Zoom Meetup Recording & Notes
APril 21, 2021
Recording of the conversation - note that the first hour was NOT recorded
Notes from the call
Guest visit from Tara Faganello, Assistant Deputy Minister for the Ministry of Municipal Affairs. Also on the call was Nicola Marotz, Strategic Advisor for the Local Government Division. Mari Martin reports to Nicola.
NOTE that this section of the call was not recorded at the request of our government partners.
Tara Faganello is the Assistant Deputy Minister, Ministry of Municipal Affairs, Local Government Division. Prior to this position she was Assistant Deputy Minister and Executive Financial Officer serving Ministries of Attorney General, Public Safety and Solicitor General, Finance, Labour and Citizens’ Services, as well as the Office of the Premier, the Public Service Agency and various other entities. Tara is a Chartered Professional Accountant/Certified General Accountant with a Bachelor of Economics degree. She’s worked in BC Public Service for over 25 years. On the personal side, Tara has cats and 2 teenage sons.
About the Ministry of Municipal Affairs
The Local Government Division has been around for 87 years although it looks different after last November’s change. It’s now a slightly smaller Ministry than before the re-org.
Responsibilities include local governments, public libraries and community literacy, immigration and refugee settlement services (including provincial nominee program, community gaming grants, and supporting the Ministries of Transportation and Environment on an integrated transportation and development strategy.)
They lead responsibility for stewarding the local government function. This includes:
Responsibility for legislation (like Community Charter, Local Government Act, Vancouver Charter, etc).
They provide advice, resolve problems and build capacity with local government partners and ministry colleagues
They provide grants
They exercise targeted oversight on key areas of legislation.
And build mandates and strategies from A - Z (Animals to Zoning)
And build partnerships and relationships. Emphasis on building relationships.
They also support other Ministries in their relationships with key partners like UBCM
She has worked with the Ministry of Education in the past.
She’s starting to see common points of connection between the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and public libraries:
Advice and consultation on matters of governance legislation
Provincial programs and funding
They’ve had the opportunity to brief Minister Osborne on public libraries and can share that Minister Osborne is a big fan of libraries.
The strategic plan continues to guide the Ministry’s work.
As government works to implement the Declaration Act, she acknowledged there will be questions and touched on future discussions re: UNDRIP, Reconciliation and anti-racism initiatives.
Tara made a special point of acknowledging the Directors on the call, the challenges of this last year, and extended her personal respect and appreciation for managing libraries this last year.
Mari’s team has been sharing stories with Tara already.
She said she knows the focus this last year has been about finding a way through the impacts of COVID and provincial supports focused on digital initiatives and updating library technology. She looks forward to hearing your reports on technical grant projects.
In her role as ADM, she liaises regularly with local government, so this information is very valuable for the different discussions she has at different government tables.
A few Directors shared their experiences this last year navigating COVID-19
Christina, Vancouver: Central usually sees 5,000 visitors a day. In March 2020, the decline in visits was quite dramatic. They closed all libraries in mid-March. Because of nature of non-tax revenue in Vancouver, they were closed and laid off 600 staff right through until September. So they focused on providing computer and washroom access for the highest need communities, and gradually got borrowing materials back online through take out. Once safety measures were in place, they opened up branches but were still constrained by the City’s finances. They heard from the community that libraries are a lifeline. They saw people walk into the library and burst into tears, the library feels familiar like their home. We’re proud we’ve had no work place transmission, like all libraries in BC. Throughout this period, we’ve been focused on digital delivery. A few things from the provincial grant: with their $50,000, they transformed their core children’s programs into digital ones. Every program has 500 participants live. Early literacy role that public libraries really take on for children 0-5. Also helping people (largely seniors) who were learning how to use zoom for the first time, learn how to use e-books and digital collections for the first time. In terms of borrowing habits today, people are visiting 40% less often but borrowing twice as much.
