News & Updates

Journey to eliminating library fines & fees

Posted on: October 30, 2020

The Journey to Eliminating Library Fines and Fees in Winnipeg

On October 29th in a 10/5 vote Council voted to eliminate fines and fees on library books for this year and to eliminate them permanently in 2021.  I moved the motion and I want to explain why I am so happy with this turnout!

Back in June, City Council authorized the public service to waive late charges on fees and fines imposed by the City of Winnipeg as a COVID-19 economic measure.  In alignment with this direction, Winnipeg Public Library (WPL) suspended the collection of overdue fines.

Winnipeg loves their library branches.  During the COVID-19 branch closures, Library Services received many requests from library users.  So did your City Councillor!!  As Chair of Protection, Community Services and Parks, the library system reports up through the standing policy committee that I chair.

During shut-down, everyone wanted back into their local library.  They wanted to return their checked-out items, and get new books.  They wanted to browse.

Following shut-down even though the overdue fines were suspended, residents returned items in large numbers, with almost 200,000 items being returned between June 22 to September 21, 2020. That is a lot of books!

The suspension of overdue fines and fees on books and DVD/Blu-Ray rentals during COVID-19 provided an opportunity to "build back better" and move directly to a fine-free model without ever reinstating charging fines. The time was was now - so to speak.

Yet, in 2016, I watched Councillor Matt Allard do a motion on eliminating childrens fines and fees.  It had not been successful.  Eliminating fines and fees is something he and I discussed in a wide-ranging discussion we had on mutual policy interests when I first got on council.  I committed as Chair to try for his motion again - this time the whole thing.  He said he'd back me 100%!

2020 the fine-free trend continued across Canada. Winnipeg was at risk of being one of the last major Canadian cities to have permanently eliminated overdue fines.  With several libraries transitioning from temporary COVID-19 fines suspension to permanent fine-free models the timing was urgent.  Thunder Bay, North Vancouver, Edmonton, Hamilton, Vaughan, Calgary, Barrie, Whistler, Halifax, Innisfil, Oakville, Saskatoon, Regina and London all transitioned to fine free.

Winnipeg has particularly strong reasons to make the transitions:  Winnipeg has double the national average of children living in poverty and families with children living in poverty are most in need of early literacy supports and are more likely not to be able to pay fines. The benefits of the policy are clear.

BENEFITS OF POLICY CHANGE:

When families are unable to pay fines, children and young adults may have their borrowing privileges suspended.  There are many reasons to adopt a fine free model but most important among them is to address sustainability goals in particular the "readiness to learn" indicator. (2019 mypeg.ca report)

"Readiness to learn" is an important indicator for Winnipeg where children who come to school without the skills, abilities and attitudes for learning attain poorer education levels. In 2016/2017, 66 percent of Winnipeg’s children who entered kindergarten were considered ready to learn, a decrease of 2 percentage points since 2006/2007.  A difficult statistic.

Eliminating overdue fines removes a significant barrier to families who can most benefit from access to library resources. Impoverished families are most in need of early literacy supports and are more likely to not be able to pay library fines.

Public libraries help close the gap in opportunities, including the digital divide, experienced by families living in different socio-economic conditions. Winnipeg has double the national average of children living in poverty.

The fine-free Library Services model aligns with the City of Winnipeg’s goal to reduce poverty in our city and improve equitable access for individuals and families, with Indigenous people, people of colour and newcomers disproportionately represented among those living in poverty.

Fine-free public libraries consistently report removing fines has not led to an increase in the amount of library material being returned late. However, they have seen an increase in families registering for library cards, and in the amount of material checked out.  

The debate at council lasted for almost an hour.  I held my breath and considered breaking up the motion to save constituent parts. Passionate delegations had appeared before council in favour of the motion eight hours prior to the debate from the Winnipeg Library Board.  Dean Scaletta and David Robinson were amazing presenters with memorable arguments in favour of elmination of fines and fees.

In the end the vote was 10 for and 5 against.  Several Councillors did heavy lifting to get the motion over the finish line.  No doubt librarians, teachers and more will celebrate this policy move. 

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