The Carmangay Library put on a wonderful summer program this year that ended up reaching 87 children in the Village of Barons. I can not express enough gratitude to all of those involved.
At the same time I am appalled and ashamed with our village council, as the Village of Barons contributed nothing to this program and has in fact stood in the way of additional funding for the library.
The Village of Barons was well on it’s way to establishing it’s own library board which could have provided an additional $10,752.80 of provincial funding for extended library services and programs until it was killed in the third reading by some very short sighted councillors.
The entire point of the board was to take advantage of provincial operational funding and help do our part to support the Carmangay Library with the services they already provide.
Over 4 months, I had talked with Carmangay Library, Chinook Arch, and the PLSB (Public Library Services Branch - Municipal Affairs) about starting our own library board. Everyone I talked to was very enthusiastic and offered to help in any way they could. I conveyed my research back to council and this was the result.
Mayor Bishop argues that we don’t know if there are no costs because they have never explored this.
Councillor Prince says there is no overhead;
Apparently Mayor Bishop failed to read our budget and the Chinook Arch Library System Agreement. We currently pay Chinook Arch $3,054.88 per year or $9.76 per capita.
To qualify for provincial funding the Village of Barons to allocate $2 per capita ($616) to the new library board. 1
Under the Chinook Arch Agreement 2 the villages per capita contribution drops from $9.76 to $7.76, and our new library board pays Chinook Arch $2.00 per capita.
Zero additional cost to the village.
Each municipal and intermunicipal library board is allotted base funding of $9,000 plus a per resident rate of $5.60 based on the 2019 Municipal Affairs Population List 3
$9,000 + ( 313 * $5.60 ) = $10,752.80 of funding per year.
Mayor Bishop says there is day-to-day operational costs.
Councillor Prince arguing that there is no day-to-day costs
Again, the entire point was to act as a funding source for Carmangay Library as they want to expand services, have the personnel already, and just lack funding to deliver additional services.
The Village of Barons Library Board would have zero day to day operations.
Most of the boards expenses would be the yearly audit, however, because it only needs to be done by an external CPA and the simplicity of the books, the cost would have been minimal. Additionally, that cost would have been paid for by provincial grant funding.
Mayor Bishop speaks of direction coming from Council and the board not knowing what they’re doing.
Starting and operating the board isn’t without challenges, but it’s not exactly rocket science either. The PLSB already provides a policies and bylaws toolkit 4.
Brass tacks, the Library Board is relatively outside of councils control once established and in my opinion, Mayor Bishop doubts the intelligence of people living in the village.
Sadly, Deputy Mayor Rempel who supported the establishment of the library board, seems to have forgotten what we ran on during the election as well.
Motion made by Councillor Prince to read Bylaw #775 a third time this 9th day of June, 2026.
1 for, 2 against.
Councillor Prince for,
Deputy Mayor Rempel and Mayor Bishop against.
Motion failed.