It’s a pleasure to rise in the House today to continue our discussion on the importance of enhancing professional care for animals. I’m very pleased to be sharing my time today with my two amazing parliamentary assistants, the members from Essex and from Lanark–Frontenac–Kingston.

Before I begin, I also would like to give a shout-out to both MPP Flack from Elgin–Middlesex–London as well as MPP Jones from Chatham-Kent–Leamington, because they too have played an important role in shepherding this important piece of legislation through to where we are today.

Back to the MPPs from Essex and Lanark–Frontenac–Kingston, though: They’ve just recently begun their roles as parliamentary assistants in the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, and I want to say thank you. Thank you for jumping in with both feet and supporting not only this important piece of proposed legislation, but for jumping in and embracing the amazing work that gets done at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

I also want to go back to the MPP from Elgin–Middlesex–London. In his role as parliamentary assistant for the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, he actually facilitated consultations on this particular proposed piece of legislation across the province. We all know that agriculture and food is very important to him, as well. I appreciate all the effort that went into it.

To the members of the Standing Committee on the Interior and everyone who presented at the committee and/or submitted written submissions as well, I’d like to thank everyone’s efforts. I appreciate that I’m hearing that there’s going to be unanimous support for this. We’ll see when the vote happens, but I can tell you with certainty that we took the time to listen, to understand and, most importantly, to work with our stakeholders to ensure we get it right.

The Veterinarians Act needed to be reviewed, because it was first introduced in 1989. It has served Ontario animals and animal owners very, very well over the past 35 years, but it’s 2024, and it’s time we take a look at modernizing and making sure that we are enabling access across this province to professional care that pet owners and farmers alike deserve and need.

In 1989, it was Jack Riddell who introduced the Veterinarians Act. At the time, Jack represented Huron–Middlesex. Huron, as you know, is very important to me. I think it is somewhat surreal but an absolute honour to continue to build on something that a farmer from Huron county put his heart into, to continue on today to make sure that his legacy lives on through the initial piece of legislation. I take this opportunity to bring it forward into 2024 and beyond in order to make sure that we have a modernized system that enables professional care for animals.

In the years since the act was first updated, the practice of veterinary medicine has evolved significantly, transforming the way that animals are cared for in Ontario. As discussed during second reading and at the standing committee, veterinary care is increasingly provided by a team of qualified professionals. This proposed legislation reflects that the reality of one profession of veterinary medicine comprised of two professionals, veterinarians and veterinary technicians, has to be recognized. Registered veterinary technicians have specialized education, training and experience in animal care and are vital in terms of that team approach to care in many veterinary settings.

Again, we know we have a shortage of veterinarians in northern Ontario, rural Ontario and remote areas across this province, and vet techs are ready to step up and say, “We’ve got the expertise. We’ve got the training.”

I know our veterinarians will embrace their approach as well, because again, one team, two professionals—it really makes sense today, in 2024, across the province of Ontario.

The current legislative framework, though, under the Veterinarians Act does not formally recognize the role of veterinary technicians. Do you know what? They have a very important role to play in animal care. By formally recognizing the role of veterinary technicians, we are expecting to enhance access to veterinary care and strengthen the animal care system in Ontario. By recognizing their complete scope of practice, it is our intent that this will result in more vet techs providing more treatments and services that they are trained to do and have the expertise to do, as well.

I know that RVTs, registered vet techs, and vet tech students are excited about having their role and training formally recognized.

Shortly before this bill was introduced, I really appreciated the opportunity to attend the AGM of the Ontario Association of Veterinary Technicians. While I couldn’t necessarily tell the registered vet techs in attendance that this bill was imminent, let me tell you, they knew and appreciated that we had been consulting on updating the Veterinarians Act. There were 1,200 people very excited about the future of their field of expertise.

Let’s take a moment, let’s pause and let’s go back to revisit how we got here today. Access to veterinary care has long been a challenge, especially in rural and northern Ontario. The College of Veterinarians of Ontario, the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association, and the Ontario Association of Veterinary Technicians have been working together to advocate for changes to the Veterinarians Act for more than a decade. For more than a decade, they’ve been asking for this modernization, and I’m so proud to say it’s under the leadership of Premier Ford and our government that we’re getting the job done.

We knew the act was out of date, and we wanted to make sure any changes we proposed would help all animal owners, their animals, and our farmers. Husbandry is very important when you think about the priorities on-farm. In order to do that, though, we asked veterinarians, vet technicians, animal owners and farmers alike, animal welfare groups and others for their input. We took time, as I mentioned earlier, to listen to their concerns, their suggestions and their desires to see this particular act modernized.

In November 2022, my ministry launched a dedicated web page where the public was to submit ideas on how to modernize the Veterinarians Act.

