----- Original Message -----
From: Animal Advocates
To: denises@city.victoria.bc.ca
Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 4:13 PM
Subject: you raise the issue of being able to prove that the SPCA can pay for its promises.

Dear Councillor Savoie,

In the article in the Victoria News: SPCA unveils grand plan for shelter, you raise the issue of being able to prove that the SPCA can pay for its promises.

Join the line. We suggest that you contact Ruth McIver, of the Ministry of Finance, Corporate Registry, Charities Unit, at 250-356-8601 to find out what your chances are, based on what audited statements have ever been filed. Nil as far as they know, and nil according to an ex-Treasurer of the BC SPCA, even though the PCA Act says they must.

Then ask what year the BC SPCA last filed any statements at all, even unadited. 2001 is what we were told by Ms McIver in August.

We hope you will contact John van Dongen, the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, whose ministry is responsible for the PCA Act and the SPCA.

The Hon Joyce Murray should be contacted too at 250-356-7332. Her Ministry of Management Services is considering recommending that the SPCA's secrecy protection be removed. Currently, the SPCA is treated as a private body by government and so its inner workings are protected from FOI scrutiny.

Judy Stone
President,
Animal Advocates Society of BC