The Nechako branch of the Prince George Public Library is performing well, a city council committee heard Monday. But even if it weren't, it's not necessarily council's place to tell tthe library what to do with the money it receives.
"As we all already know, when it comes to what the city provides to the library... we provide the funding, not how they spend it," said finance and audit committee chair Mayor Shari Green. "So what they choose to do with their funding is up to them."
Last summer, council directed staff to complete a cost-benefit analysis on the site as a result of a core services review recommendation to close the Hart location.
After working with library staff, city administration came back with a report recommending the branch's continued operation.
According to the analysis submitted by acting chief librarian Janet Marren, the operation of the Nechako branch makes up 9.5 per cent of the public library's total budget (according to 2012 figures). The branch circulates 14 per cent of all the library's materials to 12 per cent of the all patron's in the library's database.
Coun. Murry Krause said it was unfortunate that consultants KPMG didn't do more research on the idea before adding the suggestion of closing the branch to their report.
However, the suggestion of eliminating the public library outright was included on the consultant's "don't do" list and therefore was not studied further. It was brought back to the table, with the suggestion of a cost-benefit analysis for the Nechako branch as part of the city's core review implementation plan.
"That was one of the questions that was brought up during the core review, was if there was value there or not," said Coun. Cameron Stolz. "This clearly articulates that value."
Library users are also expected to be directed to the Nechako branch during the run of the 2015 Canada Winter Games when a portion of the downtown branch is taken over for activities or athletes' use.
Marren also cited Section 11 of the provincial Library Act, which gives the library board of trustees exclusive control over the spending of all money provided by the municipality for library purposes.
"There was a great deal of turmoil in the community about the way this was done," said Coun. Dave Wilbur, council's representative on the library board. "I think, even at this stage, the recommendation misses the point that the autonomy of the library is to choose its own way of spending the envelope money that is presented to them by council and other sources."
Wilbur also said it was a dialogue that shouldn't have taken place, but Green disagreed.
"We had lots of different conversations on different aspects of where the city spends money," she said of the core review process, despite what the outcome of those discussions were. "I think it's valid."
The committee voted to have staff bring a report to council at a later date recommending no further action be taken on the analysis.