Tara asked question about working parents using online programs and virtual storytimes to help ease their childcare load a little bit.
Hilary, Squamish: Impact of COVID, like a lot of us, has forced us to be innovative and launch new services. An important point from this past year is that we’ve had to strike a balance between providing access and maintaining a safe environment for our community and staff. We developed a library take out service, curb side pick up service of library materials. Still running strong. Patrons are really appreciative of this service so they’re investigating installing a permanent take out window. Also launched a home delivery service for isolated seniors and elders using volunteers. Squamish, Whistler and Pemberton libraries have collaborated on virtual programming to multiply their offerings. This has been a great way to keep staff spirits high.
Tara asked question about how we share best practices with each other.
Paul, Prince George: Library staff started delivering virtual programs less than a week after they closed their doors last March. The digital grant money arrived just in time to help them acquire the specialized streaming equipment and training that library staff needed to create high quality virtual programming. By the end of 2020, library staff had delivered close to 400 virtual programs reaching over 4,400 community members. We’ve been forced to learn and change. The recorded events have allowed attendees to engage with our content at any time. Also makes it more accessible to people who struggle to visit the library in person. Some of the feedback from community members has been that the programs have helped them convey a sense of normalcy and comfort during the pandemic. Key lesson for us has been enabling our staff creativity and innovation, make it easy for us to quickly adapt during times of crisis.
Questions from Directors
Maureen, Greater Victoria: In the Ministry of Education, it often felt like our sector got lost or overlooked because education is such a huge portfolio. Do you think libraries might be more visible in this Ministry than the last one? My Board is really excited to be part of this Ministry, we see a lot of connections.
Absolutely. There are huge positive linkages. Our Minister has already been briefed on public libraries in BC. She has a strong interest in libraries.
Mari and Nicola are the portals into this Ministry. Nicola has a huge amount of experience with local governments and communities all around the province.
There's a library within the Ministry and a librarian on staff. We rely very strongly on our library. Books, literacy, learning are foundational to history and policy approaches to legislation over time. This is all sourced in our library. If that’s any indication, we rely very strongly on our library.
I see a lot of interconnections between our Ministry and libraries. You’re on the ground in communities, as are your local elected leaders and staff, so you have that in common and we see those synergies.
Scott, Fraser Valley Regional: Libraries interface with so many different community groups and populations, whether it be newcomers, or people living without housing, or groups that support child and adult literacy, or mental health work. We listen and see what needs to be done in our communities and we take action. We know you have the Public Libraries Branch and the Partners group to inform you, but how else can we make sure you’re aware of what we’re doing?
I’m completely open there, any ideas, I’m all ears.
Mari and Nicola will be great sources to feed that info through the Ministry.
I’d love to say email me direct and you can, but volume of email is potential issue. But please feel free to send me an email if there’s something you’re proud about: tara.faganello@gov.bc.ca
I’m on social media but not active
Tara reads all the news releases that the PLB pulls from online
Tara offered to periodically come to these ABCPLD zoom calls to hear directly from us and do more information sharing.
Elizabeth, Whistler: We’ve been at the same funding since 2009. In your opinion, what’s it going to take to increase our funding? Or even adjust for inflation? What can we do to move ourselves in the direction of this being more of a possibility?
This is one of the first conversations we had with Mari.
Awareness is really important. Within the Ministry, they are aware of funding situation. More engagement that needs to happen.
It’s a specific action in strategic plan so we have to stay focused on it. That’s an important step in helping us move forward a conversation with government on provincial funding.
I want to manage your expectations, there’s many pressures on government right now. There’s a huge focus on recovery and keeping different sectors and organizations afloat. The $3 million of one time funding is a result of your awareness raising.
To summarize - keep doing what you’re doing around awareness, inform us in the Ministry about the funding situation and challenges and the need for a framework. And lean on us as staff support to help move forward in the government process, we can advise from that perspective.
