Dear Editor
Rural communities have been betrayed by a Saskatchewan Party that promised to stand up for rural communities.
Only a year ago, Brad Wall commented how “Rural Saskatchewan is an important part of our province and our economy and it is playing a key role in keeping Saskatchewan strong.” Now his minister of education is helping to destroy rural communities.
Lakeland Library Region’s budget has been cut by 58 per cent. Don Morgan, Minister of Education, said the province no longer wants to be in the library business, and his reasoning suggests he hasn’t been in a library in many years.
He stated, “We think as a province we should be getting out of bricks and mortar libraries and people should be focusing on electronic or alternative media.”
First, let’s correct that fallacy. The free access computers are some of the most used parts of the library. People who cannot afford their own computers or Internet subscriptions type up their resumés, download government forms and do school essays on the library computers. DVDs and CDs are a large part of the circulation.
Libraries already focus on electronic and alternative media, for free, so people who can’t afford their own electronic media can do things like job searches in a bricks and mortar library.
Part of a strong economy is encouraging people to find work and become educated. Libraries do that.
But it isn’t Mr. Morgan’s naivety that is bothering me. It is his disregard for how a 58 per cent cut to regional libraries will affect rural communities. Rural libraries serve numerous essential services. I know people who started home schooling their children after the government closed down their rural school. Doing this without a library would be difficult.
Without a school, these communities use their libraries as meeting places for story times for children, English as a second language classes and craft programs. They are part of the literacy and creative development programs in rural Saskatchewan.
Minister Morgan lamented that there is a library for every 4,000 people in the province, that would be almost 300 libraries. That should be a badge of pride for a minister of education, someone who should strive for equal learning opportunities for everyone even if you don't live in a large city.
Please call your MLA and ask for a restoration of library funding.
Wayne Schlapkohl
North Battleford
