A new multi-million dollar community-based animal shelter is set to open in Queensborough within the next three years.
On Monday, council endorsed recommendations from the city’s animal shelter task force, which was established earlier this year to review the future needs and make recommendations on the location and delivery model for the city’s animal care services. The plan would see a new animal shelter and tow yard developed on Wood Street, near the Queensborough Bridge.
“I think it’s a step in the right direction,” said Coun. Lorrie Williams, who chaired the task force. “We are going to go mostly on the Delta model. We asked them ‘what would you do differently’ and we picked up on those.”
The recommendations approved by council include building a community-based facility with participation by groups such as the Royal City Humane Society.
“There is going to be a room for the Humane Society, for instance, to store their stuff because they are going to work in tandem with us,” Williams said. “They are still going to look after the cats.”
According to Williams, the humane society has a fund that it will use to continue working at fostering cats. She said the society will also continue with its spay and neuter program.
“They are us a great service for the city,” Williams said. “We have decided to work with them. They sat at the table, they were part of the task force.”
The new animal shelter will include better areas for cats than the existing shelter on Ewen Avenue, Williams said.
The task force also recommended the city establish a fund for animals with special needs, similar to the Tollie Fund in Delta.
Mayor Jonathan Cote said the city’s strategic priorities for the coming years state the animal shelter will be completed in council’s current term of office.
The cost of building an animal shelter is estimated at $3.8 million, with the entire animal shelter and tow yard facility estimated to cost $7.6 million, excluding off-site servicing costs.
With council having endorsed the task force’s recommendations, city staff will now initiate the process of rezoning the Wood Street property.
While residents have been calling for a new shelter for years, the need for a modern animal shelter was highlighted in November 2011, when an infectious feline viral disease spread through the shelter. One cat died from the virus and 25 other cats were euthanized after contracting a strain of calicivirus.
