Provincial funding continues to enhance the evolving and critical roles libraries play in the lives of Albertans — especially folks in rural and remote communities, Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver said Wednesday.
Rural libraries are community hubs and essential lifelines, McIver said. They host events, allow for human contact, and connect patrons to potential employers, government services and the world beyond their homes. Sometimes they’re the only access a person has to high-speed internet.
“They're very much a social gathering place, and that's a super important thing to have. They’re a safe place to go and maybe do some research or maybe run into an old friend or make a new friend,” McIver said.
“Maybe people need a reference point to find that job or find that new home, or maybe to connect to people who speak the same language or come from a similar culture. Or they need to find a place to go to church or to find a curling club. There are very few facilities that can match what a library can do for somebody looking for these key pieces of information.”
National research backs up McIver. Libraries are community anchors, bridges across the digital divide, safe places that enhance mental health and wellbeing, and access points for lifelong learning, says a federal study published in February 2024.
The study reviewed more than 250 articles, sorting them out from thousands more it retrieved. Run by Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council in collaboration with Employment and Social Development Canada, it found that libraries encourage belonging, create connections through technology, reinforce cultural identities, address accessibility, and create educational, recreational and social programming.
“Libraries are not going anywhere,” said McIver, the member for Calgary-Hays. “They're just as important now as they've ever been, and in some cases they’re more important, particularly in a time with heavy immigration to Alberta and to Canada.”
The government earmarked $39 million for distribution to 225 boards across Alberta in 2025, says a provincial news release posted today.
Alberta Budget 2025 anticipates a $5.2-billion deficit to allow spending of $74.1 billion in a time of economic uncertainty. The provincial deficit is set to drop to $2.4 billion next year and $2 billion in 2027, before provincial legislation requires that the government run a balanced budget.
“It really goes to indicate how important libraries are when we didn't even think of cutting them back when we've got such a big deficit,” said McIver.
Budget 2025 pegs maximum operating grants for municipal and intermunicipal libraries at about $24 million. Boards beyond the four major cities — Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer and Lethbridge — account for more than $10 million of the total.
Nearly $9 million more is earmarked for grants to seven library system boards, which serve regional networks of libraries in communities of varying sizes.
The province’s announcement also shines a light on $5.4 million in funding for network support and branch operations. The category includes support for things like Alberta-wide borrowing, interlibrary loans and connections to Alberta SuperNet, which links libraries to provincial public institutions, communities and First Nations.
The funding maintains a provincewide e-content suite, including a project called Read Alberta eBooks and eMagazines. It provides resources for people with disabilities that prevent or hinder them from using print. And it leads the training of Alberta public service employees in the creation of accessible documents.
Alberta’s landscape is dotted with 327 public library branches that serve municipal, regional and First Nations communities. They’re governed by 225 municipal, intermunicipal and First Nations public boards and seven regional library systems.
One of those points on the map is home to Big Valley Municipal Library. Its doors opened in 1987 in the back of the village office after a group of concerned citizens joined forces to make it happen. That first incarnation of the library had 28 members, a 2014 story in the Stettler Independent reported.
With a population of about 330 in 2021, Big Valley is about an hour’s drive southeast of Red Deer. These days, its library is part of the Parkland regional system, which connects 49 public libraries across central Alberta and serves over 200,000 residents in 64 municipalities.
The Big Valley board gets a projected $10,954 in 2025. Grant estimates for the Parkland system total more than $1.43 million.
Rainbow Lake, meanwhile, is a town tucked into the boreal forest wilds of northeastern Alberta, about 875 kilometres from Edmonton by car. Its population in 2021 was around 500.
Small and remote though it may be, Rainbow Lake has had a municipal library since 1976. From the first location of the library, patrons were allowed one book for one week. Adults paid $2 for an annual membership, says the library website.
Operating money for Rainbow Lake board in 2025 is nearly $13,500. Projected funding tops $900,000 for the Peace regional system its part of.
No matter how funding is divvied up, Alberta’s libraries all benefit from each other through connections supported by the province, McIver emphasized. Interlibrary book loans and deliveries bring the rest of the province to rural Alberta.
Libraries are especially important for seniors and others who don’t leave their communities often or perhaps don’t drive. “No matter if you're in a small or medium-sized municipality, even if the building isn't that big, you still have access to a massive number of books, articles and periodicals. A library system is more than its individual libraries,” McIver said.
Libraries are evolving and multi-modal. “And the knowledgeable professional staff at libraries are really top-notch people. They're very good at helping members of the public get their hands on the information that will make their lives better.”
Read Alberta, a group created by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta and the Alberta Magazine Publishers Association, says on its website that 99.8 per cent of Alberta’s people have access to a public library and 35 per cent have a library card.
Albertans visit public libraries 21 million times a year. And more than 2,400 Albertans volunteer on library boards.
Then there are those diverse and sometimes quirky community events that pop up.
If you’re a Crowsnest Pass teenager in southern Alberta, perhaps you’re looking forward to the book chat at the library in Blairmore on May 6. For adults, any Thursday in May you can take part in a Crafternoon and share your projects and inspiration with your neighbours.
Meanwhile in Morinville, just north of Edmonton, you may be itching for your chance on May 31 to learn — wait for it — how to create a miniature hobbit door wreath.
Tech tips and tutoring take place every Wednesday in May at the public library in the mountain town of Canmore west of Calgary, and down in Fort Macleod, also on Wednesdays, community members work on their English at the conversation café.
And remember: the first rule of knitting night every Thursday at the Macleod library is don’t call it knitting night. The reason? Hobbyists involved in all fibre arts are welcome to take part.
