Of all the services which the City of St. Albert offers to its citizens, Library Services is at the top of my list. However, I cannot support the proposal that the City should build a branch library at an estimated cost of $14 million.
Our neighbour to the south has 16 libraries, consisting of a main library and 15 branches to service a population of 878,000. That works out to one library per 55,000. St. Albert has one library to service a population of 63,000.
I understand that the principal reason for a branch library is because the city library has no room to expand. From my perspective there is no need to expand because fact and fiction is published today electronically and is easily accessed with a computer or a smartphone. Rather than the City spend $14 million on a new branch library, it should issue a smartphone, free of any charge, to each and every household in St. Albert, to encourage readership of the “electronic” page rather than the printed page. It would be far more cost effective.
William Tuchak, St. Albert
