The Bonnyville SPCA has been running in the town for close to seventeen years and during that time they’ve been funded entirely through donations. However, they say funds are tight and are looking for support from local government.
Several members of the shelter came to the Town of Bonnyville’s Tuesday council meeting to request an annual operating grant of 25,000 dollars. They’ll be making a request for the same amount from the MD in the future. In a powerpoint presentation to council, the nonprofit calculated its annual expenses at over 190,000 dollars a year.
Currently the SPCA gets its money through a casino fundraiser in Fort McMurray every eighteen months, operating Rocky’s Pet Shop out of the shelter, their Raise the Roof Fundraiser, collecting bottles and donations from private business.
Town council wasn’t quick to open the purse strings though. Councillor Jim Cheverie noted that in a financial statement the SPCA provided, they only came up a thousand dollars short in fundraising without any public funding at all. Shelter manager Heather Mutch said that the revenues from that year included the casino fundraiser, which doesn’t happen every year.
Council didn’t make a commitment at the meeting and said they’d discuss it further at a future date.