The Prince George Public Library is relatively well-off, but is still concerned about provincial funding.

By Tommy Osborne

Library Concerns

Libraries reaching “breaking point” due to stagnant provincial funding

Sep 16, 2025 | 4:11 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Libraries across the province are sounding the alarm over a potential “breaking point” on the way due to a lack of provincial funding. The province allocates $14 million a year which is divided among 71 libraries across the province, a funding amount that has remained stagnant since 2009.

“As you can imagine, costs since 2009 have increased exponentially. And during that entire time, the province has provided the same $14 million for public libraries every year. Well, the share that municipalities are providing to fund their public libraries has soared from 140 million to over 260 million this year,” said Cari Lynn Gawletz, the Chair of the Association of BC Public Library Directors.

The Prince George Public Library is in a better position than many, which its director Paul Burry says is thanks to strong support from the City of Prince George. However, even with that, there are serious concerns about the provincial side of the funding.

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“We know that some communities are already looking at cutting hours, closing more hours. We don’t want to have to consider those options, but there’s always choices to be made every budget year about what you can do,” Burry said.

“Some public libraries in the province have already cut their services this year because they didn’t have enough funding. And I think we’re going to see across the province almost every single library system doing pretty serious cuts in the new year. Whether that looks like actual hours of operations or just fewer services or less access to online resources, that’s going to vary from community to community,” Gawletz added.

What could this mean for Prince George? Burry says he doesn’t want to speculate too heavily, but notes that if funding doesn’t change, difficult decisions could be ahead.

“You’re making difficult choices about collections. Digital spending is one of the things, spending on digital resources is going up every year, and that’s hard to maintain access at the levels that our community wants without additional funding supports,” Burry said.

Three years ago, the province did respond to challenges with an additional $45 million to be given to libraries over a three year span. However, that has now ended, and Gawletz hopes that the province permanently increases its annual funding from $14 million to $30 million to match cost increases that she says have more than doubled since 2009.

“Public library service is an investment, it’s not a cost. There’s a lot of research that shows that the return on investment in public libraries is a lot more than you think,” Gawletz said.

Burry says the $45 million was a great look at what library programming and resources could be, should the province up its funding from the current $14 million a year.

“One of the things we’ve been able to enhance with the one time funding that the province has provided is our homework help program. That’s a free tutoring program for kids and families who may not otherwise be able to afford private tutoring, and during the last couple of years, when we’ve had the funding support from the provincial enhancement grants, we’ve been able to increase the funding and reach of that program by taking it from about 100 tutoring session hours to about over 500,” Burry said.

Burry added more funding would also allow the library to continue being a key part of the community. Whether it’s through celebrating Prince George’s culture, connecting people to resources, being a warming and cooling centre, and a lot more, Burry says the library serves so many important purposes and the funding is an investment into the community itself.

“One of the program events that I think about is the the Jeanne Clarke History Awards that we host every year that promote the contributions to local history in this region. And last February, when we had that event, we were able to honour the legacy and contributions of local photographer Chuck chin, and that included a month long exhibition of his photography at the library. That’s cultural knowledge that we’re sharing and pride in our community that we’re building,” Burry said.

Burry added among many other services, the library also serves as a space for wildfire victims to stay and get connected with Prince George resources, further highlighting why more funding would benefit the entire community.

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