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Newmarket Public Library’s new definition of an “active member” will dramatically inflate the Library’s membership numbers. 

Last year, in his foreword to the Library’s Report to the Community 2024, Board Chair Darryl Gray proudly announced:

“This past year has been extraordinary for the Newmarket Library, marked by significant growth in membership and an expanded presence throughout our community.”

Hold on to your hat because membership increases in 2025 could be truly spectacular.

The Library has changed its definition of an “active cardholder” from someone who uses their library card at least once in a two-year period (the Provincial definition) to someone who has an unexpired library card - whether they use it or not. 

It is not clear when - or if - the Board approved this change which, on the face of it, doesn’t square with the Provincial definition. (Photo right: Library Board Chair, Darryl Gray, and Library Chief Executive Tracy Munusami at the 17 September 2025 Board meeting.)

The latest active cardholder figures will be considered by the Library Board on Wednesday (19 November 2025).

These show 26,393 active members at the end of September with three months still to run in 2025. If this trend continues for the rest of the year, this puts active membership on course for a 11 year high - or since on-line records have been posted. It could be the best ever.

Outreach

Since the appointment of the current Chief Executive, Tracy Munusami, in August 2021 membership growth has become the defining statistic used to measure the Library’s success.

Recruiting new Library members through outreach is a crucial component of the new strategy. 

People are signed up in bulk, for example, in schools. 

But, because a card is issued, it does not follow that it will be used. 

Astonishingly, the Library chooses not to track members recruited through outreach to see if they actually use their card to access library services and are not just sleeping members.

The Chief Executive says collecting this information would infringe the privacy of library members but that’s a bogus argument. No personal details would be sought or required – just the aggregate statistics.

The latest figures to be presented to the Library Board on 19 November 2025 show that in the July-September quarter of this year, over 23% of new members came through outreach.

Annual Survey of Public Libraries

To be eligible for Provincial library grants, all Ontario libraries are required to submit data to the Province annually for inclusion in its Annual Survey of Public Libraries (ASPL). Last year, Newmarket Library received $74,494 from the Province. (The Town’s operating grant to NPL was $3,781,775.)

The Province requires libraries to count “active cardholders” who are defined as:

“library cardholders who have used their library card in the past two years.”  

As I say, Newmarket Public Library now defines an “active cardholder” as someone who holds an unexpired membership card. The Chief Executive says this “aligns” with the Provincial definition.

Plainly, it doesn’t. 

Ms Munusami insists:

“A library card provides access to a wide range of resources: digital and physical materials, programs, spaces, and services. We do not monitor or track individual usage, and there are no systems in place to measure all the possible ways one can access the many types of library services (i.e., main branch, vending machines, alternative locations, programming, or online services).”

These arguments are specious. The Library currently tracks the use of on-line services and the lending of books and digital materials which are accessed by a library card to get the usage totals which are shown in the Statistics Dashboard. 

Members of the public who are not library members can use its public spaces, consult books and other reading materials, book rooms and use the computers. The Library does not - and never has – tracked any individual’s use of the Library. The video here shows what NPL's integrated library system Polaris can do.

It can effortlessly pull up the names of patrons to see when, for example, they last used their library card. 

But the Library doesn't spy on members to see what they are borrowing.

Contradiction

When I flagged up the clear contradiction between Newmarket’s new definition and the Provincial one, I was told by Deborah Cope, a civil servant at the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Gaming:

"The definitions are intended as guidelines to assist libraries in filling out the surveys as best they can, while understanding each library may have different systems in place to capture active users. (My underlining for emphasis).

We do not have concerns with the data that the Newmarket public library has shared to date. We will continue to work with all public libraries, including Newmarket Public Library, to support them as they fill out the survey each year." 

If the Province wants data from libraries across Ontario which reflects its own definition of active users it needs to offer advice and guidance to Newmarket Public Library before Ms Munusami files her survey for 2025. 

Otherwise, across the Province, it's garbage in and garbage out.

Membership renewals

The Library has also stopped publishing data on membership renewals – a key statistic when assessing membership retention. 

