It could cost city taxpayers about one per cent more to fund the Barrie Public Library system this year.
Library officials presented their 2025 budget to city council Wednesday.
“While we are requesting a small increase this year, we are mindful of the importance of maintaining fiscal responsibility,” said Lauren Jessop, the library’s chief executive officer. “This budget will allow us to sustain service levels.”
After budgeted expenses of $10.46 million last year, that total is expected to increase to $10.85 million in 2025.
The city’s grant to the library was $9.8 million last year and would increase to $9.91 million this year, if approved by city council, which could happen at month’s end.
“The 2025 budget reflects a careful balance between meeting rising community needs and managing costs,” said library board trustee Austin Mitchell. “As always, municipal funding remains the backbone of our revenue.”
While most of the library’s revenue comes from the city, there are smaller amounts from the province, Oro-Medonte Township, fees for service and grants, along with fundraising. The library board is also taking $230,000 from its reserves, which total $2.8 million.
Councillors had questions about fundraising, donations, the library’s ratio of management to non-management, reserves, etc,
“Obviously, (we) have to look at everything from a taxpayers’ lense and make sure that every dollar is being effectively used,” said Coun. Gary Harvey, who's also chairman of the city’s finance and responsible governance committee.
Jessop said the library has about 1,000 new members each month and now has more than 46,000 active library cardholders.
“This growth increases the cost of doing business, materials and technology. As our membership grows, so too does the use of our collections,” she said. “We’ve seen a strong surge in the use of digital resources, including e-books and digital audio books.”
Library officials also asked council for another $75,000 to fund the design, layout, community consultations and demographic analysis for a new library branch in the city’s northwest corner.
Councillors had questions about the necessity of the funding and whether it couldn’t be done in-house or by city staff.
“We’re not being hard on the library,” said Deputy Mayor Robert Thomson. “We are the stewards of people’s money.”
The northwest branch would be based on the Holly Community Library, which opened in August 2022 at 555 Essa Rd., and is 4,500 square feet in size. Its capital cost to open, including all books and shelves, was $1.1 million.
A northwest library branch was first discussed as part of the internal audit status update for the third and fourth quarters of 2024.
One matter was the value-for-money audit of the Barrie Public Library, which received $9.8 million in city money last year.
The audit concluded the Barrie Public Library is generally operating in an economical, efficient and effective manner — although the review identified areas of improvement to further increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the library’s processes and procedures.
The Barrie Public Library has branches in the city’s downtown, and in the Painswick and Holly areas of the city. It employs 40 full-time staff and 57 part-timers, according to the audit.
The downtown branch was built in 1996 and is 56,200 sq. ft., while the Painswick branch is 15,000 sq. ft. and was built in 2011.
The library board itself has spoken in the past about the need for more branches in Barrie — in community centres planned in the Hewitt's and Salem areas in the former Innisfil land, at 15,000 sq. ft. in size.
Both the 2025 library budget and the $75,000 request toward a northwest branch will be decided by general committee Jan. 22 and city council on Jan. 29.
