Canada’s veterinary sector — which serves pet owners and the animal production sector — is facing a severe labour shortage.
“The shortages are dire and lead to very undesirable situations,” said Dr. Marco Veenis, director with the Society of B.C. Veterinarians.
Veenis cited an animal hospital in Prince George, B.C. that shortened its hours in April and now closes by 6 p.m. weekdays. It has no vets available on weekends because the city simply doesn’t have enough vets to keep up with the demand.
“There have been instances where animals just didn’t get timely care and died as a result or had increased suffering,” Veenis said.
The shortage is an industry-wide problem, but rural Canada is feeling it most acutely.
Veterinary labour shortage most acute in rural areas
It’s challenging to attract vets to rural areas where they often work demanding hours, says Dr. Robert Friendship, professor of veterinary medicine at the Ontario Veterinary College in Guelph. Vets are required to travel and practice on both small and large animals.
“It’s not a lifestyle for everyone,” Friendship said. “They’re likely to burn out and are not able to do quite as good a job as they would like.”
This poses a challenge for Canada’s $5.7-billion animal production sector.
“As you get further away from populated areas, there are a lot more cattle in those areas, and it’s a challenge to get veterinarians out there,” says Sheila Hillmer, vice-chair of the Alberta Beef Producers.
“We do need [veterinarians]; whether it’s a cow having issues with calving or dairy cattle experiencing issues due to nutrition or challenges in the production system. A rancher can do a lot, but there are certain things we cannot do,” said Hillmer.
What gets lost is preventative medicine, says Friendship. Vets only have time for emergency calls.
Canada’s five veterinary schools are taking steps to address this challenge.
“You need a strong applicant pool coming from rural environments,” said Dr. Robert McCorkell, the associate dean of admissions and outreach at the University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.
Veterinary school applicants who have some connection to rural Alberta are more likely to work in rural communities after graduation, McCorkell added.
Vet schools have also lobbied provincial governments to increase the number of positions and grants available to students interested in rural veterinary medicine.
Vet schools only now starting to increase capacity
More broadly, Canada’s veterinary schools aren’t graduating enough veterinarians or veterinary technicians to keep pace with population growth or the boom in pet ownership, says Dr. Chris Clark, associate dean of academics at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon.
Canada’s vet schools have graduated approximately 350 graduates each year since 2012, a 2020 Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) workforce study found, despite growing demand for veterinary services.
“There are more and more people with pets and the expectation of the level of care those pets receive has also increased… Veterinarians’ days have become fuller and fuller,” said Clark.
In 2020, 58 per cent of Canadian households reported owning at least one dog or cat, according to the Canadian Animal Health Institute. And the population of dogs who visit a vet at least once per year has grown significantly, from 4.5 million in 2007 to 7.1 million in 2019, the year the CVMA conducted its workplace study. The cat population stayed steady during this period, at approximately 4.7 million.
In 2022, the Alberta government invested nearly $67 million in the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine for new infrastructure and a doubling of enrolment to 100 positions by 2025.
Even with these kinds of investments, the industry will be behind the curve for the foreseeable future, says McCorkell.
“This eventually means we’ll reach 100 graduates. But those 100 students won’t graduate until 2029 so, we’re slowly dealing with this problem,” said McCorkell. It takes four years to complete a veterinary medicine degree plus one year of clinical training.
The other four vet schools are also making moves to expand their program sizes with the help of government funding.
The Ontario government, for example, announced in March that it would be investing in a partnership between the Ontario Veterinary College and Lakehead University to increase veterinary spaces for the first time since 1988.
Also in March, British Columbia — which lacks an in-province vet med program — committed $21.8 million in additional funds for 20 new seats for B.C. students at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatchewan.
Until the profession’s labour shortage is addressed, accessing care for companion and agricultural animals may increasingly mean driving long distances or waiting for understaffed clinics to open — even in emergencies.
