Hawkesbury council members have “heavy reading” to do to help determine how to answer a demand for increasing the Hawkesbury public library’s budget.
“It’s a significant increase,” said Mayor Robert Lefebvre, during a phone interview following last month’s council session.
A delegation for the Hawkesbury Public Library presented a report to council December 8, outlining the proposed 2026 budget for the library and arguments why a large increase in the library’s budget is necessary.
The proposed 2026 library budget is $737,922.32, compared to the 2025 budget of $657,970. The proposed increase is almost $80,000, which includes a $17,000 increase to cover salary raises for library staff. This salary increase is required under the terms of the current contract between the library and its staff.
Library officials told council that “a substantial increase” to the public library budget is necessary to maintain existing library services to residents and also deal with some necessary expenses for furniture replacement and acquiring new books, DVDs, and other library loan items.
Last year the library staff was increased by one more part-time employee. Two more part-time staff position additions are planned for this year. But the delegation noted that, even with these three new part-time positions, the library is understaffed for dealing with the amount of work maintaining services for residents.
The delegation noted that inflation has added to the cost of buying new books and other resource materials, lighting and heating for the library, and the expenses involved in providing various activities in addition to traditional lending services for books and other items. Some of those extra activities include scheduling special events like hosting visiting authors for public readings.
The delegation argued that increasing the library budget is necessary “to continue to guarantee a good quality service” otherwise the public library will need to consider some reductions in services to save on operation costs.
The 2026 library budget request will be part of the overall 2026 municipal discussion for council later this month.
