Veterinarian shortage looms for rural Alberta: MLA
Province nixes 54-year agreement to fund seats at Saskatchewan college
Alberta faces a shortage of rural veterinarians in the coming years following the government’s decision to pull funding from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine and redirect a portion of it to the University of Calgary.
That was the bleak warning from Progressive Conservative Vermilion-Lloydminster MLA Richard Starke, a retired veterinarian, who Thursday grilled Advanced Education Minister Marlin Schmidt about the NDP government’s decision to end a 54-year-old agreement among the four western provinces to divvy up student spots at the University of Saskatchewan.
Starting in the fall of 2020, veterinary students from Alberta will lose access to 20 guaranteed seats at the Saskatoon-based college.
“This will hurt rural Alberta,” Starke said.
Instead of sending $8 million annually across the border to fund those seats, the NDP government will put $4.7 million of that into the University of Calgary’s vet program to increase the size of the homegrown program to 50 seats from 30.
Schmidt argued the government will save $3.3 million while training the same number of students. He told a legislative committee Thursday it was not the government’s responsibility to fund another province’s vet program when it can spend the money locally.
He also said the decision was part of his department’s focus on accessibility and sustainability in the college system.
The move will mean the U of C will get a one-time $7.2-million capital investment for equipment and expansion of its Clinical Skills Building to include a large lecture theatre, expanded surgery suite and clinical skills teaching areas.
Funding will be provided after the university submits a detailed capital plan.
But Starke said the decision to axe the partnership would have severe consequences on the livestock industry in Alberta.
He said the Saskatchewan and Alberta programs were complementary and afforded students the chance to choose between different schools with different delivery models and different specialties.
“This is bad for (the) livestock industry, it’s bad for rural communities and it’s bad for Alberta and does nothing about making life better,” Starke said.
Western College veterinary medicine dean Douglas Freeman agreed with Starke’s assessment of the impact on rural Alberta, but he also said that losing a quarter of its funding was a “huge issue” for the college.
He added it was his hope that as Calgary became a more mature program, it would work more closely with Saskatoon rather than severing ties.
“We are really disappointed at the ability to work collaboratively,” he said.
“It is almost more distressing to lose the partnership, because it has been such an incredibly successful partnership across the four provinces.”
Freeman said the seats opened up by Alberta’s departure could be taken by students from other provinces who went to the U.S., Australia or the U.K., he said.
U of C veterinary medicine dean Baljit Singh dismissed Starke’s concerns, saying his university’s commitment to expand its program was proof there would no shortage.
He also pointed out 76 per cent of graduates since the program started 10 years ago have remained in the province and are scattered across the spectrum of specialties, including rural mixed animal practice, which deals with livestock.
“This province does far more (for veterinary medicine) than any other province in the country, in many ways,” he said.
“This is going to give us more capacity to really tailor our programs to meet Alberta’s need, especially in the rural sector.”
There are currently about 80 vacant veterinary positions in Alberta, and labour market projections suggest the province will need 1,100 more veterinarians by 2023. There are currently 1,596 practising veterinarians in Alberta.
This is bad for (the) livestock industry, it’s bad for rural communities and it’s bad for Alberta.