Canada Continues Postal Rate.

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Canada Post will retain a special shipping rate that allows libraries to mail interlibrary loan books at a discount, usually for less than a dollar a book. National Revenue Minister John McCallum announced July 22. "The library book rate is a tremendous tool that helps us achieve some of our most fundamental public policy objectives," McCallum said.

The Canadian Library Association and libraries across the country had lobbied Canada Post to continue its special rate alter the company announced plans to end the 66-year-old program in April 2006. Many smaller libraries worried they wouldn't have been able to afford commercial mailing costs, which could have been as much as $14 per book.

However, details about how to pay for the book-rate program--which postal officials claim costs Canada Post about $13 million a year--have yet to he worked out. CLA Executive Director Don Butcher said that he believed Canada Post's threat to cancel the hook rate was a negotiating tactic to get the federal government to help fund it. "But we feel that they still have an obligation to continue to support this," he said.