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Sliding Scale Plan

For several years, the Public Lending Right Commission has been grappling with a very difficult situation: the inability of government funding to regularly keep pace with growth in the number of eligible authors and titles. Every year, authors register over 3,500 new titles in the Public Lending Right program, and over 600 new authors join the program annually. This indicates a vibrant written culture and strong awareness of the PLR program.

In June 2002, the PLR Commission struck a sub-committee to look at various options to manage growth. The committee, comprised of four writers, studied several alternatives to the current payment method and tested different scenarios on the broad range of authors and titles registered in the Public Lending Right program. The committee developed a “sliding scale plan.”

The basic principle of the sliding scale plan, is that payments for newer titles would be maintained at a higher rate, with payments rates decreasing over time.

This plan would ensure that, in the absence of annual budget increases, newer titles could be remunerated at rates similar to those of the program’s initial years. Paying increased amounts for newer books also means that significant payments go to active writers. Newer books are those most used in public libraries. Funds for these payments would come from the decreased payments for older titles. No titles, however, would ever lose their payments entirely.

In December 2004, the Commission voted to adopt the sliding scale plan, contingent upon receiving a substantial increase in funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage.