Guelph, Lakehead to partner on new veterinary medicine program

A pair of Ontario universities are establishing a new program to address a shortage of trained veterinarians in the province.

Ontario finance minister Peter Bethlanfalvy announced that the province is investing $14.7 Million towards a new Collaborative Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program at the University of Guelph and Lakehead University. The funding was made available in the spring budget.

The program will see both institutions enrolling 20 students per year with the focus on recruiting students from northern Ontario and Indigenous communities where veterinary services for large animals is underserved.

“We are reaching retirement age for some people,” said Lisa Thompson, Ontario’s minister of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs. “We need to build that succession. I know how important the dairy industry is in Wellington County and we are going to make sure that, through this program, the dairy farmers will have the veterinarians when they need them.”

Thompson and Bethlanfalvy were joined by minister of Colleges and Universities Jill Dunlop, University of Guelph president Charlotte Yates, and Lakehead University vice-president of External Relations Michael den Haan for the announcement at the University of Guelph on Thursday.

“I was having a conversation with Moira (McPherson, Lakehead University president) and Charlotte,” said Dunlop. “The main concern at the time was we needed more vets not only on southwestern Ontario but in rural and northern communities as well.”

Yates said the announcement of the new program at the two universities “is a demonstration of excellence but also deep and profound commitment to animals.”

The program will leverage Guelph’s existing Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program.

“Lots of conversations, lots of planning,” said Yates on partnering with Lakehead on the new program. “Then bringing in the ministries and talk with them about what we are doing, how we are proposing to do it, and whether they felt we were meeting the need for the province.”

No timetable has been set to roll out the program. Yates says the two institutions have to meet a series of steps with the veterinary community but are working very hard to get it off the ground as soon as possible.

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