“The library book rate is a tremendous tool that helps us achieve some of our most fundamental public policy objectives,” McCallum said. “A strong literacy rate and low-cost information sharing will be critical as Canada continues to position itself as a world leader in the knowledge-based economy.”
The Canadian Library Association and libraries across the country had lobbied Canada Post to continue its special rate after the company announced plans to end the 66-year-old program in April 2006, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported July 22. Many smaller libraries worried they wouldn’t have been able to afford commercial mailing costs, which could have been as much as $14 per book.
However, details about how to pay for the book-rate program—which postal officials claim costs Canada Post about $13 million a year—have yet to be worked out. CLA Executive Director Don Butcher said in the July 22 Toronto Globe and Mail that he believed Canada Post’s threat to cancel the book rate was a negotiating tactic to get the federal government to help pay for it. “But we feel that they still have an obligation to continue to support this,” he said.
Posted July 29, 2005.