At the Board meeting on 17 September 2025 Library Vice Chair, Councillor Kelly Broome, asked the Library Chief Executive about the reported 9,476 new or first-time members who joined the Library in 2024:

“And those are new memberships for the year 2024?”

Tracy Munusami nods yes.

Kelly Broome: 

“Renewed memberships?”

Tracy Munusami:

“New memberships.”

Board members and the public no longer get statistics on renewed and lapsed membership. But the figures are available within the library.

What Needs to be Done

The selective use of statistics can be misleading. 

The Statistics Dashboard, which was only recently introduced as a regular agenda item, goes to the Board on a quarterly basis. The range of data should be expanded to include:

  1. Membership renewal figures. (And the membership renewal figures for 2024 should also be published.)
  2. Lapsed membership.
  3. New Memberships signed up through outreach showing how many new members have actually used their membership card after, say, one year to access Library services.

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Note: Membership is good for two years at which time it must be renewed.

Newmarket’s Library System Software, Polaris, could capture renewals at the end of each month if it is asked to do so.

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Former MP, Tony Van Bynen, has plans to replace Matt Gunning as Chair of the Newmarket-Aurora Federal Liberal Association with his own favoured candidate at its AGM tomorrow, Sunday 19 October 2025. 

He stood down at the last election saying (yet again) he was retiring to spend more time with his family. 

Newmarket-Aurora was one of 19 ridings across the country lost by the Liberals in the Federal election in April.

Their candidate, Jennifer McLachlan, replaced the bland old banker Tony Van Bynen who joined the Liberal Party in his late sixties with the sole intention of becoming the area’s MP. He was the only person to throw his hat into the ring and to my general amazement ended up in the House of Commons where he quietly followed the Party line and read his occasional speeches word-for-word in a monotone from a leather binder.

By temperament he is timid and cautious, never showing his hand until he has, in his own words, “scoped things out”.

When he came out publicly against Trudeau I knew the then Prime Minister’s days were numbered.

Surprise

So it comes as a bit of a surprise to learn Van Bynen has been manoeuvring to replace the Chair of the Newmarket-Aurora Federal Liberal Association, Matt Gunning, at tomorrow’s AGM. 

My spies tell me Van Bynen’s hand-picked candidate for Chair is Laura Bradford who was Jennifer McLachlan’s Deputy Campaign Manager. Van Bynen will run as her deputy. 

I am told Van Bynen was the driving force behind Jennifer McLachlan’s acclamation and vouched for her.

During this year’s Federal Election campaign I winced every time I heard McLachlan gush about Van Bynen as if the old banker walked on water. 

“I am new to politics and I have some learning to do. I have Mr Van Bynen who has been mentoring me over the last while and he will continue to support me while I head to Ottawa and work with the community after. People always ask how are you gonna fill his shoes? And I say there's no chance I will fill his shoes but he's passed me the torch. So let's see how fast I can go with it and run around this riding as much as I can.”

Oh dear!

Jennifer’s mentor should have told her you never take the voters for granted. Never even hint the election is in the bag. And she compounded the error by saying Van Bynen would take her under his wing and offer support while she “heads to Ottawa”.

No Platform

So far as I can gather, neither Bradford nor Van Bynen is running on a platform so local liberals have no idea what they are promising other than a change of faces at the top table.

This kind of challenge is, apparently, unusual. Matt Gunning has been Chair of the Association for seven years or more and his Deputy, Shameela Holden-Shakeel, for the past two years. 

I don’t have any problems with annual elections and people challenging incumbents. Not at all. 

But Van Bynen and Bradford should at least tell local Liberals why they are running.

Sandra Cobena and the Deficit 

Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, Sandra Cobena, our new Conservative MP (and yet another banker) has been settling in, without the need of any mentoring.  

She is on the Standing Committee on Finance and takes every opportunity to denounce the Liberal’s record on the National Debt and deficit. 

