Montreal is moving forward with its centralized animal center project, at an expected cost of 158 million over 10 years.
The majority of municipal elected officials voted Tuesday in favor of concluding this contract with the non-profit organization Proanima. The facility, which is expected to open in 2026, is expected to be able to accommodate 7,050 animals and serve as a base for all animal control services. It will be located in the east-central part of the city.
“We have the courage to move forward and do something,” argued the elected representative responsible for the file, Maja Vodanovic. “We will finally have a contract with a renowned NPO, recognized in Quebec as having the best animal management practices. »
“Fifty percent of Montreal residents have a pet. For them, he is a member of the family. It is important for us to offer the best possible service and to know that if an animal is lost, people will be able to find it easily, she continued. Yes, the cost is more expensive. But it’s the right cost, it’s the equitable cost. »
Some 15,000 animals are abandoned in Montreal each year. Hundreds of them are euthanized.
“A mess”, according to the opposition
The official opposition at city hall voted in favor of the project, but reluctantly.
“If our political party comes together to vote [en faveur], she does it with a lot of reluctance,” said the mayor of the borough of Saint-Laurent, Alan DeSousa. “Not because we don’t care about the animals that are being treated. But because the administration has mishandled this issue and, as a result, this proposal is a mess. »
“It smells so bad that we have to hold our noses to vote in favor, for the well-being of our animals,” he added.
In addition to the opposition, independent elected official Richard Deschamps also strongly criticized the project. Mr. Deschamps sat on Gérald Tremblay’s executive committee when the idea of a centralized animal center emerged, in 2011.
“I agree that there should be centralization,” he said. I am fighting so that it costs Montreal citizens as little as possible, which I am not convinced of. »
For a dozen years, the City of Montreal has been procrastinating over the establishment of a centralized animal service. A mega-shelter project that could accommodate 12,000 animals was announced in 2011, before changing its planned location twice and then being completely canceled in 2020. The Plante administration then mentioned the establishment of several local animal centers, then three establishments for the entire island.
Currently, each district must manage its own animal service. The majority of them have entrusted this responsibility to the SPCA, which has long expressed the wish to withdraw from this market.
Mayor Valérie Plante will formalize the animal center project during an announcement scheduled for this Wednesday at 10 a.m.