Following the library committee meetings, a site analysis has been budgeted to determine the future location of the library. A three-year capital plan has been adopted for the construction of a new one. Computers will even be purchased pursuant to a resolution adopted at the council meeting in April.
So why is the council discussing a merger with the city of Lachute? Why not have put cards on the table during the committee meetings to have a frank discussion? Were the dice loaded in advance?
Some would welcome a merger with Lachute. They would however be wrong.
The sums allocated to the library by the city of Lachute is $40 per citizen, an amount far higher than the $23 in Brownsburg-Chatham. Mayor Dinel hammered during the campaign that Lachute would offer its services at $11 per head. Wow! What a saving! But for how long? Lachute will be the one to decide on future increases at will. And Brownsburg-Chatham's citizens will have surrendered their power of decision to the neighboring municipality. We would also be entitled to ask what the citizens of Lachute would think to the idea of subsidizing Brownsburg-Chatham.
"Lachute has such a more beautiful library than ours, we'd rather go there." And your teenagers, will they be able to walk to the library at any time that suits them? What about the elderly who reside near the current library? It is proven that the more the distance, the less attendance, while the library plays an essential role in learning and reading, as well as in the fight against school dropout. Two-thirds of the population live in Brownsburg-Chatham area of the current library. It is therefore logical that the library be located there. That being said, the coalition members have always considered that the big territory warrants services in the Saint-Philippe and Pine Hill.
And why should we not have such a wonderful library here? "We do not have money", are we being answered, the tax increase of 20% pointed out as evidence. Well we're not so convinced. The budget includes estimated revenues which are pessimistic, while expenditures were estimated at a level that would be amazing to see the city reach. At the end of the fiscal year, we'll most likely say that we in fact have a lot of money in the coffers. To learn more about the budget, you can meet the Citizens Action Committee of Brownsburg-Chatham on his spaghetti dinner May 21, 2011.
For someone who wants to merge its library service with the neighboring city, it is better to suggest our finances are precarious in order to remove the will for a new library in the entire population. Why not then become a dormitory town with no soul and let the new residents choose Lachute, which has a beautiful library?
Moreover, a merger agreement with Lachute would mean
no possible return for 10 to 20 years, has warned the representative of the Ministry of Culture, Communications and the Status of Women. Brownsburg-Chatham should meanwhile be content with a branch the size of a closet. Anyway, money will need to be disbursed to build a new library branch should the arena be destroyed, as envisaged because of its age, since the library is part of the same building.
And let's not forget the argument of Internet. No need for a library when you have Internet. Oh yeah? And why is it that the Internet café in the library is so successful? Maybe people need a place to enjoy Internet services. Studies have also shown that the use of Internet has encouraged a thirst for knowledge and increased the use of libraries. A new library will see its attendance grow astronomically across Quebec today, regardless of whether the Internet is present or not.
Users must speak first. Only they will have to defend their library. Others do not know what they're missing while being indifferent or believing they do not have an interest in it. The only way to convince them would be to build a new library that would be nice to attend. It always comes back to the same conclusion: It takes political will.
**Added on April 18th: To see the detailed position that the Corporation des bibliothécaires professionnels du Québec presented to the Government of Québec in April 2006 on the necessity of a law for the public libraries, click
here (text in French).**
On April 23 will be celebrated the World Book and Copyright Day. We wanted to launch a heartfelt plea to the Minister Christine St-Pierre. Here is the letter addressed to her.
Christine St-Pierre
Ministre de la Culture, des Communications et de la Condition féminine
Our library is barely surviving
So the fate of libraries no longer dependent on municipal elections
Hello Madam Minister Christine St-Pierre,
As will be held April 23 the World Book and Copyright Day, we must call out to you on this issue that we care for, on behalf of our community and of our children. Do you remember the advertising campaign for the municipal elections in 2009? Municipal services were put forward to justify voter turnout, for example drinking water or fire departments. Have you noticed that no publicity concerned culture? Yet, there should have.
In Brownsburg-Chatham, in the Basses-Laurentides, we learned with joy that our library which had for long been obsolete would be moving into a house of historical interest. Would it not be for the municipal elections of 2009, we could attend that new library today. However, the new administration decided otherwise. We formed a non-partisan coalition of citizens to defend the project in question, the
We Deserve Better Coalition. We have noted the lack of public support for the library to be relocated in the building originally planned. We offered the city council to work together in order to develop a new project and we have joined a library committee formed by the city. A development plan has been drafted by Réseau BIBLIO Laurentides. An analysis study to identify a future site was planned under budget and a three-year capital plan adopted for the construction of a new library. However, we question today the usefulness of the whole process since the council decided to overrule the library committee to go and negotiate a merger agreement with the neighboring city of Lachute. A library that has existed for 35 years, serving a population of nearly 7000 people could become a single branch for the sole purpose of saving some money. It is the vitality of our community which is at stake.
