“Our budget was a status quo budget,” he said.
“Unfortunately, because the amount we gave was to maintain the base level, we were forced to try to find savings in one of them, which for here, was staffing.”
Bee warned these staffing reductions may be permanent, as other areas like the book budget have already been frozen for years.
“We are operating on the assumption that any cuts in the respective budget lines that are made are most likely going to be permanent,” he said.
“For instance, the library’s book budget has been frozen for quite a long time at $30,000.”
As many vendors are American, exchange rates and inflation further limit the library’s purchasing power.
“When you’re spending money to purchase books, that money is converted into US dollars,” Bee said.
“So with the exchange rate between the Canadian dollar and the US dollar right now, you’re already losing close to $10,000 just in the exchange.”
Bee said the financial strain reflects broader community challenges.
“The library is in a very precarious position, which is in large part because public libraries as a whole, kind of serve as a microcosm to their community,” he said.
“Unfortunately, the town can’t currently afford certain things, so they have to look at where they can find savings, and they’re going to look at the library, for example.”
Fort Frances Mayor Andrew Hallikas said the town is dealing with a large aging population on fixed incomes, and recently faced its largest tax increase in decades.
“We had a tax increase in 2024 of 5.5 percent, it’s the highest tax increase I’ve ever seen, having been in politics for 20 years,” he said.
“It was shocking to me, it’s unsustainable. We have an aging demographic on fixed incomes.”
Hallikas criticized the province for not increasing operational funding to public libraries.
“The library gets some of its funding from what’s called the public libraries operating grant,” he said.
“But this is just a small percentage of the total operating cost, and it hasn’t changed, I believe, in about 25 years. So that’s what the province kicks in, and it’s woefully inadequate.”
He added this issue affects small towns across Ontario.
“We are not unique in this all,” he said.
“Almost every rural northern community is suffering from the same kind of problems. We’re all hurting for funding… Libraries are important institutions. We need them now more than ever, and the provincial government has a responsibility to help out with that.”
Despite valuing public services, Hallikas said the town had to reduce spending across all departments.
“Going into 2025, our goal was a manageable tax increase,” he said.
“It’s never going to be zero, but we had to cut back on everything, not just the library, but parks, the museum and our marina.”
“The cost of living is increasing, so food, insurance, building supplies, all of those things are going up, and it’s difficult for us to keep our costs down,” he continued.
“My feeling is that the municipality cannot keep adding to this burden of the cost of living with hefty tax increases.”
Library staff said the cuts are unsustainable. IT employee Evan Miller, who also chairs the library’s union local CUPE 65, said the reduced staffing is impacting service.
“As a kind of frontline staff, we do all the day-to-day stuff and we uniquely understand the kind of work required for our job,” he said.
“Not having students and casual staff around to help organize and tidy areas up like the baby play area and the maker space affects the rest of us, the full-time staff and our part time staff member, who now have to take on those responsibilities.”
Miller said the workload has already become strained, with fewer employees having to take on the same level of work as before when they could rely on casual employees.
“Some days we’re at risk of having to close the library because we don’t have enough staff,” Miller said.
“We almost had to close a couple weeks ago for a couple of days because we may not have been able to find anybody. And because there is a decision to not give casual staff hours, they’re less available because they have to get multiple jobs to survive.”
Miller also voiced his concerns over transparency and communication.
“People should know where their tax dollars are going,” he said.
“We have tried to get management into a meeting to talk about the budget since the initial email we got from our CEO in February, and we’ve been delayed and they’ve deflected. They haven’t been transparent with us.”
Staff said they proposed alternative budget ideas to the town, but all were rejected. Miller said staffing structures are part of the issue.
“The municipality is too top heavy, for every manager position they create, they could be hiring two full time staff members,” he said.
“Ultimately, it’s the staff that gets things done at every town facility. We are there every single day. And while I understand the importance of management, given the state of staffing in facilities like libraries and the arena, I think that more focus needs to be now on how wages are distributed between frontline workers and management.”
Budget discussions between library staff and administration are ongoing. The library has declined to comment on the specifics, so the details are not yet known.
One thing is clear, however: everyone agrees on the value of libraries. The real divide lies in how to sustain that value during hard times.
