The City of Cranbrook is hoping the SPCA will come back to the negotiating table to work out a new contract.
Since 2004, the city has partnered with the SPCA to provide kenneling services for stray animals, with the municipality on the hook for the costs.
The current contract ran out on Sept. 30 after both sides couldn’t come to an agreement.
“For the past two years, the BC SPCA and the City of Cranbrook have worked closely to determine a renewed service agreement that would meet the needs of both parties,” said Corrie Bownick, manager, Municipal Animal Contracts for the BC SPCA in a release.
“Unfortunately, those discussions were unsuccessful and, therefore, the BC SPCA’s bylaw kennelling services for the City of Cranbrook ended on September 30.”
The SPCA said they have only charged nominal annual increases to the city despite significantly increasing costs.
However, the proposed new contract for 2024 was a 120.7 per cent increase from the previous contract.
The previous cost per year for the city was $42,000 with the new ask being $92,699.
Buildings and bylaw services manager with the city, Paul Heywood says the cost was too much to put on the taxpayers.
He says the city isn’t opposed to an increase but they need to see a proper breakdown of the SPCA’s costs
“We asked for an atomized list of what it was costing per animal, because by our math it was costing over $800 for every animal turned in. So a litter of kittens was costing the city thousands of dollars,” he said.
“By us calling other kennels and vet clinics, we knew that those costs seemed to be extremely high for us. We just asked for them to atomize and substantiate their costs and they have not provided that.”
Bylaw and RCMP in the city hand over less than 15 animals per year to the SPCA, although other animals are turned in by community members.
“Cranbrook by SPCA’s numbers, good Samaritans turning in stray dogs and cats is at 111 animals,” said Heywood.
“This is out of 398 animals that are accepted from other areas in the regional district who do not have a contract in place as well and do not pay for strays being handed into the SPCA.”
The 111 animals were from the Cranbrook area but the city says there was no information on if the animals were from specifically inside or outside city limits.
Heywood hopes the two sides will be able to come back to the negotiating table and work out a deal and says there are other ways the city can help out the SPCA.
“We understand the great work that the SPCA does and all we’re asking for is transparency. We have a grant program too, and we would be more than willing to give them a grant because we know what the SPCA means to a lot of people within this community,” Heywood added.
“We just feel like these contract negotiations have fallen apart because of a lack of transparency and we just want to understand the costs.”
The city is encouraging the SPCA to meet their provincial constitution of taking stray animals and to continue with negotiations.
“Clearly in the constitution of the SPCA and as they do for the regional district, they continue to take in stray dogs and stray cats and we’re not sure why they’re now excluding the City of Cranbrook’s stray dogs and cats when it is within their constitution and it’s their role in the community,” said Heywood.
In the meantime, the city will be exploring other options for the care of the less than 15 city-captured animals.