The year ends on a good note, with news that the Public Lending Right budget will permanently increase by $5 million, the largest raise in the program’s 30-year history.
According to Public Lending Right Program manager Peter Schneider, the increase to author payments will take place over two years, starting with $2.5 million for the fiscal year 2018-19 (February 2019 payments), followed by a second bump for fiscal 2019-20 (February 2020 payments).
The Canada Council for the Arts program, which compensates authors and other creators for public access to their books in Canadian libraries, was established in 1986 with a budget of $2,747,949. The current budget sits at just over $9,750,000.