The Friends of the Regina (Sask.) Public Library filed documents April 7 with the Court of Queen’s Bench in an attempt to force the city to proceed with a referendum on the library board’s decision to close three branches and its Dunlop Art Gallery by May 1, cut funding for its Prairie History Room, and lay off 27 employees. City council, on the advice of municipal attorney Neil Robertson, had voted April 5 to refrain from holding a public vote on the issue. The Friends had collected 26,048 signatures, well above the statutory minimum, calling for a vote to force city council to fund the library to avoid the closures.
Justice Ted Zarzeczny said in the April 16 Regina Leader-Post that he planned to decide within a week on the “challenging question” of whether or not a referendum on library funding is within the city’s jurisdiction.
Council had been scheduled to vote April 13 on the library board’s budget, which reflected the city’s request for no millage increase in 2004. However, after the Friends group presented some alternative ideas to closing the branches, councilors agreed to postpone its approval until April 26 and asked trustees to consider comments and questions raised by the general public, CBC News reported April 14. “I think that’s one part of this puzzle that was missing at the very start,” Councilor Sharon Bryce said.
Friends attorney Merrilee Rasmussen expressed hope that the library board would change its mind on the closures and render the referendum decision unnecessary. “What we would rather see,” she told the Leader-Post, would be that on April 26 we really have a different decision coming out of city council, the closures don’t occur, and we can all work together for the benefit of the libraries.”
The Friends group April 15 lost its appeal of a court decision denying their request for an injunction against the closures. The group must now pay the library board’s court costs for the proceedings.
Posted April 16, 2004.