Library turns a page
St. Clements added to regional membership

By Andrew Buck
Friday January 20, 2006

Selkirk Journal — The folks who run the Selkirk and St. Andrews Regional Library are going to have to buy a bigger sign.
That’s because the library – run by two of the three municipalities in the Triple S region – has welcomed the RM of St. Clements aboard. St. Clements council voted unanimously to give first and second reading to a bylaw to join the library at its Jan. 10 meeting.
At the meeting councillors were presented with a petition bearing the names of 1,300 St. Clements residents who have asked the municipality to join the library. St. Clements Reeve Steve Strang said that volume of support was too strong to ignore.
“I was quite taken back by the amount of signatures they had presented,” Strang said. He said the municipality typically gets petitions on municipal matters with a couple hundred signatures. “I think this sends a pretty loud message,” Strang said.
The library is funded by municipal and provincial contributions. The province matches portions of municipal funding, St. Andrews Reeve Don Forfar said, and provides about 40 per cent of the library’s total funding. Selkirk and St. Andrews pay the rest, he said, which works out to about $145,000 for Selkirk and $60,000 for St. Andrews every year.
Strang said St. Clements has not yet hammered out its annual funding contribution, though the municipality has been asked to pay $4.50 per capita upon entry. The RM expects to pay somewhere between $30,000 to $35,000 during its first full year of library membership, Strang said.
St. Clements residents will be able to take out library memberships free of charge once the municipality comes on board. The municipality’s residents currently pay $126 for family memberships at Winnipeg libraries or $55 for Selkirk and St. Andrews Regional Library memberships. The RM rebates $30 of that cost, Strang said, though many residents don’t seek that rebate.
Strang said that whatever money is spent will go toward a good cause.
“Council feels that there’s very good value in participating in a regional agreement,” he said.

Affordable for all
Accessibility was a key message at Tuesday’s council meeting, where library board chair Colleen Sklar made a membership pitch to St. Clements council. Membership fees aren’t an option for some, she said.
“For some, it’s totally impossible,” Sklar said. “Families just can’t afford that kind of money,” she said. “I believe everyone should have access to library services – it’s what defines us as Canadians.”
The library offers member services like Internet access and online journals and periodicals many people don’t have the ability to purchase on their own, Sklar said.
Selkirk is increasing its presence as a regional hub, Sklar said, and many St. Clements residents already head to the city. Extra revenues from St. Clements would allow the library to beef up existing services and add new specialized programs, she said.
Many St. Clements residents – particularly those in the municipality’s southern half – head to Winnipeg for services, Coun. Tom Piche said. He wondered if those people would go to Selkirk instead.
“There is nothing going north in our municipality,” Piche said. “You see a lot of migration south from Church Road to Winnipeg for city sports and facilities.”
St. Andrews expected a similar scenario when it joined the library, Forfar said, but people from all over the municipality have taken out memberships.
“The reality is, older people read and the strongest membership comes from young families,” Forfar said. Both demographics are in abundance in St. Andrews and St. Clements, he said.
About 2,600 St. Andrews residents have library memberships, compared with 4,000 in Selkirk.
abuck@bowesnet.com