We hear you, we need to work together on this over time. Emphasis on over time because of the pressures the province is on right now due to the impacts of COVID.
Anything else that you think would be important for us to know?
Funding for this year will likely come in June and will likely be status quo, the same as last year.
Conversation with Mari
Mari shared how in the future, she’s going to ask Tara and other government partners to come to this zoom call and present about the work being done re: reconciliation and UNDRIP.
Maureen: I’m interested in more insight into the other focuses in this Ministry to see where libraries can be helpful, like in immigration or local government initiatives. Mari said that Nicola sits at a table with all the other Executive Directors and she will bring forward all of the information she has to these tables. Immigration just got a new ADM. As they learn more about what this division does, they can link it back to what libraries do.
Mari shared how the Branch is going to do a summary report on all the submitted annual reports. This report will be drafted and Mari will bring that to this group for their review.
(Video starts here)
Mari: As you discuss UBCM and what the Partners are doing with UBCM, I know that Tara is interested in this. I’d also recommend you talk with Rosemary because the Minister is in her area.
Mari: If you have a program where you think a Minister could visit, whether in person or virtual, that’s something we can work with the Minister’s office about. We’ve done Summer Reading Club in the past but I’d like them to see a wider variety of the work being done.
(02:40). Elizabeth: I think it’s important to highlight how we’ve filled gaps to make life somewhat normal this last year. That money that’s being filtered towards municipalities, we are not direct beneficiaries of that, yet we’ve been playing this role in keeping communities resilient during this time. If we can raise that awareness. They do have influence over where some of this targeted funding goes. The cost to all of us in order to operate safely has been big.
Mari: In our review of your report, there’s an analysis that happens. The evidence of the things you’re talking about. Important to communicate the impact of what you did, not just the great stuff you did.
(10:00). Mari: my advice to you about moving forward is to pave a new story about funding for libraries. There’s high awareness in this government about the role public libraries are playing.
(12:50). Any comments or questions?
Cari, Grand Forks: We don’t have time to have these funding conversations. If this is a multi-year process for us to start seeing small increases. I had to lay someone off this year because we had a budget short fall.
Heather, Penticton: Important to communicate that this isn’t sustainable.
(17:30). Deb, North Van City. Provincial core funding being frozen has sent the message to municipalities that perhaps they don’t have to raise their funding either.
She heard the sense that it’s easier to get one time funding like the funding we got last year. It’s important to get the message out there about the infrastructure that we provide to deliver on their priorities, t heir service that allows them to prevent having to recreate something from scratch. Potentially an opportunity to make a case at the Ministry that comes back at our municipalities in a helpful way.
Elizabeth: We need to show how we connect in with the problems our municipalities are already working towards, and show how we can help solve them.
(25:00). The Partners have been waiting to meet with Tara to create an advocacy strategy. This conversation surfaced the idea to have potentially a local approach as well as a provincial approach. Recommendation to hold off on anything local until the Partners have developed a coordinated strategy so we can maximize impact.
(26:54). Leianne, Sechelt shared how in recent negotiations with municipality, she shared about frozen funding and municipality was not aware of that. Second thing to share: police incident today at Sechelt Library where they had to call 911. Another example of doing more with less.
(29:00). Carmen: With the new ban on travel between provincial health regions and provinces, are any libraries considering refusing to fill new BC One Card applications, non-residents cards, or out of province/country cards from visitors? We had a case on Saturday of a person coming in to our library asking for a library card as a 2-week visitor in our community, and are reconsidering our position this week.
Scott, Fraser Valley Regional shared how we have to follow public health orders. It’s not legally possible to enforce, and we don’t want to play any role in enforcement.
Next call is in 2 weeks: Wed, May 5
April 7, 2021
Notes from the call
(2:00). Guest Visit from Mari Martin, Director of the Public Libraries Branch
Annual Survey is out, reminder to please fill out and not to leave to last minute. Will come back to ABCPLD to share interim data from Annual Survey.
