B.C. hasn't touched library funding since 2010. Saanich wants that fixed

The last time the province raised its per-capita library grant, the iPad had just come out. Saanich council voted unanimously this week to have Mayor Dean Murdock write the finance ministry asking for a change, joining a stack of similar letters already sitting there.

Here's the arithmetic behind the ask. Greater Victoria Public Library runs on $26.75 million a year. The 10 municipalities that fund it cover $23.5 million of that, or 95%. The province chips in $678,372, which works out to 2.73%. Saanich alone puts up $7.4 million, the largest share of any funder.

GVPL and the Vancouver Island Regional Library want the province to more than double core library funding, to $30 million from $14 million, and to index it to inflation. Until that happens, municipalities absorb the rising costs, which have eaten an average 0.23% of Saanich's annual tax increase over three years.

The timing has a certain edge. Saanich is mid-way through a $158-million project at the Nellie McClung branch, a rebuilt library more than double the old size plus 210 affordable units. The old library was 14,000 square feet. Completion is expected in 2030.