Here’s how the federal budget could affect library books

Garrett Barry explains why libraries are worried by a budget proposal allowing Canada Post to change the library shipping program.

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. -- Libraries across Canada are ringing alarm bells about pending changes to the Canada Post act, which they say will threaten their ability to ship books at low rates.

The changes are contained in Bill C-15, the federal government’s budget implementation act. Provisions in the massive 634-page bill are set to remove specific clauses in the Canada Post act that allow the corporation to set special rates for libraries.

Those special rates provide massive discounts for libraries for shipments of written, visual and audio material up to five kilograms in weight.

While spokespeople for Canada Post and Public Services and Procurement Canada both told CTV News the program will continue, critics say the changes remove legislative oversight and will allow Canada Post to more easily set rates as they wish.

“The devil’s always in the details, right?” said Mary Chevreau, Executive Director of the Canadian Urban Libraries Council “We want this at a legislative level. We want this approval to stay at that level in terms of rate changes.”

Chevreau’s organization administers the online tool that allows libraries to access Canada Post’s preferred rates. She said the program is used 30,000 times per month and that it’s the backbone of inter-library loaning provisions.

“Millions, millions of Canadians literally across the country rely on that library book rate in order to receive materials and the entire public library system,” she said.

“The question really is how affordable it will become, and can libraries really participate going forward,” she added. “Not only is it interlibrary loans between systems, it’s within their own systems that they use.”

According to an example calculation published on the program website, the Library Shipping Tool allows a three-pound book to be mailed within Toronto for less than $2. Without the program, it would cost nearly $26.

The Ontario Library Association launched a letter-writing campaign Wednesday to attempt to pressure MPs on the issue. It wrote in its campaign website that “Canada Post could raise rates dramatically, making interlibrary loans financially impossible for many libraries.”

Canada Post spokesperson Lisa Liu wrote in a statement that the corporation “is not contemplating any changes to the service at this time.”

“We are proud of our longstanding commitment to provide reduced rates in our library materials services,” she wrote.

A spokesperson for Public Services and Procurement Canada wrote in a statement that the changes in Bill C-15 were designed to reduce “administrative burden,” and wrote that Ottawa “will maintain” the reduced rate program.

The legislation enshrining the ability of Canada Post to offer the library rate was enacted in 2013, however Chevreau says some form of library discount has been in effect in Canada since the 1930s.

Newfoundland and Labrador’s provincial library system is particularly reliant on the program for its inter-library loans. The system has 94 branches across the province. Between July 2023 and June 2024, more than 200,000 loans were facilitated through the library board’s inter-library loan program.

St. John’s resident David Brake said he hopes the federal government changes course. He is also encouraging other Newfoundland and Labrador residents to contact their MP to push for a reconsideration.

“I absolutely take the point that it might be for now that Canada Post says we have the freedom to continue to provide discount books to the library, and we intend to do that. But unless their hands are tied by the legislation as it is now, there’s always going to be that temptation to save a few bucks.”