What cuts are in LAC's future?

We're getting accustomed to service reductions at Library and Archives Canada. Cuts in acquisitions, longer waits for delivery of ordered materials and reduction in consultation service are already implemented or announced.

Where will the ax of sweeping budget cuts expected as part of the next budget fall? The Ottawa Citizen is reporting that information about the cuts is being managed centrally with instructions that they not be included in the forthcoming Reports on Plans and Priorities. According to Treasury Board President Tony Clement this may be a matter of timing as the decisions about cuts will not have been made, but documents will be able to be updated electronically - not much help if parliamentary deliberations are informed by stale information.

One estimate of the cuts, judged most likely, is published in The Cuts Behind the Curtain: How federal cutbacks will slash services  and increase unemployment David Macdonald, an analyst for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. It suggests LAC will lose 123 FTEs and $16.3 million, that's on top of cuts already scheduled.

Find that report at  http://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2012/01/Cuts_Behind_Curtain.pdf



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