Premier Gordon Campbell, The Honourable John van Dongen, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, The Honourable Joyce Murray, Minister of Government Services, Ruth McIver, Unit Administrator for Societies, Ministry of Finance, The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner:
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The Honourable Gordon Campbell,
Premier
cc:
The Honourable John van Dongen,
Minister of Agriculture, Food, and Fisheries,
The Honourable Joyce Murray,
Minister of Government Services,
Corporate Registry,
Ministry of Finance
Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner
Sept.1, 2004
To The Honourable Gordon Campbell, Premier
We are writing to thank you for appointing the Special FOI Committee and to ask that you accept their recommendation No. 3 from their special report.
As you know Recommendation 3 is as follows:
Recommendation No. 3 - Investigate why the B.C. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was assigned the dual status of a public body and a non-profit society in the first place and whether there is a case for clarifying or even changing its status.
Since the BC SPCA is a public body as well as a non-profit society, we feel that it should be open to public scrutiny and subject to more stringent government regulations. We ask that you act on this recommendation as soon as possible.
The committee recognized that the SPCA is an anomaly with a unique organizational structure. Created under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, it is the only non-profit that can investigate and enforce cruelty legislation. Yet there is little regulation of its activities by the government. Police, RCMP, and even other non-profits are more strictly regulated and there seems to be no legitimate reason for the BC SPCA to be treated any differently.
The BC SPCA has stated publicly that it wants more money from government but it has never fully filled its reporting requirements under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, and your government has not ensured it has/does.
There seems to be no limit to the special advantages the BC SPCA has and yet it continues to ask for even more favours from government. It appears that the BC SPCA is not satisfied with being able to operate without accountability or public scrutiny and they are apparently confident that there will be no restrictions on their operations in the future, despite
committee recommendations to the contrary.
We therefore urge you to order and complete an investigation, and to end the special status of the BC SPCA. I/we feel that this could be the beginning of increased accountability and transparency for the BC SPCA and that will
result in better care for the animals of our province and more effective use of donations in support of that effort.
We thank you in advance for your support of Recommendation No. 3 and look forward to hearing the results of your government's investigation into this matter.
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