YOUR PERSPECTIVE: Making life better for animals and their people – Addressing B.C.’s veterinarian shortage
For a lot of people, interacting with animals is as everyday as interacting with humans.
For farmers, animals and their health are central to doing business and crucial to the important work they do to feed British Columbians. In households across B.C., animals can also be important life companions that support our overall health and happiness.
In B.C., our veterinarians do incredible work, keeping the animals that play such an important role in our lives and businesses safe and healthy. This became clear to many of us, especially here in the Fraser Valley, during the extreme weather events that hit our province in 2021 – when veterinarians worked around the clock, heroically saving animals from disastrous floods and landslides.
Unfortunately, the skills gap that has hit B.C. and the world has meant fewer veterinarians in our province. That’s why our government is permanently doubling the number of training seats available for provincially subsidized first-year veterinarian students – marking the first permanent seat expansion in the field in more than a decade.
