The librarians would like to have a word with decision-makers at Queen's Park.
Rob Elliot, a consultant with Counsel Public Affairs Inc., registered this past week to lobby for The Ontario Library Association. According to his filing with the Office of the Integrity Commissioner, the focus of the lobbying efforts was to discuss Municipal Act, 2001 and the City of Toronto Act, 2006, specifically, the implications of expanded mayoral authorities on local public library governance and the importance of legislative updates to include clear reference to the Public Libraries Act, 1990 to appropriately reflect the limitations of the special powers of the mayor as head of council.
The group also wants to meet with public officials and advocate for updates to the core education funding model to restore and enhance protected funding and accountability measures to ensure that funding allocated to school boards for school libraries and teacher-librarians is effectively used and spent on its intended purposes, in line with the Ministry of Education’s funding formula recommendations.