In Québec, we have the
Loi sur le développement des entreprises québécoises dans le domaine du livre, which ensures the survival of the publishing community in Québec. That is fine. The Parti Québecois in 1998 developed the
Politique de la lecture et du livre, which contains some wonderful principles to encourage reading and to facilitate access to it. That is very very good. You have announced numerous libraries openings and grants to improve and renovate existing ones. We applaud. And after? What guarantees a new elected administration not to come slashing budgets, as in Brownsburg-Chatham, as in Rawdon?
In the magazine
Documentation et bibliothèques of October-December 2007, Benoît Ferland and Marcel Lajeunesse signed an article entitled "Une loi des bibliothèques publiques du Québec: une nécessité". The authors argued that the legislation "is a major contributor to the creation and development of library services and information." It cites the example of Ontario which has adopted a policy of public libraries a century ago and has adapted its laws over time. From the outset, the Ontario law specified the minimum amount of municipal tax to provide funding for the library. The principle of free education has played a fundamental role in library use.
The authors suggest principles and provisions that should be included in a Québec law so that our province stops falling behind in the field. Among other things, the idea of handing the management of libraries in the hands of nonprofits organizations has enough appeal to users because they would then be administered by people who would truly have at heart their development. The municipal and provincial levels would continue to provide funding, but it would be possible to enhance it by fundraising activities. "Donations are obtained more easily when donors know that money have no chance of being in the consolidated fund of a municipality." Messrs. Ferland and Lajeunesse stress that the model would not be so revolutionary and quote examples in public libraries that, like CRSBP Network (BIBLIO), are managed by a Board: Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, St. Hyacinthe, Joliette, etc. Thus, the fate of the library no longer depend on municipal elections.
The "lucid" speech is trendy. It is fashionable to denounce expenditures. You probably remember the community of Baie-des-Sables which was torn on the issue of a new library because of the costs that would entail. Yet, economic studies have found that every dollar invested in the public library service brings back six. The quality of life benefits from the presence of a library. It is certainly a criterion of choice to attract new taxpayers in a city. The shops around benefit from the traffic and prosper more. Everyone agrees, waste is unacceptable. We should know the difference with an investment, even more when it's an investment for the development of people.
We're being hammered with the idea that we live in a knowledge society. The public library has an important role to play in the fight against illiteracy and school dropout. Transmitting the love of reading to children is also transmitting a taste for learning. Why wait until they reach the age of 15 or 16? We must intervene before they attend school. Would it not be great to set an example in the world, like Finland where the rate of library use is about 80% and the dropout rate of 0.034%? We still have a long road ahead before we get there.
Critics of the project of the Grande Bibliothèque had to reconsider. It has been an unmitigated success and it celebrated in 2010 its fifth anniversary with pride. It has been demonstrated that it has not stifled the other libraries, but that it rather plays a role of locomotive. We need the whole province of Québec boarding the train.
We therefore ask you to pass a legislation that is adapted to current conditions, a legislation that would allow the full development of the library system, an act that would alter political hazards of a four-year term to another. And we sincerely hope to rally the opposition parties in this matter. Help us ensure the good health of our library system. "A stream of inspiration in culture" is the slogan put forward to celebrate the 50th anniversary of your ministry. Let's always work to improve our situation and avoid setbacks, especially when celebrating such an important occasion.
Cynthia Dubé and Mario Chabot
on behalf of the We Deserve Better Coalition
p.j.:
collage (in French) fait à partir de textes tirés en grande partie du blogue de la coalition Nous méritons mieux; l'article de Benoît Ferland et de Marcel Lajeunesse, « Une loi des bibliothèques publiques du Québec: une nécessité » paru dans Documentation et bibliothèques en octobre-décembre 2007
c.c.: tous les médias au Québec; David Whissell, député d'Argenteuil; Mario Laframboise, député d'Argenteuil-Papineau-Mirabel; Pauline Marois, chef du Parti québécois, chef de l'oppositoin officielle à l'Assemblée nationale du Québec; Yves-François Blanchet, porte-parole de l'opposition officielle en matière de culture et de communications; Jean Charest, premier ministre du Québec; Line Beauchamp, ministre de l'Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport; Jean-Marc Parent, du ministère de la Culture, des Communications et de la Condition féminine; Amir Khadir, Françoise David, porte-paroles de Québec solidaire; Gérard Deltell, chef de l'ADQ; Les Arts et la ville; Culture pour tous; Association pour l'avancement des sciences et des techniques de la documentation (ASTED); Réseau BIBLIO du Québec; Réseau BIBLIO des Laurentides; ville de Brownsburg-Chatham; MRC d'Argenteuil; Conseil de la culture des Laurentides (CCL); Union des écrivaines et écrivains québécois (UNEQ); Guy Berthiaume, président-directeur général, Bibliothèque et archives nationales du Québec; Association des auteurs des Laurentides; Association des libraires du Québec; Fédération québécoise des municipalités (FQM); Conférence régionale des élus des Laurentides; Union des municipalités du Québec (UMQ); Bibliothèque de Brownsburg-Chatham; Bibliothèques publiques du Québec (BPQ); Bibliothèques publiques de Laval-Laurentides-Launaudière (BPLLL); Solidarité rurale du Québec; Le bibliothécaire errant, Coalition pour l'avenir du Québec.
