Saskatoon SPCA again subsidizing city pound to ensure its operation

Graham Dickson appeared before Saskatoon city councillors and administration on the first day of 2022-23 budget deliberations.

The executive director of the SPCA, who took the job in March 2020, admitted the organization is dipping into its own funding again to keep the doors of the city pound open.

Without that continued financial help it would be a very different situation.

“We have about enough money left to operate for the next 12 months at the current rate,” said Dickson.

He says the SPCA has been operating the pound on behalf of the City of Saskatoon for several years and has a positive relationship with the city. The SPCA operates the pound at a cost savings to the city, which allows staff to help the animals going to the pound with the goal of having them adopted out eventually.

But there are some problems with that, including the costs associated with it.

“Essentially we’ve been using the charitable side of our work to offset the funding shortfall that we see for our pound operations and for our animal protection work,” Dickson said.

He says an increase in food prices, an increased demand for animal control services, more animals being brought to the pound, and waiving of animal adoption and reclamation fees during the COVID pandemic has contributed to the shortfall

“With an increase in demand for the pound, we’re at full capacity almost every day here. We’re having to turn the public away. A big part of that is we don’t have the resources available to do the pro-active work that stops animals from ending up in the pound to begin with,” he added.

So Dickson says the SPCA is asking councillors to approve “bridge funding” of $50,000 per month for the next several months. He’s hoping during that time a new agreement can be negotiated with the City of Saskatoon.

“Now that we’re able to address things not COVID-related, I think we’ve potentially taken our counterparts, the city administration, by surprise,” he said. “But our hope is to meet with them, open up our books and come to an agreement that is beneficial for both parties.”

He said the lack of funding over the last several years has “gutted” the organization, which is something the Regina Humane Society also went through several years ago. The Regina organization now receives $1.2 million in funding from that city each year, and has its own clinic and its own veterinarian on staff to perform spays, neuters and other procedures.

“They’re able to do that at a significantly reduced price,” he explained.

Councillors will debate whether there’s money in the budget for the temporary SPCA funding and other costs over the next two days.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story made an error that suggested the SPCA was in debt. That is not the case.