Wage increases unlikely for librarians

Board seeks additional funding from municipalities

There’s little that can be done to get librarians a wage hike this year, says the acting chair of the Pictou Antigonish Regional Library board.

Dan Currie, a councillor with the Town of Pictou and chair of the library board, said members passed their own $1.7-million budget. However, no room for wage increases was left for staff so the board has turned to municipalities for assistance over and above its usual funding requests.

“These are professional, educated people who make just over minimum wage,” Currie said, adding the library board was hoping the province would provide for a one or two per cent wage increase, but that never came.

Last week, however, the Municipality of Pictou County didn’t approve the increase and although a final decision wasn’t made in Stellarton, discussions didn’t appear promising.

The board said a one per cent increase for staff would result in $13,574 in funding from a total of eight municipal units; a two-percent increase would be $27,153.

Currie said as library chair he feels terrible for staff who are dedicated to their jobs and provide services ranging from teaching people English to children’s programming. At the same time, he understands such a request puts municipalities in a tough situation financially.

“The provincial share has been the same as years before,” he said. “By rights, this is something the province should recognize that they are doing more and more with less and less. The services that libraries do is incredible.”

He said in this year’s library budget, there have been cuts made in such areas as materials and office supplies, so staff can try to maintain levels of programming. But since municipal and provincial contributions have not increased, no room was left for wage increases in 2018-19. Staff received either two or one per cent wage increases the past four years, with the exception of 2015-16. These were accomplished by the library board finding the extra funding in its own budget.

Typically, Currie added, librarians are not the type of people who yell and scream when wronged, so the board put forward its funding request for wage increases as a way to tell councils things need to change.

“We wanted to raise the issue and make them aware,” he said. “Maybe our ask will be bigger next year if the province doesn’t pull up its socks. It is an important service to a lot of people.”