Anne Kang, minister of advanced education and skills training, says the province will provide $ 10.68 million to support 40 students entering the Western College of Veterinary Medicine this fall. He says the demand for subsidized places at Saskatchewan-based college was high and tuition was a barrier for aspiring veterinarians. With more graduates in the coming years, Kang says people in BC can expect shorter waiting times for their family pets to be cared for and farmers and ranchers will be able to access a vet as needed for their animals. . Agriculture Minister Lana Popham says extreme weather events, including widespread floods last fall, have been a major challenge for farmers and ensuring that BC hosts more veterinarians will hopefully help alleviate some of their worries. He says the expanded funding means BC is maximizing the number of places the county is allowed to subsidize at the veterinary college each year. Asked on Monday if the expansion would be enough to address the effects of the lack of veterinarians, Kang said it was “one of the many solutions we are working on”. BC is also looking at ways to improve the recognition of foreign certificates and is looking at opportunities for veterinarians who would like to move to BC to pursue the profession, he said.

Burnout, suicidal thoughts among veterinarians BC

The pandemic has increased the workload for veterinarians, but the lack of trained veterinarians is what is straining the system more than anything else, according to the BC Veterinary College. Dr. Helen Bell of the Pacific Cat Clinic in Victoria told a news conference that it was difficult for people to have timely access to their pets and that veterinarians and staff had been “burned under the overwhelming workload”. He said the expansion was “great news for the profession”. Nanaimo, BC-based veterinarian Karissa Mitchell examines a feline client. Mitchell, 28, says she was recently burned after 12 hours during the pandemic. (Michael McArthur / CBC)
According to a survey conducted by the BC College of Veterinarians in 2021, many veterinarians in the province say they are overworked and have high suicide rates in the profession. Among those who say they have experienced exhaustion is Nanaimo, Dr. BC-based Karissa Mitchell, who says she worked 12 hours a day during the pandemic, quit her full-time job and took on shifts as a veterinarian. Instead. “I could not become the vet I wanted and I was really exhausted,” she told CBC. The college also warned that the province would be short of about 100 veterinarians for the next five years without increasing the number of people being trained for the profession. Nationwide, the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association estimates that 30 percent of Canadian veterinarians and 50 percent of technical veterinarians are in advanced stages of exhaustion.