The city will provide thousands of dollars to make up for a shortfall in library membership costs.
The Orillia Public Library had projected a 2021 revenue of $137,076 from its service contracts with Oro-Medonte and Severn townships.
The negotiations with the townships eventually led to their contributions becoming “a fluctuating rate,” library CEO Bessie Sullivan said during Thursday’s budget committee meeting.
“So, we really couldn’t count on what we were going to be paid from the different service contracts that we have.”
As a result, she lowered the projected revenue to $107,200, a decrease of $23,876.
The drop in revenue from those contracts is because of fewer memberships during the COVID-19 pandemic, she said.
The townships are no longer charged per membership of their residents, but rather a flat rate.
Amanpreet Singh Sidhu, the city solicitor and general manager of corporate services, noted $107,000 accounts for about 4.5 per cent of the library’s total operating budget.
The membership fees for those townships should be higher, he said.
Out-of-town residents make up 40 per cent of library memberships and, with the library’s 2022 budget sitting at about $2.4 million, that would mean Orillia taxpayers are subsidizing that service to non-residents to the tune of $900,000, Sidhu said.
“I, personally, think it’s ridiculous that we would be subsidizing this,” said Coun. Tim Lauer.
“Yes, township residents are valuable. We love them, etcetera, etcetera, but they don’t provide anything to the City of Orillia that the residents don’t provide as well, whether it’s shopping, whether it’s coaching, whether it’s whatever. It’s gotten completely out of whack and we need to do something about this.”
Sullivan expects to negotiate increases in what the townships are paying in future years.
“I just can’t right the ship as fast as I would like to,” she said.
“It will happen, but it can’t happen all at once,” Coun. Pat Hehn added, noting negotiations with townships have been a struggle for years. “If we go too fast, we’re going to lose it completely.”
Because the decreased membership is partly due to the pandemic, budget committee decided to pull the $23,876 from the COVID-19 Safe Restart funding it received from the province.
Operating budget discussions wrapped up this week. The capital budget will be discussed next week. All decisions require ratification at a special council meeting Dec. 6.
