LANCASTER – South Glengarry will consider whether it should get rid of its “failing” dog tag licencing program.
That comes in a report from Bylaw Enforcement Manager Veronique Brunet for tonight’s (Monday) council meeting.
Using a statistic from the Canadian Animal Health Institute that 41 per cent of households have at least one dog, Brunet estimates there are a minimum of 2,440 dogs in the township.
“In the last five years, the most tags sold in one year is 700,” she writes.
Even before 2018, with a third-party salesperson, Brunet says the township had better results but “this amount is estimated to not reach half the dogs in South Glengarry.”
But getting rid of the program would come at a cost to taxpayers. With no income from the dog tags, there’s still the cost to run the pound.
Right now, it costs approximately $18,700 to run the program. That would increase to $21,500 with the loss of roughly $4,700 in dog tag revenue but also fewer administrative costs.
Brunet proposes two options to council to cover the $2,800 difference – either property owners pay anywhere from 30 cents to $1.30 more based on assessment or a flat rate imposed by council.
Citing a time consuming, inefficient and inconvenient system, South Stormont changed its pet licencing this year. It signed an agreement in December with DocuPet for a 365-day electronic purchasing system for dog tags, meaning the tags are not on a calendar year but a full year from the purchase date. It’s expected to be online some time in May.