METRO CANADA
April 25, 2009 9:37 a.m.
The province is giving $100,000 to the Nova Scotia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to help with new legislation.The Animal Protection Act, passed in November 2008, designates the SPCA as responsible for the enforcement of the companion animal portion of the act."The SPCA plays a significant role in assuring companion animals in Nova Scotia are protected and treated with the care they deserve," said Minister of Agriculture Mark Parent. "This funding will help the SPCA meet its obligations under the Animal Protection Act."The new act shifts responsibility for farm animals from the SPCA to the Department of Agriculture. It will allow the SPCA to focus on the protection of non-farm animals. The act is scheduled to be proclaimed in the coming months."We are very pleased to receive this funding from the department as it allows us to focus on improving our investigation capability by providing our staff and volunteers with operational funding and additional training," said Jim Kochanoff, treasurer for the provincial SPCA. "As well, it allows us to adjust to our new administrative requirements and responsibilities under the act."The provincial SPCA has been incorporated since 1877.
Nova Scotia was the first jurisdiction in North America to pass laws for the prevention of cruelty to animals.
OK. Good news. We hope.
But one question comes to mind before even contemplating if this is good or bad news. It seems obvious yet somehow goes unmentioned, unasked, and unanswered at each mention of the $3,000 the SPCA was getting from the Dept. of Agriculture as the "only" source of government funding.
What about the HRM pound contract? It's nothing to sneeze at As of this year the SPCA gets $413,820 to run the HRM pound, which occupies a portion of the Metro Shelter. The contract fee was generously increased each year since 2006, when it was $200,000. But mysteriously, no services or extra duties were added. (Before 2006 the SPCA did animal control for HRM as well as ran the pound; in 2005 HRM cut the animal control portion of the contract, leaving just the pound.)
Could a pound that size cost $300,000 (roughly) to operate in 2007 and $200,000 (roughly) to operate in 2006? And now nearly $414,000???
The head of the SPCA provincial board of directors signed the contract. The pound is small!!! It occupies a small area inside the Metro Shelter, which the board runs. The pound is rarely shown to the public so we don't know exactly, but it has to take up less than half of the square footage of the building.
Where does all that money go? It is not clear from financial reports (although we are not financial experts, granted!). It's hard to discern. They must be making a profit, or whatever you call it for a non-profit organization. If they were not making a profit from the pound, why run it? Fair enough, right?
But the Metro Shelter annual report from 2007 says the "HRM AC contract expense" was $9,623. That's quite a profit margin. So, one wonders, how did they arrive at the price of $413,820? How or why did the amount jump $100,000 from 2006 to 2007?
The question that we began with was, why is this apparent generosity of HRM never mentioned in the media? Is this not government subsidization or government funding of some sort? All we ever heard about before today was $3,000 from the Ministry of Agriculture. The city's contract seems to figure pretty big in the annual provincial budget.
Again, the HRM contract is ONLY for running the pound. There is no mention in it about other activities. Instinct (ball-park guestimation) tells us that it makes sense the pound would cost about $10,000 or so to operate, even without knowing how many dogs go through the pound in a given year. The food and probably lot of other supplies are donated to the shelter. Volunteers do a lot of the work. The SPCA must own the building by now. Even if they owed money on it, the square footage taken up by the pound wouldn't account for much of it So what a deal, eh? HRM pays $414,000, and gets service in return worth about $10,000. Let's say $12,000 for 2008, which means the SPCA clears $402,000.
$402,000 is 33.5 times $12,000. That would be a 335% profit!
Better not let other HRM contractors get wind of this, or they might ask for a lot more money.
2007 SPCA provincial office financial report
2008 SPCA provincial office financial report
And one last thought - will there be a performance review at some point, for this contract or for the new money from the province? If so, will the public be informed? It seems like the responsible thing to do, given the economic climate. After all, not everybody is an animal lover; some people may want to know if their tax money is well-spent!
