Grand Forks City Council members and Mayor Everett Baker didn’t hold back their concerns – and in some cases outrage – over animal control service being provided by The Commissionaires through the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary.
RDKB Deputy CAO and Operations General Manager James Chandler appeared before City Council for the May 5 Committee of the Whole meeting to discuss the renewal of a contract for animal control service. They are currently negotiating final details with Commissionaires to continue animal control, he said, which they hope to wrap in the next couple of weeks.
Baker asked Chandler to detail where the city is with the current contract and progress on the new contract, adding the city is informed on, but not involved in the selection process.
Baker wrapped talks saying he wanted Chandler to hear from the council, as he and Area D-Rural Grand Forks director Linda Kay Wiese have been very vocal about this and the “extraordinarily poor” service for what the region is receiving and push for better service.
“This needs a huge overhaul,” Baker said.
The contract is for 12 months. Commissionaires are currently working on a month-to-month basis as a new contract is worked out, which will be brought up at the Next Boundary Services Committee meeting. A performance review is in there and the city can withdraw if it’s not pleased, Baker added
The current contract being negotiated includes having more details, as well as more reporting and data, which will be presented as either a monthly or quarterly report to the Boundary Services Committee, Chandler said.
“Around this time last year, they were looking at alternate choices, with a fairly light service review,” he said. “Everyone at the time agreed they didn’t want to do an in-depth service review at the time with the model we had.
“The RDKB is currently working out specific service expectations, so we can report on them. It’s not lost on everyone at the table with the challenges we have. We’ve never had a specific performance criteria in the contract, or details we expect.”
Among the expectations are planned patrols every week, as opposed to the immediate callouts they currently handle. As well as follow-up phone calls and completing investigations.
Part of that is to determine where the bulk of their work is occurring to determine where the high demand areas are.
If the contract isn't being fulfilled, they will be back at the table, he said.
Total budget requisition for animal control in RDKB for 2025 is $170,300.
A breakdown of costs by participating communities are:
Area D-Rural Grand Forks: $44,319,
Area C-Christina Lake: $63,126,
Grand Forks: $56,045, and
Greenwood: $6,810.
There’s a request from Midway to connect their services. Having Midway want to be included is allowing the team to rebudget, he added.
He explained The RDKB returned to the market near the end of this contract to see if there were more competitive proposals, but found none. Proposals were submitted by Boundary Helping Hands Feline Rescue Society, the City of Grand Forks and Commissionaires. Based on criteria and experience, Commissionaires were considered the best, he said, even with Boundary Helping Hands being less expensive. However, that could change based on the stronger criteria they are working on over the next three to 12 months.
Commissionaires were still the leading proponent, as there are not many with the right qualifications to do this type of work, Chandler said.
Complaints over the performance of the Commissionaires have been rampant, stated Coun. David Mark.
“I’m struggling with the concept of Commissionaires being the frontrunners for animal control,” he said. “I’d say having someone who’s done a very poor job be very low on the list.”
He added in later comments based on criteria and price, must’ve been a heck of a good price because all he could see was eight years of substandard service and no experience in animal control.
Chandler replied they have to be cautious on the way they respond and assess performance, which is why we are putting a lot more into this contract. Past contracts had very simple expectations and it was hard to label “non performance” and challenges. This new contract is building in measures and makes it easier to spot lack of performance.
Stray and aggressive dogs on the loose are a major concern, said Mark, adding that the new contract would have guidelines for staff to respond.
That wasn’t an easy answer, said Chandler. Getting into the details, it describes a range of services and it was up to staff to respond to that. In all cases they performed the work, it was more of a case of not meeting service levels. The new contract is focusing more on response times and triaging the situation. However, he agreed aggressive dogs are more serious than noisy dogs.
Complaints have been coming straight to councillors from concerned citizens, with some aired on social media, pointed out Coun. Niel Krog.
“When I went through credentials for Commissionaires, dogs weren't even mentioned,” he said. “I received an email from Lara Patterson on conditions of the animals, including screenshots of testimonials of people who called and responses from staff.”
Some of those interactions with staff were rude, to say the least, he said, with a few claiming Commissionaires were showing up without proper equipment like collars and gloves to safely handle dogs.
Animal control used to be a “full package” of rescue and aggressive and lost dogs, Krog said. Relating his own experience, Krog explained a time when he called over a wandering dog numerous times, but never got a response and no one showed up.
“I’m not happy, neither are many people I’ve heard from,” he said. “Yes, anecdotal, but hearing the same story year over year and seeing it yourself, I’m not impressed.”
He admitted some of the blame falls on city council because they didn’t push it or have a list of expectations, but added he’s glad to see a more comprehensive contract and it’s only for a year.
He added he doesn’t want to see Midway added as the participating communities are already not getting service they are paying for.
Coun. Deborah Lafleur also had stories from residents on Commissionaires’ responsibilities. She was told animal welfare isn’t in their mandate and wanted to know if it is now in the contract.
“If someone calls about an abandoned animal, will they do nothing? I find that unconscionable,” Lafleur said.
The simple answer is no, said Chandler. This is a service around animal control and the established bylaws and regulations of people controlling their animals, animal welfare is not involved.
This isn’t a straightforward answer, he added. Officers have to determine if this is an abandoned, or just a “dog at large?”
“We will respond and investigate and there’s a process to identify and find out where the animal came from,” he said. “Is there a Collar? Tag? Is it registered? If it’s abandoned, we call the SPCA.”
Relating her own experience, she talked about picking up a stray dog and called for it to be brought to the shelter, but was asked to hold it until the morning. The dog ended up killing a cat in her yard and couldn’t get a hold of animal control the next morning. When she finally did get someone, she demanded they get the dog out of her house immediately.
Another change relating to this is to encourage people through social media to contact SPCA and Commissionaires over abandoned dogs. Bylaw says animal control will hold a dog for up to 72 hours, then have SPCA come get the dog.
The selection process concerned Coun. Christine Thompson, who stated RDKB management shouldn’t be acting on their own and without support of the Committee.
When she asked if other member communities were also unhappy, Baker said others have been very vocal over their displeasure.
It’s disheartening there have been no tools introduced to measure performance until now, said Coun. Rod Zielinski.
“We’ve been with them for eight years and there’s always been some concern, but no measuring tools to gauge and it’s disappointing.
Coun. Zak Eburne-Stoodley wanted to know how many employees were in animal control, to which Chandler said there are two officers, adding there is no distinction as to how many can work in animal control. Staff work Mondays to Fridays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with no blackout dates. He admitted there is no animal control service on weekends, with calls going to voicemails.
