Some of the cuts in this year’s provincial budget are “devastating”, said two NDP MLAs, Carla Beck and Nicole Rancourt, who visited Weyburn on Tuesday, including with the Southeast Regional Library and City of Weyburn, finding out what some of the impacts are of the budgetary cuts.
“With the library, it’s been devastating,” said Rancourt, the MLA for Prince Albert Northcote. “We’ve been hearing about the impact it’s going to have on the community. Municipal leaders are concerned about that impact as well, and the impact on people who really utilize the services.”
“What we’ve been hearing is that they didn’t even hear about these cuts until about an hour before the budget,” added Beck, noting the cut was 58 per cent, and is retroactive to January 1.
“They’ve already spent part of their budget; 58 per cent is huge, and to make it retroactive has been absolutely devastating,” said Beck, the MLA for Regina Lakeview who is a native of Lang, where her parents still live.
As the education critic for the NDP, Beck noted the “drastic cuts” to education funding. The education property taxes will bring in $67 million more, but the education budget overall was reduced by $54 million for rural boards, and “layered on this cut is the library cuts, which front-ends support for literacy.”
The MLAs noted the cuts in the grants-in-lieu from SaskEnergy and SaskPower Crown properties will hurt many municipalities, including Weyburn.
“SUMA leaders are very upset, as 109 communities are impacted by this, and they’re continuing to have discussions with the minister. These were agreements that were signed some 70 years ago. This was very unacceptable to have this revenue taken away from them. They need to know when the government has a contract that they will honour that,” said Rancourt. “Municipal leaders will be making some tough decisions as a result.”
Beck commented this showed a lack of respect for other levels of government, as there was no consultation beforehand or forewarning of how deep some of these cuts would be, such as with the regional library systems, as no communications were given beforehand.
She noted the Facebook page for saving the libraries had over 5,000 people sign up in a short time, and her office has received over 2,000 phone calls and emails on the subject. “The MLAs, including minister Duncan, need to understand the impact of these cuts,” said Beck, adding that minister Don Morgan clearly hasn’t done his homework when he suggested that in some communities the library could be combined with the school library.
She noted some communities don’t have a school, plus there are materials like books and movies that simply would not be appropriate to be stocked in a school library.
“The whole system cost $6 million. It’s incredible that for $3.5 million, we’re decimating one of the best provincial library systems in the country. It seems very short-sighted,” said Beck, noting that libraries help to improve literacy for many families in the province.
There will be a “Drop Everything to Read” protest event held today, April 7, at noon at MLA Dustin Duncan’s office, located on Fourth Street next to the Family Place, to protest the library cuts.
