As is occasionally my practice, I like to compare the two Ontario Lakeheads – Thunder Bay/The Lakehead at the head of Superior and Hamilton/Head of the Lake at the head of Ontario. While Hamilton is about five times the population of Thunder Bay, it has a similar industrial and labour past albeit rooted in steel, has transitioned to a knowledge economy over the last two decades given the decline of its traditional manufacturing base, and has issues with poverty and homeless populations who have been setting up camps in local parks.
COVID-19 has of course affected both cities with Thunder Bay and its District to date seeing 3,348 cases and 64 deaths and the City of Hamilton itself seeing 21,866 cases and 404 deaths. In per capita terms, Hamilton has been hit a bit harder than Thunder Bay and its District. At present, Thunder Bay and its District has 5 active cases while Hamilton has 187. Thus, the pandemic in Hamilton is seeing an upsurge that to date has not yet reached Thunder Bay.
Nevertheless, what is interesting is the different approaches of the two municipally funded public library systems to reopening and reengaging with the rate-paying public. The Hamilton system with its 22 branches beginning July 30 was open for browsing, holds pickup, computer access and use of printers, scanner, fax and Makerspace equipment. New branch hours were Tuesday-Thursday 11AM-7PM and Friday- Saturday 11AM-5PM. The library web site has additional details about services and safety protocols including capacity constraints. And a stroll outside the main central library entrance in Jackson Square today revealed that patrons were indeed entering the facility. While things are not normal, there is a semblance of normality back.
Which brings me to the Thunder Bay Public library system. Thunder Bay released its reopening plans on July 27th and will resume in-person services at two of its branches from 10am to 4pm daily – the two smaller ones – Mary JL Black and County Fair – on September 7th. The two larger downtown branches are set to reopen with in-person services on September 27th. Part of the reason for the later reopening of the two downtown branches according to a statement from the Chief Librarian is because the pandemic has been used as an opportunity to “reset and reimagine” and there are renovations underway at the Waverly and Brodie Branches.
Nevertheless, the slow pace of municipal service resumption in general in Thunder Bay is disappointing. And in the case of the public library, it is even more disappointing given the importance of the library to the young and old and especially those unable to afford buying books. Even if renovations are underway, there has been over a year to do them. One can only imagine why everything in Thunder Bay generally takes longer ranging from reopening services in the wake of COVID to dealing with issues like traffic light synchronization which has been debated for twenty years and will now take four years to implement. Is everyone off at camp enjoying the summer? Is the City of Thunder Bay happier keeping its staff at home collecting the federal payments and saving the labour costs so it can add to its “positive variance?” Rather than making sure that services are up and running, the City of Thunder Bay is happiest planning for new initiatives and sending them off for study or hiring lawyers to make sure it does not have to bear any responsibility for the ongoing leaky pipe fiasco which continues to provide unique landscaping and ornament to lawns across the city.
Of course, in the case of public libraries, one could always make the case that the public has been well served during the pandemic by libraries going online and providing e-books and other resources. In this regards, Hamilton is well served with e-resources of 91,864 books, 16,299 audiobooks and 3,444 magazines. Moreover, through the Hamilton ebook system you can also apparently access ebooks at the Burlington Library and even Ottawa’s. Thunder Bay? Well, there seem to be a lot of magazines available but repeated searches for assorted book titles did not yield as much at least for me. The stats for Thunder Bay show the same number of magazines but only 43 books and 5 audiobooks. However this is on the Libby App and Thunder Bay Public Library apparently has another app for e-books. So, my first foray into e-books found the Thunder Bay approach less streamlined. Again, Thunder Bay lives up to its motto – Superior by Nature, Inferior in Practice.
Naturally, the immediate reaction of the more extreme Thunder Bay Patriot will be to blurt out that if you don’t like it here, you should move to Hamilton. I would respond, in the age of remote work, that you should be careful what you wish for.
