If I hadn’t found my way into public history and museums, I would probably be a librarian. Or maybe an archivist. Curating and facilitating access to knowledge is my jam, something I realized as a grad student when I became an advocate for the elimination of barriers to academic research.

As a parent, my love for librarians has deepened. As the kid gains interest in new subjects, we head to the library to find books – and to play. We pull books from the shelves about outer space, making friends, and big trucks; we play in the puppet theatre and do the puzzles the staff set out. No one tries to sell us anything. And it’s all free.

Well, it’s free with my library card. But taxes pay for it…though less and less these days.

Like most public institutions, libraries have been doing more with less. But I was shocked to learn recently that funding for libraries in BC has been stagnant since 2010. The board chair of the Association of B.C. Public Library Directors has warned that “BC libraries are facing a breaking point.”

Different Government, Same Policy

In 2009, the BC Liberal government reduced annual funding to BC’s 71 public libraries from $17M to $14M annually. That is where the funding has remained. Unchanged in 16 years. 

Has British Columbia changed in 16 years? You bet. The population increased by more than one million; the government switched to the BC NDP in 2017; and the cost of acquiring books and digital licenses has soared. 

When the BC Liberal government proposed cuts to library funding in 2009 there were public campaigns that reminded residents how vital libraries are and how damaging cuts can be. At the time, opposition NDP MLA Diane Thorne asked the Minister Responsible for Early Learning and Literacy (yikes) an important question:

How can the government, the ministry and the minister justify no funding increase, not even a cost-of-living, to public libraries for four years when more and more people are finding themselves out of work or financially disadvantaged and probably not able to buy books — wanting, needing books and wanting to be able to borrow them? I would think a small increase even. How do we justify that to the public?

How did they justify it? In response to MLA Thorne’s question, the justification was simply, ‘We can’t afford it right now. But we agree libraries are important.’

If that sounds familiar, it’s probably because it is the same excuse we’ve been hearing for decades – only now it comes from a BC NDP government. That the current government would maintain such a harmful policy is certainly curious. Libraries are popular! Even the BC Chamber of Commerce has called on the government to undo the library funding freeze.

Liberal, Tory, Same Old Story

With library funding in BC unchanged for almost two decades, the federal Liberal government is set to make things even worse.

Prime Minister Carney’s budget 2025 proposes several cuts to libraries. As part of the Liberal attempt to dismantle a different public institution, Canada Post, Bill C-15 removes a clause in Canada Post’s legislation that provides for reduced postage rates for books and related materials mailed between libraries or to library users.

Librarians describe the move as "catastrophic" to their work, and it is a change that is likely to have profound impacts on library services for rural communities.

The 2025 federal budget also plans to eliminate library services from Parks Canada and the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness. If these cuts to federal libraries sound familiar, it is because the Conservative government of Stephen Harper did exactly the same thing when it closed several Department of Fisheries and Oceans libraries. In 2014, there was media coverage and widespread condemnation. Not so much, this time around.

Public Libraries or AI Slop?

It is no surprise that the latest blows to libraries in Canada comes as our governments embrace the generative AI bubble. As historian Ian Mosby reminded me recently, a large part of the political project of artificial intelligence is to undermine knowledge and expertise until the only thing available is generative AI slop and mis/disinformation. 

Whatever the political stripe of the government - NDP, Liberal, Conservative – they all seem to share one thing in common: a desire to limit free and open access to knowledge and information.

If we want libraries to continue to serve our communities we will need to speak up now – and loudly — because simply voting every few years seems to have no impact.