The biggest news of course is the latest cabinet shuffle resulted in major changes for the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and (now) Gaming. Early last month the province announced that the Hon. Stan Cho would become the new Minister for Tourism and Culture, retaining his OLG responsibilities from his previous ministry. The sport portfolio was separated from the Ministry and the Hon. Neil Lumsden became the Minister of Sport, retaining this portfolio. We thank Minister Lumsden for all of the work he has done to further public libraries in his short time with us and we know he will be a champion for public libraries going forward. Minister Lecce was shuffled out of the Education ministry and became the Minister of Energy and Electrification and Todd Smith is the new Minister of Education. This change affects our work indirectly as our advocacy is closely related to the Ministry of Education’s portfolio and our advocacy partners, OLA, meet with Education often to discuss school libraries. We have already sent Minister Cho a letter (attached in case you’re interested) welcoming him to library land and look forward to meeting with him in the near future to discuss our goals.
We will be resuming our advocacy in full force once legislature is back in session in the fall. In the meantime, we have been working on a revised priorities document and will share that with you once it’s available. The FOPL & OLA boards met earlier this year to discuss our direction going forward based on feedback from Counsel Public Affairs and our Spring Caucus meetings. Thank you to everyone who participated as those meetings are crucial to providing our board with direction on our goals! For all of you who met with your local MPPs over the winter and spring, now would be an excellent time to send them a thank you letter (template attached) and remind them there is still more work to be done and we’ll see them this fall!
As we usually do this time of year, FOPL has been making the rounds to municipal conferences across the province. In the past couple of months we have been to the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities Conference in Sudbury and the Association of Municipal Clerks, Treasurers and CAOs Conference in Blue Mountains. Next up, we will be at the Association of Ontario Municipalities Conference in Ottawa this August. These conferences provide us with excellent opportunities to have meaningful conversations with our municipal partners and stakeholders. We have received great feedback from our members about the positive impact our presence at these conferences has made on their own relationships with their local councillors, mayors and municipal staff. Thank you to the local libraries who provide us with representation and support at the conferences. Your help is very much appreciated! I was also invited to attend the First Nations Spring Gathering in Midland this spring, hosted by OLS. It was wonderful to meet with First Nations Librarians from across the province and talk about their needs, concerns, and the fantastic things their libraries are doing for their communities.
Lastly, please take the time to check out OLA’s School Libraries Campaign. The Ontario Library Association is collecting signatures to enact change to ensure schools retain this crucial resource. As our advocacy partners, FOPL supports the OLA’s campaigns and tries the spread the word as best we can.