Winnipeggers rally for increased library services before city vote on budget this month
Many hope for more increases than draft budget entails, call for Sunday hours at Millennium branch
Nearly 100 people rallied at the Millennium Library Sunday to call for increased hours at the facility before the City of Winnipeg considers its final four-year budget later this month.
Operating hours at Winnipeg's 20 libraries will increase 12 per cent overall, if the city's draft 2024-27 budget is approved, which would allow each to open on Wednesday year-round, the City of Winnipeg said last month.
The proposed changes, however, would keep all Winnipeg libraries closed on Sundays from June to August, and the Millennium Library wouldn't operate on Sundays year-round.
"Millennium, which is currently open on Sundays, will be closed so that … suburban libraries can be open," said Joe Curnow, who is part of the group Millennium for All.
"And we're saying all of our libraries should be open, right? We shouldn't have to pick and choose and we shouldn't have to do it at the expense of the biggest and most well-used library in the system."
Millennium for All would like to see Sunday and Wednesday hours year-round for all libraries and increased funding for programming, collections and technology, such as computers in facilities and upgrades to online systems.
The group also wants more support for the community connections space at the Millennium Library and safety staff across the system, a news release said.
Staff increases
Coun. Evan Duncan (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood) said last month that a recruitment process is needed to ensure the estimated 13 full-time staff needed are hired, so the expanded hours can come into effect by September.
The cost to extend the hours is nearly $1 million.
Millennium for All also wants the city to hire 12 additional full-time-equivalent staff. While the current draft budget has a good staffing increase, Curnow said, it's to cover increased hours.
A budget increase of just over $450,000 for library materials is also part of the outlined changes, which would provide Winnipeggers with diverse and up-to-date collections to choose from, the city said in a news release last month.
Another investment of nearly $135,000 would go toward extra library programming that ranges from digital literacy and Indigenous languages to early literacy and a technology makerspace at the Millennium Library.
LISTEN | Coun. Evan Duncan on secuity concerns at the Millennium Library:
"What we need to see long term is two things. One is increased staffing ratios across the system, because what the research tells us is for staffing for programming, for everything that we want to see, increased staffing is the way you get to it," Curnow said.
"If staff don't feel safe at work sometimes, increased staffing is the way to address that."
'Beg for crumbs'
Mary Burton wants the budget to include years of funding to support the community connection space.
Security at the front of the library isn't welcoming and can be intimidating, she said, but the staff at the community connection space help to create a safe environment, she said.
"When they come in and they see that there's a smiling happy person who's standing there, willing to help them and tell them 'Come on in,' that is what's important to our community and that's what's needed," she said.
Jonathan Dyck, who is part of the group Budget for All, also said the Millennium Library is one of the most-used spaces in the city and needs more resources, not less.
"This was a gathering of people who feel similarly and want to put pressure on the city to reconsider how much money they're offering to our libraries downtown, particularly Millennium."
Curnow echoed his statement.
"We want to be investing a bunch more resources in this and not having to beg for crumbs year after year with a four-year budget, but really to see long-term investment in our library system."
Public hearings for members of the public to make delegations and argue for changes to the budget started March 1. The final budget will be presented to the executive policy committee on March 12, with delegations on March 15.
Council will consider the final budget on March 20 and then vote on the budget at its meeting the next day.
LISTEN | Should the community connection space inside Millenium library be moved elsewhere?
With files from Rachel Ferstl