‘This is a problem’: Saskatoon SPCA says it will be forced to shut down without city funding
The Saskatoon SPCA says it may be forced to shutdown unless it gets a boost in funding from the city.
The organization asked councillors for additional funding on the first day of city budget deliberations.
Graham Dickson, the executive director of the SPCA, requested $50,000 per month until the organization negotiates a new funding agreement with the city.
Without the money, which will mainly cover staffing costs, Dickson said the facility will be “inevitably forced to close its doors this time next year.
”Over the past few years, under different management, the SPCA has taken about $430,000 out of its reserves to stay afloat, according to Dickson. “We only have about a year's worth of money left in our reserves to keep us afloat. So, this is a problem,” Dickson said, who became the executive director in March 2020.
“I don't know if there was a an awareness of just how underfunded we were until last year. We're under new management right now.”
Dickson said the city currently covers about 30 per cent, or $620,319, of the SPCA’s $2-million operating budget. He hopes the city funding will increase, to cover the cost of running the city pound – instead of relying on fundraised dollars. Then, the money raised through fundraising would go towards building an SPCA veterinary clinic.
“That’s our real goal right now,” Dickson told CTV News.
With an on-site vet, Dickson said pet medical costs would be reduced.
“We could also potentially provide affordable spays and neuters to the the community at large,” Dickson said.
Dickson said more animals being brought to the pound has contributed to the debt. The city 2022-2023 budget was put forward by administration last week.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Doctors say capital gains tax changes will jeopardize their retirement. Is that true?
The Canadian Medical Association asserts the Liberals' proposed changes to capital gains taxation will put doctors' retirement savings in jeopardy, but some financial experts insist incorporated professionals are not as doomed as they say they are.
Something in the water? Canadian family latest to spot elusive 'Loch Ness Monster'
For centuries, people have wondered what, if anything, might be lurking beneath the surface of Loch Ness in Scotland. When Canadian couple Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman visited the Scottish highlands earlier this month with their two children, they didn’t expect to become part of the mystery.
Fair in Ontario, flurries in Labrador: Weather systems make for an erratic spring
It's no secret that spring can be a tumultuous time for Canadian weather, and as an unseasonably mild El Nino winter gives way to summer, there's bound to be a few swings in temperature that seem out of the ordinary. From Ontario to the Atlantic, though, this week is about to feel a little erratic.
What a urologist wants you to know about male infertility
When opposite sex couples are trying and failing to get pregnant, the attention often focuses on the woman. That’s not always the case.
He replaced Mickey Mantle. Now baseball's oldest living major leaguer is turning 100
The oldest living former major leaguer, Art Schallock turns 100 on Thursday and is being celebrated in the Bay Area and beyond as the milestone approaches.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.