efforts over the previous 15 years certainly achieved some success as of September 2018, but needed to be continued. Announced January 2006, as a new School of Medicine, the Waterloo Regional Campus of McMaster University was completed in 2009. In 2018, the Waterloo campus included "a complete on-site clinical skills laboratory with 4 skills rooms and 2 observation rooms, classrooms with video-conferencing capabilities and a state-of-the-art anatomy lab that was built in 2013 with a high definition video system", according to the university. Its Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine building includes the Centre for Family Medicine and the University of Waterloo School of Optometry and Vision Science. Libraries The Waterloo Public Library was founded in 1888. As of 2022, the library has 4 branches (in order of opening): the Main Branch, the Albert McCormick Branch, the John M. Harper Branch and the Eastside Branch. The Waterloo's Mechanics' Institute, formed in 1875, was the origin of the Waterloo Public Library. Operating out of the then town hall, they offered books at a subscription fee. The fees were abolished in 1887-8 and the city took control over the library, calling it Waterloo Free Library. In 1905, a Carnegie library was built to house the books, across from the current location of the Main Branch, which replaced it in 1964. The Eastside Branch, opened May 7, 2022, is the newest branch built. The $10-million library is built into the existing RIM Park Manulife Sportsplex and has around 35,000 books. Fire protection Fire protection and rescue services are provided by Waterloo Fire Rescue, a service of the City of Waterloo. As of 2020, there are four active fire stations in Waterloo. Waterloo Fire Rescue responds to fires, medical emergencies, car accidents and chemical incidents. (Region of Waterloo Paramedic Services also responds to medical emergencies.) When the two-tier regional government system was implemented in the early 1970s, police service was moved to the regional government, but fire service remained at the local municipality (city or township) level. From time to time, the media and interested parties raise the question of whether this service should remain at the city level, or whether there might be cost savings or service improvements if the various fire services were merged into regional fire service. A 2019 newspaper article stated that "there would likely be no cost savings, but service would improve under [a] regionalized system," in the view