I had the opportunity to attend the public hearings on this bill. I was there for a panel that had deputations from Dr. Martha Harding—who is from the East Village Animal Hospitals, which are veterinary clinics in London, Kitchener and Hamilton that are run as non-profits—the Ontario SPCA and Humane Society as well as the Toronto Humane Society. All three of those presenters talked about the barriers to pet ownership and accessing veterinary care because the model that is enshrined in the Veterinarians Act does not allow not-for-profit corporations to own and operate veterinary clinics.

I understand that this may be addressed in the regulations, but I’m interested in hearing from the members whether that is the direction that this government is going in because it’s so important for low-income individuals to access veterinary care.

Again to the minister: During the hearings on this bill at committee, we heard about the veterinary legislative oversight acts that are in place in other jurisdictions—BC, Alberta, Nova Scotia, Florida—that all include non-profit veterinary services in their veterinary legislation.

My question to the minister is: Can she assure all of those veterinarians who want to be able to provide non-profit delivery of veterinary services that the regulations under this act will be expanded to enable that in this province?

Thank you to the minister and the parliamentary assistant for their remarks on this bill.

I had the opportunity to attend one of the committee meetings that was reviewing this legislation, and I was particularly interested in the panel from the Ontario SPCA and Humane Society, the Toronto Humane Society and Dr. Martha Harding, who operates three not-for-profit veterinary clinics. They shared stories about how, in this current affordability crisis, we are seeing a doubling of demand for pet food to community food banks. They are seeing more and more animals having to be surrendered for economic reasons, which is absolutely heartbreaking, because all families—low-income people should be able to access veterinary services.

What in this bill will expand access to veterinary services, especially for low-income Ontarians?

I want to compliment my colleague for his remarks. I think we have all in this chamber learned much more about dairy farming than we ever thought we would when we arrived in this place—

But the member knows that Ontarians everywhere are facing significant affordability challenges. The cost of veterinary care is a big barrier for low-income people in their ability to own pets. I want to give a shout-out to veterinarian Dr. Martha Harding, who has clinics in London, Kitchener and now Hamilton to serve low-income pet owners and those on social assistance.

So my question is, is there anything in this bill that will help facilitate the creation of more of these non-profit veterinary clinics that can help low-income people afford the cost of owning a pet?