THUNDER BAY — A new initiative by the Thunder Bay Public Library and the Lakehead Region Conservation Authority promises to increase access to the outdoors.
The library now has 20 of the LRCA's Explore Card parking passes available for loan from its collection, said Raili Roy, the library’s director of community development. That effectively allows patrons who check them out with a library card in good standing free access to the LRCA’s 10 conservation areas.
“The LRCA offers explore parking passes which allow you to park your vehicle on any one of their 10 conservation areas and take as many people as you can fit into your vehicle out to play, to walk, to watch birds, to swim, to commute, to launch your boat,” Roy said, adding that the loans from the library are good for up to a week at a time.
The cards are primarily sold to the public by the calendar year for $40 plus tax. The conservation authority donated the 20 passes to the library system, said Ryan Mackett, the LRCA’s communications manager, adding that they intend to continue to do so annually.
This initiative is part of a larger effort by the library over the past few years to offer free experiences to various local attractions for checkout. So far, Roy said, that also includes the Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Fort William Historical Park, the Thunder Bay Museum, Ontario Parks and the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra.
The reason behind offering these experiences, Roy said, is effectively the same as why the library offers free access to books and other media. “We're looking to provide access to people who may not be able to afford this, so that everyone has access to the wonderful attractions and features in Thunder Bay,” she said.
For the conservation authority, their interest in the partnership appears to be along similar lines.
“It's important for people to understand that our conservation areas are privately owned by the authority and we rely on the parking pass sales and the parking fee payment to literally pay for the upkeep and maintenance of the conservation areas,” Mackett said. “We don't get federal or provincial funding for our conservation areas, but that being said, we do recognize that it needs to be a little bit more equitable for people to access them sometimes.”
And giving anyone a free look at all that the LRCA’s properties offer can also potentially draw in more visitors.
“We thought this is a perfect opportunity to give people the ability to sign out a pass for the week, visit a bunch of our areas and then maybe determine if it's an expense that they'd like to incur,” he said. “It's a great sort of gateway into the conservation areas.”
And while patrons can check these and other passes out from the library for free, late fees are applied, unlike for the library’s other property. Roy said the fines are $20 per day for the first week, then it’s the value of the pass after that.
“We are charging fines on passes that are not returned on time because we've got so much demand for them,” Roy said. “There's some concern about people returning them and trying to make sure others have the opportunity to enjoy them.”
