Toronto Reference Library patrons use a bank computers with free Internet access in January of 2007.Deborah Baic/The Globe and Mail
Downtown's newest high-rise condo dwellers could find themselves lacking a neighbourhood library if a budgetary proposal made to comply with Mayor Rob Ford's cost-cutting agenda proceeds.
The future of the Toronto Public Library's urban-affairs branch is on the bubble.
Tucked away inside the Metro Hall building at King and John streets, it is hardly Toronto's most prominent library. But every year it serves tens of thousands of readers who flock to it for its special holdings, or who use it pick up books they've ordered from branches further away.
The neighbourhood, home to a steadily increasing number of new condo buildings, lacks many traditional amenities.
Mr. Ford swept to office last fall with promises to "stop the gravy train" at city hall. Since then, he has directed city staff to come up with a budget that includes a 0-per-cent property-tax increase - and which also doesn't cut any services.
Despite this, budgetary bureaucrats have put together a provisional plan that suggests taxpayers can save money by shutting the urban-affairs library branch. Its holdings would move to the Reference Library at Yonge and Bloor. A new branch is to open up in the neighbourhood - eventually.
"We can't be cutting a whole library branch," said Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler, a board member of the Toronto Public Library, who is urging concerned citizens to make their voices heard in coming days.
The library board meets Jan. 6. City council's budgetary committee starts meeting on Jan. 10.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Ford said she could not comment on the plan.
"We haven't seen the proposal," Adrienne Batra said. But she added that "the mayor has been very clear - he doesn't want to see any major service cuts."
The budgetary proposal also envisions the Toronto Public Library - which touts itself as the largest urban library in the world - buying thousands fewer books than it has in years past.