Delayed fines for children were abolished last year, and the library says it has not charged delay card fines to any cardholder since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. The library says it will continue not to charge late fees and make the change permanent on June 1. He also says about 57,000 cardholders will see their accounts cleared of fines. The library says users will still be responsible for returning the material and those who do not will have to pay the replacement cost for any materials that have been lost, damaged or simply not returned. Many other library systems across North America have eliminated arrears in recent years. All Nova Scotia libraries removed arrears and forgave all existing fines in August 2020. In British Columbia, libraries in the Kamloops area introduced a similar policy change in March 2021, bringing together library systems across the county to eliminate overdue fines, including those in Burnaby, North Vancouver and Richmond. In the meadows, Saskatoon, Regina, Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg public library systems have also permanently abolished late fees. Other places in Canada, including Ottawa and all of Prince Edward Island, have also made the move to remove late fees from their public libraries. Mary Chevreau, president of the Canadian Council of Urban Libraries, said that with the rise of digital hardware, fines are becoming a small fraction of total revenue. Public library systems in the United States have also abolished delays in recent months and years, including in New York and the San Diego Public Library in California.
