Thanks very much, Mr. Chair.
I'm very pleased to be offered the opportunity to appear before the committee at this pre-budget hearing. I come from Edmonton, where I am the director of the Edmonton Public Library system.
My brief presentation this morning will focus on which program spending measures should be implemented to ensure that Canada is more competitive. But before I turn to this, I would just like to say a few words about the value and importance of libraries to Canadians.
There are actually more libraries in Canada than McDonald's and Tim Hortons combined. Over 21 million Canadians hold library cards. As a result, librarians, library trustees, and library workers have a huge opportunity to reach Canadians and to help them grow. At libraries Canadians find the opportunity to borrow library materials for pleasure and to help with homework, and to take part in programs where both adults and children can learn and improve skills. Libraries have also become places where people can access the Internet, check their emails, or search through job postings. The Internet has become an important tool for libraries; it certainly has not replaced them.
Libraries continue their 2,000-year-old history as places of community learning, serving not just individual needs but the needs of the larger group by adapting to changing times and technology. The ability to learn and to adapt to change is a central life skill.
This brings me back to the theme of competitiveness. Thanks in no small part to programs from the federal government, libraries have been contributing to learning and job training to ensure that they can best serve all aspects of the various and diverse communities they serve. The Canadian Library Association is very proud of the work that libraries do and wants to ensure that they continue that work.
To help Canadian society culturally, socially, and economically, libraries need as much help as they can get. There are two federal programs in particular that work toward meeting the goals similar to those of the Canadian Library Association--namely, the community access program, or CAP, and the library book rate.
As the role of the Internet has grown, so too has the role of Canada's libraries. No longer just places to borrow library materials, libraries have grown to become the most heavily used sites for public Internet access. This in large part is due to the community access program. CAP was created in 1995 to establish access sites in rural Canada, and it was expanded to include urban communities in 1998. Libraries, as centres of their communities, were an excellent fit to establish these sites, and they continue to be an excellent fit.
This program has been an enormous success, expanding not just access to the Internet but also the skills needed to use it properly. However, there is still a digital divide in this country, with both individuals and entire communities lacking sufficient access to technology. There is still much to be done to ensure that people have the skills needed to properly use this fundamental tool in today's society, and it is imperative that this program be continued.
Libraries today are hardly warehouses of content; instead, they are social assembly places, participating in their larger communities by building information commons. They are open and freely available to all, with trained staff able to answer questions and offer support as needed. Older adults can come to learn the finer points of using the Internet, and others can come to improve computer or job search skills.
At its heart, that is what the community access program is about, helping communities develop the technology skills needed in the modern world. There is still fragmentation between those who are connected and those who are unconnected, where connection literally stands for social inclusion in terms of access to life skills, opportunity, and the instruments of learning.
Please let me say once again how important and needed the community access program is. We respectfully request that you recommend its renewal to the minister.
The second program is the library book rate. We wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate the government on renewing the library book rate. It's now guaranteed until January 2008, meaning that for almost 70 years it will have helped Canada's libraries reach out to those unable to reach them.
Even more importantly, we congratulate the government for not increasing the cost. Libraries today still face numerous financial pressures, and nearly 94% of Canada's libraries of all types--public, academic, school, special--use this service, which allows them to send materials for less than one-tenth of the cost of using regular parcel post. This has direct implications on a number of groups, in particular those living in distant areas, especially in Canada's north, and those seeking materials in a language other than that of the nearby majority.
To sum up, I would like to say that libraries help develop skills and knowledge, both at an individual and a community level. The two programs I've talked about serve particular functions in enhancing this role.
Thank you.