Tracy Pellizzari: The coalition of seven animal welfare groups is taking issue with statements made by the BC SPCA's past-president Rick Sargent. Speaking to CKNW last week, Sargent expressed optimism that the Society's financial troubles were making a bit of a turn around despite a 4.6 million dollar deficit, which was revealed at last weekend's annual general meeting. The BC Animal Welfare Coalition's spokesperson Cheryl Rogers wonders if the optimism is warranted.

Cheryl Rogers: Well, I guess only the BC SPCA could say things are getting better when it was breaking the 2002 record 4.5 million dollar deficit with another 4.6 million one last year. And with 900,000 dollars in deficit for the first quarter of this year the SPCA is right on track for another stunning deficit in 2004.

Tracy Pellizzari: While Sargent has said a new CEO and finance manager have started to get the Society's spending under control Rogers says the BC SPCA is far from being out of the woods.

Cheryl Rogers: You don't have to be an accountant to know that it's still headed in the wrong direction.

Tracy Pellizzari: Rogers herself is a Chartered Accountant. Meantime the Minister responsible for the Freedom of Information Act in BC says she'll take some time to review a draft of recommendations for changes to the Act, including a proposal to examine the status of the SPCA. CKNW's Sean Leslie reports.

Sean Leslie: Management Services Minister Joyce Murray says she needs some time to analyze the Legislative Committee's 28 recommendations for updating FOI. The report also addresses the anomaly of the SPCA which exists as both a public body and a society and yet is exempt from the Society Act and FOI. It suggests investigation into whether that status should be changed.

Joyce Murray: There's some interesting suggestions there. We're going to do due diligence on the whole thing. And I can't say at this point what we're going to adopt and what we're not going to adopt.

Sean Leslie: Critics say it's difficult to review how the money-losing SPCA does business because of its exemptions. Sean Leslie, Victoria.