Council of Federation Literacy Award opened April 1st. More information on Ministry’s website. Looking to support nominations for literacy organizations which includes public libraries. Please put forward for that award and share locally with your colleagues.
(8:00) About the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and specifically about Tara Faganello, the Assistant Deputy Minister.
Tara will be attending the next ABCPLD zoom call on April 21st.
Ministries are run by Deputy Ministers, they are appointed. DM is like a CEO, budgetary and legislative responsibilities.
DM has Assistant Deputy Ministers responsible for the work. ADMs are our conduit to the Deputy and to the Minister. They work closely as senior leadership team on mandate letter given to Ministry.
ADMs brief and advise the Deputy and Minister. They have a strategic view on what government is looking for, they help translate back to the program areas about what government needs and wants. Tara plays an advisor and briefing role. ADMs are also connected to other ADMs.
Tara is curious to learn about the library sector, the library community. What are the things you’d like to hear from Tara?
The Public Libraries Branch mines the annual reports for themes and data to share with ADM and above.
(23:00). No updates on COVID restrictions. BC continues to take their own approach of keeping libraries open. The work that was done early one has positioned libraries well to stay open.
(25:00). Question posed to everyone: Are you looking for an order to tell you what to do in terms of closing, or are you hoping to take the collective approach and make decisions at your own discretion?
Broad agreement to take collective approach, libraries want discretion to make their own call.
However, guidance on lingering in public spaces would be helpful.
Comments from chat box about providing seating:
From Cari, Grand Forks : YES I waffle on seating and how much of it often
From Julie Spurrell, New West (she/her) : We've actually removed our seating, Deb.
From Heather Evans-Cullen : Gibsons also has limited seating Deb and we would benefit from this guidance around lingering as well
From Matt Rankin - FSJ Public Library : We removed seating, except for public computers, but people are limited to 30 minutes in the library
From Christina de Castell (VPL) : we're also allowing seating now in most locations but very limited outside Central Library
From susan walters, Richmond : we haven't reintroduced seating
From Maureen Sawa - GVPL : No seating at GVPL either - just at computer stations.
From Don Nettleton, Okanagan Regional : we were going to start to add some seating and have pulled back for a bit on that
From Christina de Castell (VPL) : we had people booking computer time in order to sit with their own laptop to get access to wifi. So at that point, we added 1-2 bookable seats so they weren't taking up a computer stations.
From Deb / North Van City (she/they) : Thanks everyone for your thinking on this! We are keeping our seating for now (it's so needed in our community and we have a big space to spread people out in), but definitely watching this.
From Alex Faucher, Elkford : We have a couple seats at tables and one public computer. We have patrons with laptops needing help so we opened a couple seats for that.
From Karen Hudson, Salt Spring Island Library : Limited, spread out seating and doubling down on protocols and messaging this week.
(33:20). Question - VPL has had some staff get COVID who were exposed outside the workplace, but no workplace transmissions for staff or the public. Has there been any workplace transmissions?
No libraries on the call reported work transmissions. Some reported a few cases but no transmission at work.
Comments from chat box re: Vaccinations
Brian, Hazelton: all staff vaccinated 2 weeks ago.
Amber, Hudson’s Hope: all staff vaccinated here today and tomorrow
Toby Mueller : Lillooet is about to have full vaccination for anyone over 18.
Fort St. James Public Library (Karli) : Fort St James is everyone 18+, all but one of my staff is getting vaccinated
Sasha - Midway Public Library : West Boundary (Rock Creek, Midway, Greenwood, surrounding communities) are open for 18 + vaccinations as of next week
Taylor Caron : All residents of Salmo/Ymir +18 can get vaccinated the week of April 19th
(43:15). Possible topics to bring to conversation with Tara Faganello, ADM at the April 21st call
Relationship between UNDRIP and the Libraries Act
I want to know if they are ever going to update the Library Act.
