Millennium Library blueprint must balance safety, accessibility By: Dan Lett Posted: 7:00 PM CST Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/01/2023 (713 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Before Christmas, in the wake of the horrific stabbing death on the main floor of the Millennium Library, city officials estimated the flagship facility would reopen by mid-January.

Approaching mid-January, it seems everyone involved is going to need more time.

The need to reopen the library is pressing. There are a lot of people, most of them residents of the downtown, who rely on the Millennium for many things other than books.

Unfortunately, last month’s violent tragedy revealed the degree to which the City of Winnipeg had ignored the need for better overall security at its flagship public library, leaving both staff and patrons exposed to unnecessary risk. (Full disclosure: I have a loved one who works there.)

But what to do about it?

The Millennium has evolved into an amenity packed full of essential community supports. It is no longer just a depository for books; it is a portal through which the public can access computer resources, social services and a range of learning opportunities that extend well beyond the bound treasures in its traditional stacks.

However, given its emphasis on access, it has also become a place that has absorbed all of the uglier aspects of life in the surrounding community. Simply put, the downtown will continue to suffer from a massive hole in its heart until the Millennium reopens.

However, when it does, the Millennium must be a welcoming, accessible facility that is also unambiguously safe for all who work and gather there. It means reopening when there is a plan to achieve that balance — not a moment sooner.

Progress has been made. There have been meetings between city officials and the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 500 (which represents most staff at the library). The city has also promised a comprehensive risk assessment and safety audit.

It now seems obvious rather than reopening the library next week, sometime before the end of January we’ll be getting details of the assessment and audit, and a revised timetable. If that’s indeed what happens, it would be the right approach.

It now seems obvious rather than reopening the library next week, sometime before the end of January we’ll be getting details of the assessment and audit, and a revised timetable. If that’s indeed what happens, it would be the right approach.

Rushing to reopen, and failing to find the balance between safety and accessibility, could have dire consequences.

The city needs to make this facility a place where people want to work, and where patrons want to learn and grow. Unfortunately, history shows council and administrators ignored warning signs for years.

As is the case in many centrally located libraries around the world, the Millennium has faced increasing challenges dealing with unruly patrons, some of whom have mental health problems or addictions. When the city did act, it provided awkward and inadequate responses.

In 2019, the city deployed private security guards to search bags and wave metal-detecting wands around every patron who had the temerity to enter. It was a strategy condemned by both staff and patrons.

Partly as a response to those concerns, and also given the decline in attendance triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, that system was abandoned a year later, without any effort to bring forward a new security protocol.

The city did open a social service desk inside the Millennium staffed with social workers with crisis intervention skills, but not in sufficient numbers to cover the library’s schedule.

The legacy of that failed effort should weigh heavily on the minds of officials responsible for plotting a course to reopening. And while they’re deliberating, those officials would be well-advised to study the province’s profoundly unsuccessful attempt to reconfigure city hospitals.

Five years ago, the Progressive Conservative government acted on a consultant’s report produced by the former NDP government recommending a reduction in the number of emergency departments, and a wholesale restructuring of other key medical programs.

Moving quickly to “heal the health-care system,” decisions were made and resources were allocated to realize the vision of the report without involving the people who worked at the hospitals. Those changes were overwhelmingly rejected by nurses, and the refusal to staff the new hospital system in its current configuration created a shortage which has only gotten worse during the pandemic.

The city is facing the very real possibility the Millennium Library… will be shunned by staff and patrons alike if it tries to move forward with anything less than a comprehensive, fully funded security strategy.

The city is facing the very real possibility the Millennium Library, a beautiful and thoughtful amenity desperately needed in the downtown, will be shunned by staff and patrons alike if it tries to move forward with anything less than a comprehensive, fully funded security strategy.

What does that look like? The city will need to abandon plans to solve this problem with security screening alone. What the Millennium needs is more robust, multi-faceted strategy.

There is a growing body of research and pilot programming in libraries all over North America that shows well-funded, well-resources intervention teams involving social workers, crisis intervention experts and specially trained security personnel are key to maintaining the balance between safety and accessibility.

That is a complex and, quite likely, expensive proposition. But it is a small expense when you consider the alternative is the end of the Millennium as we know it.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca

Dan Lett
Columnist

Born and raised in and around Toronto, Dan Lett came to Winnipeg in 1986, less than a year out of journalism school with a lifelong dream to be a newspaper reporter.

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