Christina de Castell, Chief Librarian of Vancouver Public Library, is pictured in the library’s central branch in Vancouver on July 25, 2020.
Maggie MacPherson/The Globe and Mail
Public library buildings are safe shelters and economic drivers that quietly operate within every community. They live in the bricks-and-mortar space as well as the virtual, assisting patrons with such life basics as finding employment, starting their own businesses and teaching their kids to read.
During the pandemic, libraries had to close their buildings to the general book-reading public, but facilities were used in different ways, for example, as food bank distribution centres and emergency computer labs for low-income groups. In recent weeks, they have slowly started to reopen, with a renewed understanding of the unique and essential role libraries play within the physical community.
According to Mary Rowe, president and chief executive of the Canadian Urban Institute (CUI), the uncertain times brought into focus the new reality that the library is another kind of frontline commons.
Story continues below advertisement
“In a contemporary city, the built environment consists of various kinds of facilities that function as anchors,” she says, “and during this pandemic that’s become clear.”
Vancouver Public Library’s central branch.
Maggie MacPherson/The Globe and Mail
In April, the CUI held a special pandemic panel discussion on how these city-building institutions were adjusting to the lockdown and preparing to reopen. Going forward, Ms. Rowe says, they will play an essential role in restoring the economy.
“A library is as much an economic service as anything else,” she says. “To have an economy that functions, you need people who are healthy and able to contribute and who have the skills and resources to participate.”
As life gets more difficult for people who’ve become unemployed or homeless, equal access to library spaces and resources is taking on a more profound meaning. Demand for online library services has skyrocketed across the country, with expanded online programming and e-book spending. The Ottawa library system – which had lent out more than half a million materials at the onset of the pandemic – saw an increase in temporary cardholders of 5,000 during lockdown, and in Halifax, cardholders grew by 6,000.
Vancouver Public Library patrons look through the DVD section of the central branch amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Maggie MacPherson/The Globe and Mail
Christina de Castell, the chief librarian at the Vancouver Public Library, says more than 3,000 people have signed up online for new Vancouver library cards since March and there has been an 80-per-cent increase in the use of e-books.
“In a recession or an economic downturn, we see much higher use of libraries historically, when people are struggling with money,” she says. “That’s the time they discover everything that libraries have to offer.”
There is also a renewed appreciation of the key role that libraries provide for people who don’t have the internet, or who live in cramped rooms and do not have the luxury of space. To narrow the digital divide – 15 per cent of patrons are without internet access, Ms. de Castell says – the central library created a temporary eight-station computer lab in a large meeting room to serve those who don’t have computers or printers. The branch, which is within walking distance to the downtown eastside, also made a special allowance to reopen its washroom facility for those with no other access. Recently, the VLP reopened five of their 21 branches, with safety restrictions.
Story continues below advertisement
Although the core mandate is still information-sharing, library staff members also do training on how to be empathetic to vulnerable people and are often involved with outreach work, meeting with daycares in inner-city neighbourhoods to help kids obtain literacy skills or delivering library materials to care homes.
Library professionals point to cuts in government health and social services over the years as the reason for the broadening mandate.
“The reductions in funding for certain programs, whether mental health, legal aid or other forms of social support, has shifted people into libraries, so we now provide a lot more services than we did 20 years ago,” Ms. de Castell says.
A Vancouver Public Library patron uses a computer amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the library’s central branch on July 25, 2020.
Maggie MacPherson/The Globe and Mail
Eric Klinenberg, a professor of sociology at New York University, has written about the crucial role of social infrastructure, such as libraries. In an article published by The New York Times in 2018, he wrote that despite the fact that libraries are overwhelmed with a growing need, they are starved for resources.
Part of the challenge, he argues, is that the principle that all people are deserving of free access is out of sync with the current market-dominated world order. As well, he points out that few people of influence understand the broad role of the modern library at the community level.
“Libraries are being disparaged and neglected at precisely the moment when they are most valued and necessary,” he wrote.
Story continues below advertisement
There’s also the question of land use. Because libraries have proved so successful in the virtual realm, some people question the value of using up so much real estate. With high land prices in major cities, libraries – like any other bricks-and-mortar establishments disrupted by technology – need to justify the square footage.
Ottawa Public Library CEO Danielle McDonald doesn’t rule out change, such as increased online use, but says the need for a “community living room” is also stronger than ever.
Surrey City Centre Library.
Andy Yan/The Globe and Mail
She sees the library evolving even more into a physical and virtual hybrid. The Ottawa Public Library covers the biggest geographic region in the country, with 650 staff, 33 branches, two bookmobiles and a budget of more than $50-million. Like many public libraries, they get a lot of value out of the budget they have, funded largely by the city with some funding from the province.
“When you look at historical patterns of plagues and different [crises], we come back to use our spaces … because we are social beings,” Ms. McDonald says. “As we intensify urban areas, people need a space where they can go.”
Andy Yan, urban planner and director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University, is concerned that libraries could face even more government funding cuts, in spite of the fact that libraries have been shown to develop communities. In his former job, Mr. Yan worked alongside renown B.C. architect Bing Thom, who designed the Surrey City Centre Library. Mr. Yan recalls that just the announcement of the now iconic structure was so exciting to developers, it was instrumental in helping to grow the municipality.
