Tank: Downsized downtown Saskatoon library offers optimism

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For some, the new central library under construction in downtown Saskatoon will never be celebrated.

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Those folks will always see it as a needless, exorbitant expense and question whether we need libraries in the Internet age.

For the rest, though, the news that the project is proceeding within its $134-million budget should be embraced in an era when inflation has forced the severe reduction or cancellation of similar projects.

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Saskatoon’s new downtown library project has certainly been scaled back from 136,000 square feet to 124,860 sq. ft. But that’s not catastrophic. The artist’s renderings of the new four-floor facility still look impressive.

Likewise, the remediation of the land, where a gas station once operated, has been completed, according to the Saskatoon Public Library, and was paid for by the previous owner of the land at the corner of Second Avenue and 25th Street.

And fears that the library could be homeless while the new location is completed have been allayed, since the library board renegotiated the sale at no cost to remain in the 58-year-old France Morrison Central Library until the spring of 2027, when the new building is supposed to be ready.

It all sounds like atypically wonderful news for such a controversial project. Yet it’s difficult to forget the library board’s negligence when it insisted for more than a year that the inflation that had so obviously ballooned construction costs would somehow not affect it.

Then, in the fall of 2023, the library board finally took up residence in the real world after plunging into the metaphorical ice water of tenders for its big project, which all came in prohibitively high.

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So the project was sent back to the drawing board — literally, as the library board was forced to pause and reconsider the design.

Next, former library CEO Carol Cooley submitted her resignation in January for unspecified reasons. A new director, Carol Shepstone, took over in September. Shepstone brings an impressive background to the challenging leadership role.

Her career in libraries began in Prince Albert, before she took on leadership roles in libraries at post-secondary institutions, including the University of Saskatchewan, Mount Royal University in Calgary and Toronto’s Metropolitan University (previously Ryerson).

A new library was built during her time at Mount Royal, so she boasts relevant experience.

Also, the current library board chair, Jim Siemens, is guided by his experience as an architect, which lends credibility to his messaging on the project. An entire page on the library website is devoted to explaining how the new facility will be achieved without additional tax increases.

And the reality of financing for this project often gets blown out of proportion for political opportunism.

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Information in the news release updating the project says the owners of the average assessed single-family home worth $371,000 paid $243 in library taxes this year. The levy to pay for the new library will add only $1.60 to that tax bill for each of the next two years, according to the library.

After that, no further increases are expected to be needed to pay for the construction or to repay the $67-million loan approved narrowly by city council in 2019.

For that relatively small price, a three-decade search for a new central library will end, and Saskatoon will get a downtown attraction that could become a signature building, like libraries in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Halifax.

While some see the new building as unnecessary, extravagant spending in a city afflicted by a homelessness crisis, libraries play a crucial role in providing social services.

That ranges from a physical building where anyone can get away from the deadly cold in winter and the heat in summer to visit an institution that promotes literacy, which can help lift people out of poverty.

Libraries provide a good barometer for society, as evidenced by an ongoing labour dispute and a one-day strike by library workers last month; workplace safety remains a key point of contention.

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Libraries cannot solve every ill, but they can help improve society.

And, since any request for more money is likely to be turned down by council, the new library could provide a model for adapting a big public project to fit its budget. Surely, we can all celebrate that.

Phil Tank is the digital opinion editor at the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

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