Tri-City News
By Janis Cleugh
Animal control in Port Coquitlam may be in the paws of the city of Coquitlam next year.
PoCo Mayor Scott Young said the city is looking to change its service contract from the SPCA to the Coquitlam Animal Shelter on Mariner Way.
If approved, PoCo would be the third municipality in Tri-City in two years to leave the non-profit group for the Coquitlam pound, which opened last year.
The possible change comes after the Society for the Prevention Against Cruelty to Animals told the cities it serves this week it is losing $2 million a year on its animal control contracts.
The B.C. SPCA has contracts in PoCo, Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge, Burnaby, Abbotsford, Surrey, Delta and Richmond.
“We can’t afford to lose $2 million a year,” said Lorie Chortyk, B.C. SPCA spokesperson. “Animal control is 100 per cent the responsibility of the municipality. It’s just one of those things that, as the years have gone by, the costs of the contracts haven’t risen and the costs of providing the services have increased dramatically.”
She added, “We are now in the position that we’re subsidizing what is a municipal function with donor dollars that people are giving to us for our work, which is cruelty investigation and emergency rescues.”
PoCo has had its contract with the SPCA for more than 30 years. It will pay the society $132,000 this year to control its strays and to handle lost pets; the contract ends Dec. 31.
Last year, Port Moody switched from the SPCA to the Coquitlam pound and, since then, the city’s animal control bills have dropped about $10,000 annually, staff said.
In 2001, under the SPCA, PoMo paid $40,000 a year for services; with the Coquitlam Animal Shelter, PoMo taxpayers shell out $854 a month for housing and a fee-for-service for call-outs, which can range from $500 to $1,600 a month.
Therese Michelson, Coquitlam’s communications manager, said the $693,155 pound was built to accommodate extra growth from other cities. And the shelter would not be at capacity even if PoCo signed on, she said.
Still, the Coquitlam shelter is only one option, Young said.
“Our service will continue with [the SPCA] until the end of the year and beyond that will be explored,” he said.