On 9 October 2025 she was at it again, making yet another theatrical plea for a balanced budget:

“I truly wish that the government would be honest and would focus on balancing the budget and reining in spending so that we can actually have a future for our children. We cannot spend our way to affordability. We cannot continue to spend and spend and pretend there are no consequences”

Too bad she is silent when it comes to Doug Ford’s Ontario where we are promised a balanced budget in 2027 - but don't hold your breath. 

Ford became Premier way back in 2018 and brazenly bought popularity with bribes and give-aways. It worked. Balancing the budget - totemic for most Conservatives - has never been much of a priority for Ford. Popularity comes first.

Our Progressive Conservative MPP, Dawn Gallagher Murphy, ignores the red ink and trills that Ontario is “maintaining a path to a balanced budget”.

Ontario's Finances in Poor Health

This fancy dancing hasn't gone down well with the right wing free-market think tank, the Fraser Institute, which says Ontario’s finances are in poor health.

I wonder what Sandra Cobena thinks about this.

Pity she’s not saying.

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NAFLA will be holding its AGM at 2pm on Sunday 19 Oct at the New York Region Foodbank at 17665 Leslie St Unit 19, Newmarket, ON L3Y 3E3. 

Update on 20 October 2025: Matt Gunning and Shameela Holden-Shakeel were voted out at yesterday's AGM. The new Chair and Vice Chair are Laura Bradford and Tony Van Bynen.

The Federal Budget is on 4 November 2025

Click "read more" for Sandra Cobena on the National Debt

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Progressive Conservative MPP, Dawn Gallagher Murphy, celebrated her 4th Annual Taxpayer-funded BBQ yesterday at Riverwalk Commons in downtown Newmarket. 

It was a beautiful warm and sunny Sunday afternoon and there was a decent sized crowd queuing up for their "free" meal.

Of course, there’s no such thing as a free lunch and those registering beforehand and those registering on the day will probably have their names harvested for Dawn’s database. Just to remind them of the dates of her future BBQs - and her legendary largesse when it comes to spending other people's money.

No Famous Faces

I was there for about 45 minutes – without a hamburger or spring roll passing my lips – and I didn’t see too many familiar faces.

No sign of the Mayor or any councillors but they could have been late arrivals. 

I chatted to the on-duty paramedics about the Government’s plans to ban municipal speed cameras and wondered how that would impact their work. Likewise, I talked to the firefighters asking for their views - all off-the-record.

Enthusiastic

The irrepressible former Council candidate, Darryl Wolk, was there as always, enthusiastically waving the flag for the Progressive Conservatives, right or wrong. (Photo below)

Darryl is an amateur wrestler in his spare time and explains the tricks of the trade, the feints, the phoney slams and the smacks. It’s all about the spectacle and entertainment.  A bit like Dawn's politics.

Darryl stresses you never hurt your opponent – at least, not intentionally. 

Expenses

We shall find out in due course how much Dawn Gallagher Murphy's latest BBQ cost us when she files her "hospitality" expenses. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

But I got the impression she has scaled things back a bit with the Provincial election now safely behind her.

During her first term as Newmarket-Aurora MPP she spent an eye watering $26,995 of taxpayers’ money on her BBQs. 

Centre of attention

She laps up her minor-celebrity status. Loves being the centre of attention.

During the entire time I was there, she was busily at work, playing the part, being photographed on the stage with a long line of admirers.

I doubt if anyone asked her why she wants to ban municipal speed cameras across the Province.

On such a jolly day it would have struck the wrong note.

After all, it's not really something to laugh about.

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Doug Ford’s decision to introduce legislation to ban municipal speed cameras is truly bizarre.

All the evidence shows that drivers slow down when they know a speed camera is watching them. And speed is a leading cause of injury and death.

By all means, let people know the cameras are there (as the Town did before switching them on). 

The object of the exercise is not to ambush drivers but to get them to slow down.

The York Regional Police road safety map for Newmarket shows that over the past year 167 people have been pulled over for careless driving in Town, 80 for impaired driving, 23 for dangerous driving and 16 for stunt driving. And that's just for starters. 