Story continues below advertisement
“I hope [funding bodies] remember that libraries may not directly generate revenue,” he says, “but they can help an immigrant learn English or give somebody the resources to find a job or start a business.”
OTTAWA – Canada’s unemployment rate held steady at 6.5 per cent last month as hiring remained weak across the economy.
Statistics Canada’s labour force survey on Friday said employment rose by a modest 15,000 jobs in October.
Business, building and support services saw the largest gain in employment.
Meanwhile, finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing experienced the largest decline.
Many economists see weakness in the job market continuing in the short term, before the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts spark a rebound in economic growth next year.
Despite ongoing softness in the labour market, however, strong wage growth has raged on in Canada. Average hourly wages in October grew 4.9 per cent from a year ago, reaching $35.76.
Friday’s report also shed some light on the financial health of households.
According to the agency, 28.8 per cent of Canadians aged 15 or older were living in a household that had difficulty meeting financial needs – like food and housing – in the previous four weeks.
That was down from 33.1 per cent in October 2023 and 35.5 per cent in October 2022, but still above the 20.4 per cent figure recorded in October 2020.
People living in a rented home were more likely to report difficulty meeting financial needs, with nearly four in 10 reporting that was the case.
That compares with just under a quarter of those living in an owned home by a household member.
Immigrants were also more likely to report facing financial strain last month, with about four out of 10 immigrants who landed in the last year doing so.
That compares with about three in 10 more established immigrants and one in four of people born in Canada.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information says health-care spending in Canada is projected to reach a new high in 2024.
The annual report released Thursday says total health spending is expected to hit $372 billion, or $9,054 per Canadian.
CIHI’s national analysis predicts expenditures will rise by 5.7 per cent in 2024, compared to 4.5 per cent in 2023 and 1.7 per cent in 2022.
This year’s health spending is estimated to represent 12.4 per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product. Excluding two years of the pandemic, it would be the highest ratio in the country’s history.
While it’s not unusual for health expenditures to outpace economic growth, the report says this could be the case for the next several years due to Canada’s growing population and its aging demographic.
Canada’s per capita spending on health care in 2022 was among the highest in the world, but still less than countries such as the United States and Sweden.
The report notes that the Canadian dental and pharmacare plans could push health-care spending even further as more people who previously couldn’t afford these services start using them.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
As Canadians wake up to news that Donald Trump will return to the White House, the president-elect’s protectionist stance is casting a spotlight on what effect his second term will have on Canada-U.S. economic ties.
Some Canadian business leaders have expressed worry over Trump’s promise to introduce a universal 10 per cent tariff on all American imports.
A Canadian Chamber of Commerce report released last month suggested those tariffs would shrink the Canadian economy, resulting in around $30 billion per year in economic costs.
More than 77 per cent of Canadian exports go to the U.S.
Canada’s manufacturing sector faces the biggest risk should Trump push forward on imposing broad tariffs, said Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters president and CEO Dennis Darby. He said the sector is the “most trade-exposed” within Canada.
“It’s in the U.S.’s best interest, it’s in our best interest, but most importantly for consumers across North America, that we’re able to trade goods, materials, ingredients, as we have under the trade agreements,” Darby said in an interview.
“It’s a more complex or complicated outcome than it would have been with the Democrats, but we’ve had to deal with this before and we’re going to do our best to deal with it again.”
American economists have also warned Trump’s plan could cause inflation and possibly a recession, which could have ripple effects in Canada.
It’s consumers who will ultimately feel the burden of any inflationary effect caused by broad tariffs, said Darby.
“A tariff tends to raise costs, and it ultimately raises prices, so that’s something that we have to be prepared for,” he said.
“It could tilt production mandates. A tariff makes goods more expensive, but on the same token, it also will make inputs for the U.S. more expensive.”
A report last month by TD economist Marc Ercolao said research shows a full-scale implementation of Trump’s tariff plan could lead to a near-five per cent reduction in Canadian export volumes to the U.S. by early-2027, relative to current baseline forecasts.
Retaliation by Canada would also increase costs for domestic producers, and push import volumes lower in the process.
“Slowing import activity mitigates some of the negative net trade impact on total GDP enough to avoid a technical recession, but still produces a period of extended stagnation through 2025 and 2026,” Ercolao said.
Since the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement came into effect in 2020, trade between Canada and the U.S. has surged by 46 per cent, according to the Toronto Region Board of Trade.
With that deal is up for review in 2026, Canadian Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Candace Laing said the Canadian government “must collaborate effectively with the Trump administration to preserve and strengthen our bilateral economic partnership.”
“With an impressive $3.6 billion in daily trade, Canada and the United States are each other’s closest international partners. The secure and efficient flow of goods and people across our border … remains essential for the economies of both countries,” she said in a statement.
“By resisting tariffs and trade barriers that will only raise prices and hurt consumers in both countries, Canada and the United States can strengthen resilient cross-border supply chains that enhance our shared economic security.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
