With a unanimous show of hands in favour of adopting the 2012 financial records for the Humane Society Yukon Monday night, president Hoby Irwin smiled and told voting members: "You don't know how much relief you just caused.”

The financial statements, delivered last Friday from the society's accountant in Ottawa, show a $90,000-plus deficit at the end of 2012.

Irwin, however, stressed the society is now in a much better financial situation than it was at the end of last year.

With the adoption of the financial records, the society can now get them to the territory's registrar of societies to have them reviewed.

The registrar will then decide whether the society will be back in good standing. If so, the organization can begin hosting bingos, raffles and other such fund-raisers that require good standing under the Societies Act.

"The charitable status is extremely important,” Irwin said.

Late last year, the society's Mae Bachur Animal Shelter closed its doors to new animals and laid off nine employees amid the significant financial issues.

Yukon government funding was also withheld.

A new board was elected in December 2012 as the dispute continues in court – a matter which is ongoing but legal fees are being dealt with through insurance.

While Sean Springford was elected as president at the December meeting, he quit for what he called personal reasons. That put Irwin – who'd been elected as vice-president last December – into the role.

Last night, before treasurer Chris Nemeth reviewed the financial documents in detail with members, Irwin expressed his thanks to all those who have helped the shelter as it works its way out of financial difficulty.

As he reported, since opening up once again to take animals, the shelter has been "keeping its head above water.”

He also stressed that none of the current board members had anything to do with finances from last year.

Today marks the final deadline for the society to get its financials in to the registrar, who will then look them over and decide whether to approve them.

As Irwin stressed in an interview following the meeting, it's not clear how long it will take the registrar to approve the financials, though the Yukon government has been very helpful in letting the society know what it needs to do to get back on track and working as quickly as possible to provide assistance.

Others in the community have also assisted.

The Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous Society, for example, has been keeping the humane society's bingo spot open, hosting its own bingos in its time slot and donating 50 per cent of the proceeds to the humane society.

Under the agreement between the organizations, once the humane society is back in good standing, it will take over the bingos again.

As Irwin noted, Rendezvous is anxious to get out of hosting the bingos.

Bingos typically bring in about $100,000 each year. As Irwin noted last night, the organization can pay for the day-to-day operations at the shelter with other fund-raising efforts going to various projects the society has going on.

In January, the society received the $40,000 in funding the territory had been withholding after officials in the Department of Community Services decided the humane society had made enough progress to warrant the funding.

That cash went to pay off bills owed as the society continued to work on tracking down its financial information from 2012.

As Irwin reported to the membership last night, "The further they dug into it, the worse it got.”

He noted the financial crisis was primarily a result of bad bookkeeping.

In presenting the records, Nemeth pointed out that a deficit in the range of $8,000 would not be uncommon, but as for the $90,000-deficit, "it's never been like this.”

Between April and December, it was found the society had $352,838 coming in while it spent $443,286.

It was also found the society's GICs were cashed in to pay bills.

As the financial information was reviewed in the boardroom last night, members primarily focused their questions for the board on where the society is going.

Noting the lawsuit underway against the former board, one member asked for assurance the current board members understand their responsibilities in knowing the finances of the organization and keeping track of that, to which the new board replied that they are "very conscious” of their duties.

With that, members voted in favour of accepting the financial records.

After the meeting, Irwin said that while he didn't think there was any reason for the membership to reject the financials, "it was scary” not knowing how the vote would go.

That means the society can continue working to get the shelter operating at full capacity again.

As it was reported last night, there are employees still "waiting in the wings” for work, and it is not able to take in any more dogs at this point.

Board members were all quick to praise shelter administrator Amanda Ferrell for her continued work at the shelter. She has stayed on despite many times when it wasn't clear whether the shelter would be able to keep her on as staff due to the finances.

As Nemeth recalled, there was one day she was at the shelter and she asked Ferrell why they keep going. Ferrell brought out a puppy and stated that's why they keep working to have

the shelter open.

As the paperwork on the financials gets delivered to the registrar to put the society in good standing, society members are also continuing their work on raising funds through other means outside of lotteries, including bagging groceries May 18 at the Real Canadian Superstore.

Irwin will stay on as president for now. While he had initially said he would stay on until last night's meeting, he told reporters he now plans to stay on until next year.

Irwin had been putting in four evenings a week, into the shelter, plus a day on the weekend.

With help from other board members, however, that load has lessened recently, and he wants to continue to assist.

Irwin was pleased to have Linda Priestly step up to the role of vice-president, he said, noting that while she didn't want to take on the presidency for various reasons, she has taken on a lot of the work.

Meanwhile, Nemeth noted she too wanted to help out the shelter, and, having retired recently, it seemed like a good place to put her energy.

Irwin pointed out there are two board positions open for anyone interested.

He also noted the executive meets on the last Monday of the month in the boardroom of the Canada Games Centre, where last night's meeting was held.

The meetings will be open to the public.