Public libraries aren't just a place to borrow books — and B.C.'s are at a 'breaking point'

When B.C. Premier David Eby came to Grand Forks last year on the campaign trail, Cari Lynn Gawletz got his ear for a few minutes to chat about one of her passions: library funding.

Despite a surge of provincial funding announced the year before, Gawletz, library director of the Grand Forks and District Public Library and board chairwoman of the Association of B.C. Public Library Directors, is gravely concerned about the future of B.C.’s public libraries.

That $45 million “enhancement fund” for libraries was welcome, Gawletz said, but it was “a one-time funding bucket that kind of helped us fill the gaps and patch up the holes.”

With that funding running out this year, Gawletz sees recent library service reductions in Cranbrook and Creston as “the canaries in the coal mine” presaging