Proposed financial boost from city not enough to continue pound services, Saskatoon SPCA says

Saskatoon's city administration is proposing a financial boost to help the SPCA run its pound — but the animal welfare non-profit says it's not enough to allow it to keep offering that service.

The proposal — which is set to be presented to the city's standing policy committee on planning, development and community services on Tuesday — lays out a 50 per cent increase in funding for pound services. That would work out to $698,000 in total funding to the Saskatoon Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for its pound services this year.

It also outlines a promise to reassess the situation next year.

However, according to a recent report from the SPCA to the city, the non-profit estimates it would still be left with a revenue gap of $463,767, even with the proposed funding increase.

"Our partnership with the city is no longer symbiotic," the SPCA wrote in the report.

The city and the SPCA have a long-standing relationship dating back to a 2005 lease agreement. The city purchased the non-profit's land and building to provide some much-needed funding for operations. In return, the SPCA took over Saskatoon's pound services.

"We want [the SPCA] to be successful and we continue to look for ways to help support them because they do good work," said Lynne Lacroix, the city's general manager of community services.

Read the Saskatoon SPCA's municipal pound funding request:

Graham Dickson, the SPCA's executive director, says the organization has had to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars out of pocket annually to uphold the pound contract with the city, which was last negotiated in 2018 and set to continue for another year.

He estimates the SPCA will be forced to stop providing pound services within the next six months, unless a cost-recovery funding model is in place.

"We're really hitting a critical point right now where we just fundamentally can't keep doing this work … or we'll go bankrupt," Dickson said.

"We either secure funding from the city or we'll be forced to walk away from the pound contract and set up shop in a new location."

He added the organization has reached the limit of its reserve funds and its donors' ability to supplement the city's funding.

At the beginning of this month, after being denied provincial funding, the SPCA stopped offering protective service operations and investigations, saying it wasn't financially feasible.

Lacroix says she recognizes the SPCA has had fewer donations since the pandemic hit, undoubtedly impacting its revenue stream.

But she notes the city is only contractually obligated to fund the pound services in the first four days after an animal is brought in. Afterwards, the animal moves into shelter services, which are funded and supported by the SPCA.

In the past, she's suggested the organization look at cost-saving measures, such as reducing the pound's hours of operation.

"We don't often tell non-profits how to run their business, but if they want to ask us about some things or if there's some ways that we can make those suggestions, it might help cut some expenses," Lacroix said.