CONTENTS
Standing
Committee on Human Services
Bill No. 28 — The Public Libraries Amendment Act,
2025
THIRTIETH
LEGISLATURE
of
the
Legislative Assembly of
Saskatchewan
STANDING
COMMITTEE ON
Hansard
Verbatim Report
No.
11 — Wednesday, November 26, 2025
Chair Weger:
— Welcome to the Standing Committee on Human Services. My name is Mike Weger
and I’m the Chair. To my left I have MLA [Member of the Legislative Assembly]
McBean chitting in for MLA Blakley, MLA Love chitting in for MLA Burki, and MLA
ChiefCalf. On my right, I have MLA Chan, MLA Kropf, and MLA Gartner.
Before we begin our business
today, I would like to table two documents. First is HUS 6‑30, Ministry
of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety: Response to question raised at the
April 15th, 2025 meeting; and secondly, HUS 7‑30, Ministry of Health:
Responses to questions raised at the March 31st and April 1st, 2025 meetings.
Bill No. 28 — The
Public Libraries Amendment Act, 2025
Clause 1
Chair
Weger: — Today the committee will
be considering Bill No. 28, The
Public Libraries Amendment Act, 2025. We will begin with
consideration of clause 1, short title. Minister Hindley is here with officials
from the ministry. I would ask that officials please state their names before
speaking. Please don’t touch the microphones. The Hansard operator will turn
your microphone on when you are speaking to the committee. Minister, please
introduce your officials and make your opening remarks.
Hon.
Everett Hindley: —
Sure. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thanks to the committee for indulging us here
today as we have some discussion around The
Public Libraries Amendment Act, 2025, Bill No. 28. Joining me
this afternoon is my deputy minister, Clint Repski, to my left. On my right,
Provincial Librarian Alison Hopkins. And also here as well just seated in
behind us, assistant deputy minister, Sameema Haque.
The Public Libraries Act,
1996 requires amendment to apply
the legislation consistently to the entire city of Lloydminster, and this is at
the request of the city’s executive. These amendments will ensure that
consistent library services, governance, and operations are in place for the
entire city, which of course is a border city. This will provide residents on
both sides of Lloydminster with equal access to quality library resources.
There’s some housekeeping
changes being made as well to modernize language. Consequential amendments to The
Public Library Regulations, 1996 will also be drafted and are intended to
come into force alongside the Act amendments.
Other than that, you know, I
would just point to that these are . . . Again, this is something
that is required in order to apply to the entire city of Lloydminster. The city
have been asking for this for some time, I believe.
And so we decided to have
some consultations that did take place, Mr. Chair. We conducted a consultation
process which gathered input and feedback from stakeholders, including the city
of Lloydminster, province of Alberta, Ministry of Government Relations. It
included several meetings with library directors and library board Chairs, plus
some written communication to municipal associations, and an article in Municipalities
Today. The feedback from the consultation was all in favour of the
amendments related to the city of Lloydminster and also updating the Act.
And with that I’ll maybe turn
it back to you, Mr. Chair, and we’ll
try to answer any questions that committee members may have about this here
today.
Chair Weger: — Thank you, Minister. I’ll now open the floor for
questions. MLA Love.
Matt
Love: —
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thanks, Minister, for those opening remarks. I don’t
imagine that we’ll be here for too long today, but I’ve got just a couple quick
questions for you today, Minister.
The
first one is, what will be the impact on the Lakeland
regional library as a result of this?
Hon.
Everett Hindley: —
Yeah. Thanks for the question, Mr. Love. My understanding is that they were
supportive of the changes here. I don’t know if there’s anything else, Clint,
you wanted to address on that.
Clint Repski:
— Yes. Clint Repski, deputy minister of Education. There’s going to be a change
to the funding for Lakeland. So when we distribute the grant to the regional
library systems across the province, obviously removing Lloydminster out of
that — which this legislation certainly speaks to — they would lose that
population. They would be part of a municipal grant, and all parties were
certainly aware of this moving forward. So their grant would be adjusted
commensurate with the loss of population.
Matt Love: — Okay.
Thank you, Deputy Minister. Follow-up question: have there been any or do you
expect there to be any disruptions in service as a result of this changeover?
I’m not sure logistically what type of work might need to take place beyond
just, you know, legislative changes. Has there been any disruption to service
either in Lakeland or in the city of Lloydminster?
Alison
Hopkins: —
Hi. Alison Hopkins, Provincial Librarian. So there has been no disruption of
service and we don’t anticipate there will be. There was a change when
Lloydminster left the Lakeland region prior to this legislative amendment, and
this has happened by minister’s order, and they both requested that they be
separated. And so this happened, and Lloydminster became a municipal library
and outside of the library system that is Lakeland a year ago.
And so what happened with
that is some of the things that would have been a regional responsibility, such
as courier shipping, that became a provincial responsibility because we cover
the shipping between libraries. And the other thing is we’ve agreed . . .
Alberta was paying for their internet, and we’ve agreed that we will pay for
their internet as part of this legislative change.
So we’ve done everything we
can to make sure there will be no disruption.
Matt
Love: —
Great. Thank you. Probably my final question, unless there’s others from other
committee members. I’m wondering, Minister, if you can just walk the committee
through what type of collaboration is taking place with the province of
Alberta, you know, whether there’s legislative changes needed on that side of
the border. I know that with Lloydminster we have a unique situation that
requires, you know, lots of collaboration on many fronts in many ministries. If
you can just provide a few comments on that.
Hon.
Everett Hindley: —
Thanks for the question. Yeah, just as part of the consultations with the
Government of Alberta, both provinces — so us and Alberta — have both agreed in
principle to proceed with the complementary orders in council to agree that
only the Saskatchewan Act will be effective within Lloydminster. So we’ve had
conversation. They’ve agreed that they’ll pass that order in council as well
there.
Matt
Love: —
Thank you.
Chair Weger:
— Okay, are there any more questions or comments from any committee members?
Seeing none, we’ll proceed to vote on the clauses.
Clause 1, short title, is
that agreed?
Some Hon. Members:
— Agreed.
[Clause 1 agreed to.]
[Clauses 2 to 13 inclusive
agreed to.]
Chair Weger:
— His Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly
of Saskatchewan, enacts as follows: The
Public Libraries Amendment Act, 2025.
I would ask a member to move
that we report Bill No. 28, The
Public Libraries Amendment Act, 2025 without amendments. MLA Gartner
moves. Is that agreed?
Some
Hon. Members: — Agreed.
Chair Weger:
— Carried. Minister Hindley, do you have any closing comments?
Hon.
Everett Hindley: —
No, Mr. Chair. Just thanks to the committee for their time here today, and to
my officials, Clint and Sameema and Alison, for being here to help answer
questions here today. So thank you.
Chair Weger:
— And, MLA Love, any closing comments?
Matt
Love: —
Yeah. Thanks to the committee members, the minister, and the officials here.
Thanks for all the consultation that went into this to ensure that all parties
were in favour of these changes. Appreciate every time that you get out there
and do good work with our library system. So on behalf of the opposition, thank
you for that.
Chair Weger:
— Okay, and I will also thank you, Minister Hindley, your staff for the work
that you’ve put into Bill No. 28. Thank you to the committee members, the
Clerk, and the Hansard staff.
That concludes our business
for today. I would ask a member to move a motion of adjournment. MLA Chan has
moved. All agreed?
Some
Hon. Members: — Agreed.
Chair Weger:
— Carried. This committee stands adjourned to the call of the Chair.
[The committee adjourned at
16:12.]
Published
under the authority of the Hon. Todd Goudy, Speaker
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