Saskatoon Public Library has taken another step in the decade-long plan to build a new downtown central library. On Tuesday, library board Chair Lisa Erickson and CEO Carol Cooley dropped by to chat with Jeremy Dodge about the project. This interview has been edited for clarity.

Jeremy Dodge: Can you tell us about where we stand right now?

Lisa Erikson: Last week we released the business case for Saskatoon's new central library and yesterday we had the opportunity to go the Governance and Priorities Committee of council to present that business case and present highlights of it for them to consider.

Let's talk about some of those highlights. The big one that a lot of people are talking about is the price tag – how much is this proposed to cost?

Cooley: It's proposed to cost $154 million. $87.5 million of that is borrowing.

This is a large piece of infrastructure. What's the size?

Erickson: We're estimating 149,000 square feet. The current Frances Morrison Central Library is 78,000 square feet … We know that that current site, while many great memories have been made there over the years, it's over 50 years old and it was originally built for a population of 115,000 here in Saskatoon.

So we're in a position of being really strained within that facility and there are many deficiencies within that building right now that can strain library service.

Despite the need for a library, I think the first thing people say is, "that's a lot of money, that's a big piece of land." Why so much, and what is this going to mean?

Erickson: Those are important questions and so one thing that's also important to remember is that the library and the city came up with a funding structure for this project 10 years ago and so we've been contributing to a new central library reserve in that time and have close to $46 million saved for this project.

The funding plan includes continued contributions to that new central library levy and we estimate that on the average property tax, in the value of around $371,000, that will be $5 a year for ratepayers from 2020 to 2025 and less than that in 2026.

Some people may ask, we have nine branches of this public library, why do we need one of this size and cost?

Cooley: Libraries are critical pieces of social infrastructure and they are as important as bridges and roads and so the central library, investing in that is investing in social infrastructure in Saskatoon. And a central library plays a really critical role in the health of the library system as a whole as well as serving as a branch for people who live work and visit downtown.

I guess the other question is, where? People have been talking about large new projects – an arena, things like that. Where will this go?

Erickson: We envision this new central library will be a really powerful force in animating downtown Saskatoon. We have worked with the city to identify appropriate sites that align with the needs that have emerged though our analysis for this project. We can't say more about site selection at this time but they are all in the downtown area surrounded by 25th, Idylwyld and the river.

What's the timeline? When we actually see this hopefully start to materialize?

Cooley: Once we get approval from council, our timeline is that we would start the design work in a year or two and then be opening the doors in 2026.