MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY - New provincial funding in support of the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (UCMV) announced last week should be helpful in addressing the current shortage of veterinarians and veterinary technologists in rural Alberta, says Mountain View County councillor and veterinarian Gord Krebs.
Yet despite the new funding, work must continue to encourage more students with “rural experience and rural knowledge” to go into rural veterinarian practice, he said.
“People in Mountain View County want to make sure they have veterinarians to look after all their animals,” said Krebs. “It’s a great start but it is not going to help us if we don’t put people in that are going to come back to rural Alberta to do the mixed animal veterinarian thing, which is the four species, horse, cow, dog and cat.
“The way we are going to fix this is to keep up the pressure to put the right people in those seats and I think that is rural-minded students.
“We don’t necessarily need (more) dog and cat vets in the cities; we need people in rural Alberta who will look after your cow one minute and your dog the next.”
Residents need to continue to “pressure their MLAs that we need rural people, rural veterinarians to keep the rural communities alive, and rural communities include the urban communities in rural Alberta,” he said.
Krebs recently developed and spearheaded the Attraction and Retention of Veterinarians to Rural Veterinary Practice resolution, which calls on the government to “officially endorse new programs at the University of Calgary Veterinary Medicine that will help alleviate the rural veterinarian shortage crisis.”
The resolution has already been accepted by the Rural Municipalities of Alberta and is scheduled to soon go before the Alberta Municipalities Association.
The province has announced that it will be providing $8.4 million over three years to support veterinarian education enrolment expansion, and $59 million in capital funding over three years to support the construction of new infrastructure to accommodate future veterinary students.
“Having a pool of skilled veterinarians is a key part in the well-being of our province,” Premier Jason Kenney said in announcing the new funding last week. “Veterinary medicine plays a hugely important role in our agriculture sector and agriculture is a major pillar of our provincial economy.
“To maintain livestock and ensure that they remain healthy and disease free is integral to the health and sustainability of the entire sector and our economy.”
It is estimated that there is a current shortage of about 850 veterinary professionals in Alberta, he said, noting the new funding will support increasing the number of student placements in the UCMV program from the current 50 to up to 100.
Dr. Renate Weller, dean of the UCMV, said increasing enrolment in the faculty’s Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program is the only long-term sustainable way to ensure large animal care in the province.
The UCP government does not have a “clear plan to attract veterinarian to practise in rural Alberta,” said Heather Sweet, NDP critic for agriculture, forestry and rural economic development.
“The UCP must provide details on who they will directly support Alberta’s agricultural economy and the need for specialized large-animal care,” said Sweet.
“Veterinarians are leaving the practice at higher rates than new ones are graduating.”