Cash Grab

The Minister of Transportation, Prabmeet Sarkaria, claims:

“Municipal speed cameras have become nothing more than a tool for raising revenue." 

What an absurd statement. Nothing more than a revenue raising tool?

On 9 May 2023, Sakaria’s predecessor, our next door neighbour, Caroline Mulroney, told the Legislative Assembly:

“Our government introduced community safety zones around schools for this specific issue, to make sure that drivers take extra care when they are driving around our most vulnerable, our children. We have allowed municipalities to introduce this around schools, and we’re doing everything we can to support community safety zone implementation across Ontario. 

"We understand that in 2021 alone, over 250,000 tickets were issued to vehicles that were captured by speed cameras that were noticing speeding in these community safety zones.”

She warned that careless driving could in future merit more than a slap on the wrist:

“We’ve introduced a new offence for careless driving causing death or bodily harm, with penalties that include fines, licence suspensions and imprisonment. This offence carries the longest prison term of any penalty in the Highway Traffic Act.”

Lobotomised

We wait to see if the Bill goes into Committee and evidence is sought from road safety organisations or if it is just bulldozed through, as is so often the case, with next to no scrutiny.

Our own MPP, the lobotomised Dawn Gallagher Murphy, can be expected to support Ford’s latest bright idea. Even if it makes no sense.

Whatever the merits or otherwise of a proposal she can be counted on to parrot the Party line.

When the Safer Roads and Communities Bill was going through Queen’s park last year, Thomas Barakat, the Head of Public Policy at Good Roads (a municipal association focussed on the quality and design of roads) said this:

“We recommend that Bill 197 include provisions to double fines for speeding offences, introduce escalating sanctions for repeat offenders and empower municipalities to double speeding fines in school zones, as they already have the ability to do in community safety zones. I think a lot of you are aware, speeding fines in Ontario have not kept pace with inflation and are amongst the lowest in Canada. They have not been raised since 2005. According to MTO’s data, there has been a 25% increase in speed-related deaths over the past five years. We think that speeding should be treated as seriously as an issue as something like drunk driving. Updating these penalties would restore their deterrent effect and contribute to safer roads, particularly in school areas where children’s safety is paramount.” 

Socially unacceptable

I agree. Speeding should be treated as something that is socially unacceptable, like blowing cigarette smoke in someone’s face.

Last September at Queen’s Park, the NDP MPP for Sudbury, Jamie West, confessed:

“They reduced the speed limit in my area. I got caught by a speed camera doing five over, a $100 fine. I had to pay $100. I really, really watch my speed going through that area now, right? That’s the idea of it.”

Yep.  That’s the idea. 

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Update: Yesterday (25 September 2025) a friend emailed Dawn Gallager Muphy with concerns about the plan to ban speed cameras. This is the reply from Gallagher Murphy's Office:

Dear XXX,

Thank you for taking the time to reach out to the Office of Dawn Gallagher Murphy, MPP Newmarket-Aurora and share your concerns regarding banning speed cameras.

At a time when governments at all levels should be doing everything they can to lower costs and make life more affordable, too many municipalities are using speed cameras as a cash grab.

That is why our government is introducing legislation that will ban municipal speed cameras across the province. At the same time, we are establishing a new provincial fund to proactively support road and school zone safety without raising costs for drivers.

The new fund will help affected municipalities implement alternative safety measures to prevent speeding, including proactive traffic-calming initiatives like speed bumps, roundabouts, raised crosswalks and curb extensions, as well as public education and improved signage, to slow down drivers.

Since 2019, over 700 municipal speed cameras have been installed in 40 municipalities across Ontario, with more currently planned for installation in the coming months.

If passed, our legislation will prevent the use of municipal speed cameras in Ontario immediately upon Royal Assent. The province will also introduce requirements for municipalities with existing speed cameras in school zones to install large new signs in advance of a school zone to slow down drivers by mid-November 2025, with permanent, large signs with flashing lights to be in place by September 2026.

