Libraries funding boost shot down by councillors

Weeks after opening a landmark new Central Library, city councillors voted to slash a proposed increase for the public library budget, while boosting funding for Calgary’s public arts agency.

As deliberations on the next four-year municipal budget spilled into a third day, councillors made multiple pitches Wednesday to reduce spending on Calgary’s arts and culture sector, as well as libraries.

With the city proposing a $2.8-million boost to libraries, Coun. Ward Sutherland introduced a notice of motion calling for a freeze on additional spending. Sutherland argued the library budget had already been increased by approximately $7 million to accommodate the new Central Library, as well as new branches in Seton and Symons Valley.

“You’ve done a massive increase and you haven’t come back with any efficiencies of how you’re going to actually run your business,” Sutherland said Wednesday. “We’re asking every single organization to tighten their belt.”

Coun. Evan Woolley, who sits on the library’s board, pushed back hard Wednesday, suggesting he wouldn’t support a reduction in operating dollars for a space Calgarians are “quickly falling in love with.”

“We can’t open a $245-million brand-new library and not have sufficient operating dollars to run it,” said Woolley. “It was an incredibly visionary decision of a previous council (to) build that library. We have to have enough people to be able to run it. It’s a huge space.”

Advocates for the library argued the additional money is necessary to tackle the rise in social disorder at various branches and to expand opening hours at popular branches.

Council ultimately voted 10-5 in favour of nixing the additional money. Only Mayor Naheed Nenshi and councillors Woolley, Druh Farrell, Ray Jones and Gian-Carlo Carra voted against the motion.

Nenshi called council’s decision “weird,” saying it was made without a clear idea of the effect it will have on libraries.

“Council felt in its wisdom that they didn’t need additional money. I kind of think they do as the library offers more and more services, but, ultimately, that was council’s decision,” Nenshi said.

Three other proposals aimed at freezing or slashing arts budgets failed Wednesday.

The city is proposing to give $5 million more in 2019 to the Calgary Arts Development Authority, boosting the operating budget from $6.4 million to $11.4 million. The increase in funding will allow Calgary to go from having the lowest per-capita spending on arts in the country to having the second lowest, after Winnipeg.

Coun. Sean Chu brought forward a notice of motion Wednesday to eliminate the $5 million boost, arguing the city shouldn’t be subsidizing artists.

“I’m not asking for a cut, I’m simply asking for no unnecessary increase during this economic time,” Chu said. “We have to show the public and thousands of people who lost their jobs that we mean business.”

But a majority of council opposed the proposal Wednesday, with some suggesting there is a “business case” for the arts since the creative sector is viewed as one route to diversifying Calgary ’s economy and an important factor in attracting entrepreneurial talent to the city.

Others, including Nenshi and Carra, pointed out that cuts to the arts would mean minute savings to the city, at a painful cost to arts organizations.

“This is madness. In a zeal for cutting, you go after the heart of the organization that’s been frozen for nearly a decade and that is the lowest in the whole country,” Nenshi said.