OLDS — As it turns out, there’s no great need in Olds for an animal shelter right now; nor is there any great desire by other communities to partner on creating one, a report by the municipality's administrative staff says.
So when that report came up for discussion last month, the town's council voted to simply receive it for information.
The report was created after Coun. Darren Wilson filed a notice of motion earlier on the matter.
At that time, Wilson stressed that in his opinion, the Town of Olds isn’t in a crisis situation when it comes to dealing with and housing stray animals.
He said his notice of motion was not meant to suggest that the Town of Olds should immediately set aside money for a shelter -- he noted the community is facing big challenges with infrastructure costs -- but rather that it should be “forward looking” and examine potential solutions to animal control.
“To give you the brief summary (of the report), there is an acute need across Central Alberta for housing abandoned animals, dogs and cats, specifically,” the town's chief administrative officer Brent Williams said.
“The Town of Olds, our need has decreased significantly since we stopped accepting animals at large. So our own, we may be under -- between five and 10 perhaps -- in terms of the annual need.
“We're finding our other municipalities are (at) about the same need, and that there's no significant interest to partner at the moment; more of a if you build it, we might come scenario.”
Williams said the Town of Olds currently uses a former garage as a shelter. If it were to become a full-fledged animal shelter, that would require some “up-front costs,” he said.
Williams said operating costs for such a facility couldn’t be justified unless the municipality partnered with a “third party facility, like a humane society or shelter type of group.”
“So the recommendation on this is, given the lack of urgent demand from our municipal partners, which was kind of the direction of the notice of motion, but the potential with various third party organizations, we're suggesting that administration continue to investigate that third party potential to see what's available, whether it is a just renting shelter space on an as-needed basis, or if it's exploring a future shelter as needs grow with other organizations,” Williams said.
“But for the time being, we don't see it as a urgent need, and hopefully the report communicated that in a in a firm enough way.”
Wilson expressed appreciation for administrative staff looking into the matter.
“I guess part of me, as everybody knows, I'm the eternal optimist, the glass-half-full kind of person,” Wilson said.
“Hopefully there will be a benevolent, animal loving philanthropist individual out there that will hear and read about this and that might be our angel.”
Wilson noted there are several individuals and groups providing shelter for animals.
“There are definitely a lot of people helping out our furry friends and so thanks for looking into it,” he said.
“I think, given all the other pressing items we have going on in our locale and our challenges around resourcing, I think we take a wait-and-see approach and revisit this at some time, whether it's 2026, or beyond.”
With that, council passed his motion to receive the report as information.
