Resource centre at Millennium Library facing funding cut

A resource centre at the Millennium Library is in jeopardy.

Funding for the library’s Community Connections space is being cut at the end of year as it wasn’t included in the City of Winnipeg’s 2025 preliminary budget.

According to Kirsten Wurmann, program coordinator for the Manitoba Library Association, the city has said the funding for Community Connections should fall to the province.

“This is a library service,” she said in an interview on Wednesday.

“There’s a librarian responsible for it. There are library staff there, and they answer library questions. They make sure that the information and the library services are accessible for everybody.”

Now, advocates are calling for the provincial government to step in and bring back the funding.

“It really makes no sense,” Wurmann said.

“It stands for what the city believes in. It’s successful. It’s doing the work it’s supposed to do. It’s making the whole space safer, so why on earth wouldn’t they fund it?’

Community Connections, which is run by library staff and crisis workers, opened in 2022 to deal with safety and security issues at Millennium Library. Since then, it’s become a positive resource for people needing social assistance or access to library resources.

“[It’s] a culturally safe and low barrier library service to help all sorts of folks,” Wurmann said.

She added Community Connections is an effective, innovative and busy library space, noting it handles 45 per cent of the customer questions at the library.