Update so that people outside of our municipality can sit on the library board
Draw attention to immigration and connection with libraries
Frozen funding - what’s it going to take to increase our funding? Adjust for inflation even?
(46:00). Poll: how many libraries have security staff?
(52:40). Poll on Panic Buttons: Do you have a panic button installed in your library?
From Fort St. James Public Library (Karli) : Our buttons are on lanyards not physically installed into the building
From Christina de Castell (VPL) : we mostly use phone calls because it prepares the guards to respond appropriately
From Sherry Murphy : We have two lanyards with panic buttons. Ours is monitored by a security company. Police are called out. We test the system every 6 months or so to make sure everything works. We replace the lanyard buttons once per year. We always have to let the company know when we do it, as it will sometimes set off the alarm.
From Karen Hudson, Salt Spring Island Library : We use a code word over the phone to alert back up staff.
(56:30). Is any library currently or thinking of doing in-person programming for youth? The provincial guidelines appear to say that we can but I'm not sure that any library is doing it yet.
More comments about programming:
From Tracey Therrien : youth programming online yes
From Alex Faucher : Outdoor programming soon when the weather is less gross
From Matt Rankin - FSJ Public Library : We have a weekend pick-up kit program
From Toby Mueller : we have a geocaching challenge going on right now, but they do it out in the community in their bubbles
From Smithers Library : Zoom hangouts for teens & 'tweens
From Nakusp Library - Claire : We will be doing outdoor programming this summer if possible.
From Don Nettleton : we have one very restricted one
From Melissa Millsap : We are doing zoom programming, no in person yet.
From Deb / North Van City (she/they) : we have plans for outdoor programming in the summer, but will make the call on whether to go ahead based on public health messaging at the time.
From Alex Faucher : We will do outdoor small groups and things like story walks
From Alex Faucher : Nothing indoors at all
From susan walters : We had started storywalks but have paused these temporarily
From Courtenay Cryne : More so we are planning and hoping to. So I guess my answer should have be no.
From Maureen Sawa - GVPL : We did story walks also but also paused.
From Heather Evans-Cullen : We've been doing Teen and Tween Book Clubs, Storytimes on Zoom, storywalks and take away STEAM activities
From Karen Hudson, Salt Spring Island Library : We also ran two 1-week storywalks.
From Deb / North Van City (she/they) : We are doing a lot of "take and make" kits...
From Matt Rankin - FSJ Public Library : Same
From Maureen Sawa - GVPL : Take and Make kits at GVPL as well - very popular
From Heather Evans-Cullen : We are planning to keep the focus on take and make throughout the summer.
(1:00:00). Fiona, Terrace - How to balance staff and patron safety when public library washrooms are being used for the whole community? Issue in Terrace because there are no public washrooms and lots of incidents of drug use in library washrooms.
From Sherry Murphy : I think you should apply the safety of your staff over convenience for public. Form a letter to city citing such safety issues.
From Carmen - Pender Isl. : Fiona I think the priority must be staff safety during COVID
From Smithers Library : Big thumbs up for Portland Loos. Smithers has one.
From Heather : We had a similar problem. Our security lets people into the bathrooms
From Sherry Murphy : If they are business oriented, maybe look at the financial consequences for calling out emergency services whenever these incidents occur or cost of hiring security to help monitor the issue. Financial reasons speak fairly loudly with this type of mentality.
From Don Nettleton : We have all our branches with open bathrooms because they are often the only ones in some communities. But we are clear that we are only doing one additional mid day sanitation wipe and we generally do keep one in most branches reserved for just staff to keep them safe personally - bathrooms are really tough in some communities
From Melissa Millsap : Our Municipality made an announcement that the library is open for public washroom use. I agree though, with the drug use you are dealing with a safety issue. Happy you are in contact with and have support from your RCMP.
From Christina de Castell (VPL) : Because we have safe injection sites, drug use isn't a huge problem in our washrooms.