Regina Public Library seeking increased budget to cover rising costs, eventual new downtown facility

WATCH: Library leaders say they need more money to cover operating costs, along with a new central location. Wayne Mantyka explains.

Leaders at the Regina Public Library say they need more money to cover increasing operating costs and a future new central location.

City council will be asked to approve a 4.58 per cent mill rate increase for the Regina Public Library (RPL) with the board saying current revenue is not meeting needs.

“That is equivalent to 0.42 per cent of the city’s mill rate or about 80 cents a month for the average homeowner,” RPL board chair Marj Gavigan said.

RPL says if approved, the increased funding will go toward increased salaries and improving cyber security.

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Gavigan said the average annual increase for RPL has been 2.2 per cent over the past decade but adds that this year they find themselves under more financial pressure.

“And we need to increase our revenue to address that pressure,” Gavigan said.

The library board will also ask the new city council to affirm a commitment to an eventual new central library downtown. That would require an additional 5.5 per cent dedicated mill rate increase for five years along with debt financing of $119 million.

“We are at the front end at this stage where we are hiring consultants, architects, legal advisors and things like that to make sure that we can issue an RFP that meets our needs,” RPL’s director of finance Curtis Smith said.

Smith expects that work will take them into 2026, when the design stage will likely begin.

Currently the plan is to have a new facility for 2030.