A display in the teen section of the Medicine Hat Public Library is seen on Tuesday, October 29, 2019. - Photo by Colton McKee

By Charles Lefebvre

Library Budget

Provincial funding for libraries unchanged in budget

Oct 29, 2019 | 12:44 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — The Medicine Hat Public Library is breathing a sigh of relief after finding out the funding it receives from the province will remain the same this year.

During Thursday’s budget, it was revealed that there would be no changes to library grants issued by the province this fiscal year. The provincial government has budgeted $37 million for library grants in Alberta in the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, which will be dispersed to libraries across the province.

“It’s mostly a good news story for libraries in Alberta,” said Ken Feser, chief librarian at the Medicine Hat Public Library.”We get a per capita grant from the provincial government and that was not cut or changed in any way, so we’re basically receiving the same amount in 2019 that we did in 2018 and 2020 as well.”

Feser says the total of the per capita grant the library receives from the province is $350,000, and they had received only half of that funding this year.

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“That was a lot of money that was up in the air, so to hear that we were getting it was an important thing for us,” he said.

The majority of the library’s funding comes from the City of Medicine Hat, says Feser.