By Andrew de Souza

City, SPCA sign new agreement

Jun 8, 2011 | 6:40 AM

The City of Prince Albert and the SPCA have signed a new fee-for-service agreement that will see city funds to the animal welfare organization almost triple over the next four years.

Prince Albert Mayor Jim Scarrow and SPCA board chair Joleen McCullagh signed the agreement in city council chambers, Tuesday.

The agreement changes the funding structure to a fee-for-service agreement that recognizes the SPCA as the city’s official pound-keeper and takes into account the cost of caring for animals from the city instead of a lump sum grant that was given prior.

This year, the SPCA will receive $140,000, up from $80,000 in 2010. That amount will increase to $213,000 by 2014 and gives the SPCA the right to renew the agreement again at its expiry.

Mayor Jim Scarrow said that while it costs the city additional money, it was the right decision to make.

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“We came to the realization that the SPCA were in fact underwriting a service that should have been provided by the City of Prince Albert,” he said.

“They do good work and are providing a service to the city that I think we should be paying for in an amount closer to reality than the $80,000 per year represented.”

Additional funds relieves pressure

According to the SPCA the additional funds the addition funds still fall short of the $250,000 needed annually to fully cover operating expenses.

However, SPCA manager Debbie Lehner said it takes off a lot of pressure off of the organization because much of its fundraising efforts in the past went towards simply keeping the doors open.

The agreement is critical to our day-to-day operations,” she said. “We will still continue on with our fundraisers and have a very visible presence in the community to keep adoptions up.

“But absolutely (it) does take off some of the pressure and we’re just really, really pleased about it.”

Details from the city about the agreement are available here.

adesouza@panow.com