CFLA Submission to 2018 Pre-Budget Consultations

August 17, 2017

Earlier this month, the Canadian Federation of Library Associations (CFLA) submitted a brief to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance’s Pre-Budget Consultations in Advance of the 2018 Federal Budget.

The CFLA submission includes four recommendations “to improve Canadians’ ability to access and use important cultural products and historical records and up-to-date knowledge from the world’s leading researchers.”

1. Invest $50 million over 5 years in a targeted Library Upgrade Investment Fund, which will allow libraries of all formats in all communities to improve their facilities and services, and be welcoming places where all Canadians can find the resources they need to contribute to our society and to the economy.
2. Fund the Library Materials Service to ensure Canada Post can maintain existing services without further increases and that restrictions on library’s ability to create automatic accounts in the Electronic Shipping Tool be eliminated.
3. Invest $30M over the next five years (2018-2022) to support a coordinated national initiative to digitize content and to build the digital infrastructure required to make Canada’s rich documentary heritage available to all Canadians.
4. Invest $250,000 in 2018 to support the creation and establishment of a National Indigenous (First Nations, Metis and Inuit) Association of Archives, Libraries and Cultural Memory.

The full submission is available from the CFLA website.