Delays, cost-overruns dog animal shelter

Of the more than 26,000 lost, abandoned or stray dogs and cats that end up in shelters every year in Montreal, an estimated 50 to 60 per cent are put down for want of a home, according to city figures.

That works out to slightly more than 1,000 dogs and cats killed each month.

In Calgary, where the dog population is similar, the euthanization rate for dogs is about five per cent.

There is no simple explanation for the glaring discrepancy, but what Calgary has and Montreal lacks is an animal-services centre that has helped position the city among the leaders in animal control in North America.

In 2011, the city of Montreal announced it would build such a centre to drastically reduce the number of animals needlessly destroyed, but that was four mayors ago. The centre was supposed to open in 2016.

Not only has the project been delayed, but the estimated cost has soared from $23 million to $46 million — roughly $41 million more than Calgary paid for its barebones but vaunted facility in 2000.

The price has surged because the proposed site is a former municipal dump heavily contaminated with hydrocarbons and other toxins. Decontamination costs could amount to as much as the cost of the centre itself.

Last week, the new administration of Mayor Valérie Plante told the Montreal Gazette that if the centre is built, it might not be until 2022. More than $1 million has already been spent on studies and plans.

Meanwhile, construction is underway on a similar animal-services centre in Laval — for $15.3 million. It’s scheduled to open in 2019.

Requests for interviews with Montreal civil servants working on the dossier have been refused. A new call for tenders is in the works, explained city spokesperson Gonzalo Nunez, and those with knowledge of the file “don’t have all the elements needed for answers in hand.”

Last week, during a meeting of the city’s finance committee to study the 2018 municipal budget, the latest estimated price of $46 million came to light, thanks to questions posed by opposition councillor and committee president Richard Deschamps.

“Is there no one at the city who thinks this doesn’t make sense?” said Deschamps, quoted in Le Devoir. “It’s troubling.”

Seven years after the facility was first promised, costs are spiralling and its future remains in doubt.

It was under the administration of then-mayor Gérald Tremblay that Montreal first proposed to build a Calgary-style centre to better protect its animals.

The decision was spurred by citizen outrage over news reports depicting cruelty at shelters run by Berger Blanc, and statistics showing Montreal has some of the highest animal-abandonment and euthanization rates in North America.

Then and now, most boroughs signed contracts with either the for-profit Berger Blanc or nonprofit Montreal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to handle lost or abandoned pets or wild animals in distress.

The city envisioned operating its own animal-services centre, including a veterinary clinic, rather than sub-contracting to outside shelters.

Acknowledging their lack of expertise, city officials consulted with a committee of experts and hired veterinarian Suzanne Lecompte in 2012 at a cost of $76,000 to develop a new animal-services model.

In 2014, new mayor Denis Coderre announced the centre would be built in the Villeray—St-Michel—Parc-Extension borough, on Pie-IX Blvd. between 42nd and 47th Sts., at a cost of $23 million for the building, equipment and professional services.

The Tremblay administration had initially chosen a site at Angrignon Park in LaSalle, but Coderre said the new location would put the facility in an area with the highest pet concentration in the city, which would increase rates of return and decrease costs.

The centre would be able to handle 14,000 animals a year. It would employ 90 people and be managed by a non-profit organization, with annual operating costs of $7 million, while existing shelters like Berger Blanc and the Montreal SPCA would continue to offer services as well.

The SPCA, which provides services to nine boroughs and three demerged cities, remains a vocal promoter of the new animal shelter. It handles about 16,000 animals a year, 2,000 of them wild, spokesperson Anita Kapuscinska said.

Berger Blanc, which the city says handles about 12,000 pets a year in contracts with seven boroughs, did not respond to requests for interviews or statistics.

With the change of venue, the scheduled opening of the new centre moved from 2016 to 2018, as it requires relocating the city-owned municipal yards to make way for the shelter and outdoor dog runs.

In 2015, city council approved a $3.2-million contract for architectural, engineering and landscaping services, executive summaries issued by the city show.

Craig Sauvé, the Projet Montréal councillor responsible for animal services under the new administration at city hall, said to date, more than $1 million has been spent on plans and analyses.

Also in February 2015, city council approved a contract for $84,733.99 to hire consulting firm Legico-CHP to monitor the project and ensure against cost overruns.

In 2016, the city’s 2017-2020 capital works budget revealed the price estimate for the facility had jumped from $23 million to $34 million. The city said the sudden rise was because of studies showing the proposed location had been used as a dump site and would require decontamination.

Because of the hike in costs, city council approved, in May 2017, an increase in fees to be paid to Legico-CHP for its consulting work, to $111,288.09.

During the last two years, the city issued four calls for tenders to move the municipal yards to make room for the animal centre. The first was cancelled because the city was unable to purchase the adjoining piece of land to which it was planning to move its municipal yard. The second call for tenders, to move the yard to another location, was cancelled because no one bid, city spokesperson Nunez said. The third call, again to move the yards, failed because the bid that came in was two times higher than city estimates.

A fourth call for tenders, to move the municipal yards and decontaminate the site, was issued in October. The deadline for bids was last week. They are currently being studied by the city.

“The administration of Denis Coderre did not factor the costs of decontamination into its estimate,” Sauvé said, calling the omission “irresponsible.”

The city is also faced with the problem of finding a new site for the municipal yards to be displaced.