City Hall wants to close West Kildonan Library—again!
As you may have heard, the City of Winnipeg has announced plan to close our beloved West Kildonan Public Library (again) and hand its library services over to private developers. This back-room deal only came to light a couple days ago and will be voting to approve this plan on Monday, May 9th. City Hall has already announced this proposal will be their template for cutting even more neighbourhood libraries.
We must once again stand up and have our voices heard. We must band together and save West Kildonan Library. Please share this petition with your friends and family. Call and email the city councillors below. Every effort helps to save our library from closure!
Part of the City's proposal includes opening an experimental branch within Garden City Shopping Centre—without a single window or source of natural light. The proposed space is wedged behind Bulk Barn and other retailers, making it unattractive for businesses, having been vacant for over 5 years since the mall redevelopment. There will not be a dedicated exterior entrance and relegates our community library to a space completely controlled by for-profit private enterprises. How can a library exist without proper entrances, windows, daylight or greenspace?
This proposal would remove library services from our community and place them in the middle of a commercial district, far from most residents. Most importantly, this proposal puts our library further away from schools, pedestrians, child care centres and seniors.
This is a bad deal for taxpayers. In addition to losing city-owned property in West Kildonan, the City wants to spend $2 million on constructing a library within space it does not own and will be forced to pay a monthly lease. This is all an attempt to make the mall's most undesirable retail space into a second class library branch. Think of what $2 million could do towards the existing library. Or what $2 million plus 10 years of lease payments could construct for a new library? In total, over $6.5m of taxpayer dollars will be handed to private developers as part of this library plan.
Why should we be forced to give up West Kildonan Library in favour of a second-class library branch? The existing library is already owned by the citizens of Winnipeg. Why are we willing to hand our libraries over to private developers?
We agree that West Kildonan and Garden City deserves a reinvestment in our library services. Northwest Winnipeg is growing, but services for new developments should not come at the expense of our neighbourhoods. City Hall has indicated that this proposal is their new template to cut neighbourhood library branches and centralize them within small, inacessible commercial outlets.
West Kildonan and Garden City deserve the same library services as the rest of the city, including the new, stand-alone branches recently constructed River Heights, Windsor Park or Transcona. We do not deserve less.
Please contact City Council and let them know you oppose this misguided and short-sighted proposal. Emails and phone calls are important!
Committee Voting on Proposal:
Cindy Gilroy: cgilroy@winnipeg.ca | 204-986-5951 (Committee Chair)
Kevin Klein: kklein@winnipeg.ca | 204-986-5232 (Committee Member)
Vivian Santos: vsantos@winnipeg.ca | 204-986-8401 (Committee Member)
Janica Lukes: jlukes@winnipeg.ca | 204-986-6824 (Committee Member)
Area Councillors:
Councillor Devi Sharma: devi@winnipeg.ca | 204-986-5264
Coucillor Ross Eadie: readie@winnipeg.ca 204-986-5188
Mayor Brian Bowman:
bbowman@winnipeg.ca OR mayorbowman@winnipeg.ca | 204-986-5665