Saskatoon SPCA calls for help; says it might have to close doors by next year without more city funding

The Saskatoon SPCA made a dire prediction on the first day of the city's budget deliberations.

Without any intervention, the animal shelter would have to close its doors within a year, according to Graham Dickson, executive director of the SPCA.

"We're at a point where our reserves are almost depleted," said Dickson.

Reasons for the bleak financial forecast are rising costs to run the shelter and the increase of service levels due to a population increase, according to a letter from the SPCA to the city from October 2021.

In addition, adoption rates at the shelter have gone down while the number of animal intakes did not decrease, according to the organization. Volunteer support has also declined due to COVID-19 precautions at the SPCA.

In his presentation, Dickson asked the city to re-evaluate the funding under the current poundkeeper agreement.

The shelter is also hoping for monthly emergency funding of $50,000 to bridge operations until a new funding agreement with the city might come into place, according to the executive director

"Currently, only $620,319 of our $2,036,114 operating budget comes from the City of Saskatoon," said the organization in its letter.

"We see intakes as high as 90% during high season and around 76% during low season pursuant to our Poundkeeper Agreement with the City. We rely heavily on charitable funds to subsidize this underfunding."

The latest pound services agreement with the SPCA was negotiated in 2018 and is a five year contract from 2019 to 2023, according to the city.

The Regina Humane Society receives more than $1.2 million dollars per year from the city of Regina, according to the SPCA.

"Ideally, I would like to have a member of the administration come in and sit down with us," said Dickson.

"We've cut costs and expenses as much as possible. We've reduced our staffing significantly."

The organization also hopes to build a low cost spay/neuter clinic in the future to reduce costs by performing necessary surgeries at the shelter, the SPCA said in its letter.

Currently no extra funding available, says city administration 

On Tuesday, city councillors continued the debate about the shelter's call for help. 

While there is a proposed increase in the SPCA agreement for 2022 of three per cent, no additional source of funding has been identified yet that would be readily available, said Lynne Lacroix, the city's general manager of the community services division.

"We have had some conversations with [the SPCA]," she said.

"Our last report from them showed an actual fairly decent surplus at the end of 2020…. So there were no red flags at the time."

Fundraising and donations though have slowed down during COVID-19 for the organization, according to Lacroix.

She said the city's contract with SPCA is for pound services, which cover the first four days after the animal intake.

Afterwards, the pet moves into shelter services, which are funded and supported by the SPCA.

"The greatest expense occurs in day one to four," she said.

"What we really need to do is … to sit down with the SPCA and really talk through their budgets, see where there might be opportunities for some operating expense reductions and then continue to work with them."

Some potential reductions could be achieved by reducing hours of operations that are required for the pound services, said Lacroix.

It is difficult to compare the funding of the Regina Humane Society with the SPCA, according to Lacroix. The organization in Regina not only provides pound services but also animal control services.

In Saskatoon, this is the job of the Saskatoon Animal Control Agency (SACA).

"We have two separate contracts, so it's not comparing apples to apples," said Lacroix.

"The Regina Humane Society takes on the functions of both contracts that we have with split services here."

In addition to the poundkeeper agreement, the city also has a separate contract with the SPCA and provides a grant to the organization for animal protection and cruelty investigations, according to Lacroix.

That source of funding is not a civic responsibility and was supposed to come from the province, but so far has not, she said.

"We recognize that time is of the essence with the group," said Lacroix.

"We will report back [to city council] with some of the additional information once we've had an opportunity to sit down and meet with the SPCA in more detail."

The goal is to report back to council no later than at the end of the first quarter of 2022, according to city administration.

"We all want the SPCA to be able to be successful," said councillor Hilary Gough on Tuesday.

"It may in future have budgetary implications, and we will figure that out."

Animal services is just one of four services listed in the preliminary budget under Community Support — together with cemeteries, community development, as well as community investments and supports.

Animal services itself contains several sub-categories, including the SPCA pound services.

While no final decision on the situation of the SPCA was made Tuesday evening, council approved the overall operating budget for Community Support, including $19,901,000 in expenditures for 2022.