Enough is enough. Instead of making life more expensive by sending speeding tickets to drivers weeks after the fact, we’re supporting road-safety measures that will prevent speeding in the first place, keep costs down and keep our streets safe.

Please do not hesitate to reach out with any further questions, concerns or suggestions.

Regards,

The Office of Dawn Gallagher Murphy, MPP

Newmarket-Aurora

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Background: Tomorrow, 17 September 2025, the Board of Newmarket Public Library meets. Since Tracy Munusami was appointed as Chief Executive of Newmarket Public Library over four years ago we have seen a steady deterioration in the quantity and quality of data used to measure Library performance. 

The Chief Executive says it is all about cleaning up the database but there is more to it than that.

In the Library’s “Report to the Community 2023” and “Report to the Community 2024” there are no year-end membership figures. Instead, we are given annual percentage increases in membership and other Library services which distort the true picture.

The 2024 Report stated membership had surged but, in reality, it dropped by 7.9%.

10 and 11 April 2025

I posted a blog about the collapse in membership on 10 April 2025. The following day, 11 April 2025, Ms Munusami contacted the Ontario civil servants responsible for maintaining the Province’s Annual Survey of Public Libraries to change the number she had filed previously.

She updated the 24,136 Active Library Cardholders for 2023 (see graphic above) to a new lower one (18,992) which allowed the Library to assert there had indeed been an increase in membership.

Under Ms Munusami’s leadership, the full range of Library usage statistics has not been collected since 2023 but we do have figures for 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.

The Library no longer reports publicly on the number of members who renew their membership.

Why is this happening? 

The previous Chief Executive, Todd Kyle, spent years trying to convince the Town the Library was too small and was no longer fit for purpose. Some councillors, like Regional Councillor Tom Vegh, pushed for a new library but when, in exasperation, Kyle moved on to a new job in Brampton, all talk of a new library faded. No-one on the Town council or, astonishingly, on the library board saw any merit in a new library. The focus was all on getting more out of the existing resources. And the way to measure success was in increased membership. This became the key metric.

What is missing and what do we need?

The library should give us in its annual “Report to the Community” the year-end membership number that is reported to the Province. 

It should separate out new (or first time) members and those existing members who are simply renewing their memberships.

The library should be crystal clear who is an “active cardholder”. Is this someone who actually uses the Library at least once in the two-year membership period? Or does it include someone who has filled in a membership form at a school or outreach event and doesn’t follow through by using what the library has to offer? 

Signing up people through outreach could produce a new cohort of sleeping members, people who are Library members in name only. In 2023 there were 595 new members signed up through outreach work. In 2024 the number rose to 1,543.

Who are the members or “Active Cardholders”?

Ms Munusami initially told the Province there were 24,136 members (or “active Library cardholders”) in December 2023. It was subsequently revised to 17,893. She now says:

“The correct number is - 18,992 (Using our new definition)”

On 4 July 2025 she told me:

“...I acknowledge that we have reported some numbers in error during the transition to the new definition. We are working to correct this going forward.” 

The Statistics Dashboard report that went to the Board on 21 May 2025 was also flawed:

“Staff found an error in the formulas. We will correct it and report the error to the board next quarter.” 

Why on earth didn’t the Chief Executive - on $170,000+ a year - spot the error before it got to the Library Board? 

It was screaming out as all wrong.

Refused

I have asked Ms Munusami to let me have the Excel spreadsheets and formulas she used to generate the statistics and to show me where the errors crept in.

But she refuses point blank to let me have sight of them.

Why?

What’s the problem with sharing the data and the methodology?

Do I have to go to the Information and Privacy Commission to wring this information out of her?

$3,781,775

Newmarket Public Library is not a private company where the owners call the shots.

The Town gave $3,781,775 to our Library last year to support its operating budget.

Despite this, there appears to be no audit on how the Library reports on the key fundamentals of membership and usage.

Are we supposed to take it all on trust?

Why should we?

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See also: Data from NPL is useless and can't be trusted

Click "read more" below for email exchange

 

 

  

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