Nearly $155K needed for more staff at Cameron Library and Rec Centre

The temporary Cameron Public Library and Recreation Centre has been very successful with record numbers of patrons and new library users—to the point where staff struggle to keep up. 

On Monday, Nov. 18, a delegation from the temporary centre appeared at city council’s meeting requesting $154,900 to hire three new staff members to keep up with increased demand at the library, currently located inside Lougheed Mall. 

According to a council report, temporary Cameron is seeing unprecedented numbers of patrons in its current location, some of whom are coming through the recreation centre and have been steadily increasing in recent months, especially after the closure of the old Cameron Community Centre and Library. 

“We have seen about a 45% increase in foot traffic at the new Cameron. One of the things that we’ve also noticed anecdotally is that we have a lot of folks coming through the rec centre now that don’t get captured by our foot counter, so we don’t actually have statistics that show that additional increase of people who are coming through the rec centre entrance,” said Heidi Schiller, director of public service for Burnaby Public Library. 

According to the delegates, the growing number of new library users and visitors is taking a toll on the people who work there. 

“One thing that I should mention is, with the demand on our services, there’s a lot of materials handling, which puts a lot of physical strain on existing staff,” said Cameron branch manager Des Baron who noted that the staff numbers have not changed but the workload has increased. “We don’t have an automatic material handling machine. It’s all done still by staff, and so that puts them at a risk for musculoskeletal injuries and things like repetitive strain injury.”

During the meeting, Coun. Sav Dhaliwal questioned the delegates about what happened to the original staff in the old Cameron centre and where they went. 

“I think we have closed down now, Cameron; there are people probably who were previously there, auxiliaries, etc. and all that, which no longer are there,” he said. Dhaliwal asked why many original Cameron employees had not moved to the new temporary location instead of hiring new staff. 

The motion passed, and the proposal went through, meaning that the temporary Cameron Library and Recreation Centre will soon get three new staff members to help with the increased demand. 

“I take Councillor Dhaliwal’s points very seriously. However, I’ve been to the Cameron library, and I’ve seen the good news story actually, that is the increase in people coming to the library using the library services. I think it’s such an important part of what we do. And the one thing I get the most good reports on, sorry to all the other staff, is that our library services are so good and top-notch. So, at this time, I will support this, but I will need to see further information as we move forward in the staffing level,” said Mayor Mike Hurley. 

City’s meeting schedule to change in 2025

Starting in 2025, Burnaby City Council will meet on Tuesdays instead of Mondays. The proposed changes came to council on Nov. 18, and the motion passed without any public consultation. Two council members opposed the changes, Mayor Hurley and Coun. Dhaliwal. 

According to a council report, the rationale behind the changes includes potential benefits to staff, such as having an extra workday to prepare and a possible increase in public attendance at the meetings. 

Dhaliwal strongly opposed the changes without any public consultation, saying that he has not received any complaints from members of the public regarding the current timings of the meetings at 5pm every other Monday. 

“Traditionally, for many years, as far as I can remember, Burnaby had Monday meetings, and for all intents and purposes, I think things were working well,” Dhaliwal said. 

He added that in his 22 years on city council, he has never seen any correspondence or received any complaints about the timing of the meeting. Dhaliwal said he was reluctant to approve the changes without consulting the public. 

“Was there any outreach to the public to say that we are wanting to change from Monday to Tuesday? Is there any preference from your perspective? Because, after all, this is a public meeting. We hold meetings for the public, not for council,” Dhaliwal said. 

Hurley agreed with Dhaliwal, saying that the public should have a say if the meeting times should change. 

“From my perspective, I will be opposing this. I believe that our public has believed for a long time that we meet them on Mondays. I haven’t heard any complaints at all about it, and I always believe that if we make changes, it should be in the best interest of the public, and I haven’t heard that. I’ve heard it may be in the best interest of some others, but not in the public’s eyes,” Hurley said. “I think it’s not a good message to the public given that we haven’t consulted on this at all.” 

Most councillors approved the changes, saying the extra weekday would benefit staff, councillors and the public. 

“I think that that extra business day actually means a lot. Take, for example, the debate we had today and the engagement we had today. It was a mad scramble today where I didn’t feel like I had adequate time to hear from the public or consult with staff about different things. So I think that added day will improve the public’s engagement and ability to engage with council, and also for council to engage with staff,” Coun. Daniel Tetrault said.

Coun. Alison Gu also supported the changes, citing the difficulty in returning to work after a weekend. 

“I don’t think the public knows too clearly when exactly we meet. But also, I think it improves access for people who want to go away for a long weekend and maybe take Monday off. Mondays are a mad scramble coming back to work. I think they have the reputation of being a challenging day. And so having it on Tuesday does, I think, facilitate that. I do think the consistency of having the second and fourth Tuesday allows people to not need to check the calendar,” Gu said. 

This piece was made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.

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