Then, on March 1, 2023, we published a discussion paper and a proposal on the Regulatory Registry. My ministry also ran webinars where interested people could learn more about the proposal, ask questions and make comments. Through these consultations, we received more than 300 submissions. I was very impressed by that, and I thank everyone who took time to put pen to paper.

In order to make sure we heard from Ontarians from different parts of the province, the Associate Minister of Housing, Rob Flack, hosted seven round-table discussions.

Throughout these consultations, the majority of people told us they supported the proposed modernization of the Veterinarians Act. As a result of those consultations and taking into consideration more than 300 submissions, on March 7 of this year, I had the privilege of introducing this particular bill, Bill 171, an act to enact the enhanced professional care for animals act.

I want to thank all the members of this House for their support of this bill on second reading; in fact, Speaker, I was really over the moon, to be quite honest, to note that it was unanimous support.

Interjections.

It’s a pleasure to rise in the House today to speak to the second reading of Enhancing Professional Care for Animals Act, 2024. I’ll be sharing my time with my esteemed parliamentary assistant, the member from Chatham-Kent–Leamington.

Interjections.

Before I begin, though, there are a number of people that I would like to thank for the role they played in getting us to where we are today. First of all, thank you to my parliamentary assistant, the MPP for Chatham-Kent–Leamington. His support through this process was unwavering and he has worked incredibly hard—double duty, if you will—in making sure everything flows really well. I just appreciate his spirit and everything he does.

I’d also like to recognize the now Associate Minister of Housing. When he served as my parliamentary assistant last year, he led a large part of the consultations on this bill, and he played a significant role in making sure that we landed in the right place to be able to bring this forward today.

I also want to thank all the stakeholders who have worked so incredibly well with us through this process, including the College of Veterinarians, the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association, the Ontario Association of Veterinary Technicians, and there are so many others.

You know, whenever you bring a substantial bill forward, the meetings and the discussions are so, so important because, again, everyone has their opinions and the direction that they would like to seek. But at the end of the day, once we made our way through all the important discussions, we found a landing spot where, I’m so incredibly pleased, everyone supports.

I think a testimony to that and the work that everyone has done happened just a few weeks ago. I think the date was March 7, when the gallery was full of stakeholders here to see the tabling of this important piece of legislation. Over 20 associations alone attended the introduction to support Bill 171. Again, their commitment to seeing this through is so very appreciated. We’re better because of their involvement as well.

Dr. Wade Wright, president of the College of Veterinarians of Ontario, said, when we tabled the bill on March 7, “Today is a pinnacle moment, a significant step toward a robust and effective legislative framework to govern veterinary medicine in Ontario.”

Doug Brooks, president and CEO of the Ontario SPCA and Humane Society, said, “This is an important step to increase access to veterinary care in Ontario and we look forward to working with the province to further ensure all animals can get the care they need.”

Bill 171 represents the ideas and suggestions we heard from both the public as well as stakeholders. But all of the ideas in the world wouldn’t do any good without people who can turn those ideas into legislation. I wouldn’t be standing here talking about this bill today without the dedication and amazing commitment of team OMAFRA.

Not only does my direct team in the minister’s office deserve a shout-out—they’ve been phenomenal, shepherding this piece of legislation to where we are today—but I also would like to recognize David Hagarty, assistant deputy minister for the policy division; Andrea Martin, director of the food safety and environmental policy branch, and her team, Robert Blenkinsop, Michael Richardson, William Martin and Vicky Grahovac; and also the OMAFRA legal team: Shannon DeLeskie, Mark Schofield and Rushda Munshi. Honest to goodness, this was an effort that required heavy lifting by all of our team members.

Interjections.

We worked diligently right through to the eleventh hour. I really, really appreciate the work that we received and the desire to make sure we got it right in a short turnaround time. I really think that we’re stronger because of their commitment to getting this done.

I want to start by sharing a reflection with all of you. Bill 171, the Enhancing Professional Care for Animals Act, would repeal the Veterinarians Act and replace it with the Veterinary Professionals Act. The Veterinarians Act was introduced in 1989 and—

Interjection.

I have to tell you, this legislation is 35 years old, and it has served Ontario animals and animal owners well. The reflection I want to share with you is that it was actually introduced by a predecessor of mine, Jack Riddell, whom we recently paid tribute to in this House. It was a much-needed step forward at the time. I look upon Bill 171 as building on the great foundation that Jack Riddell built. Essentially, one Huron county MPP picks up where the other one left off, so that is pretty cool too, in and of itself.

Jack not only was the Minister of Agriculture and Food, but he represented our riding so incredibly well. At the time, he represented both Huron county and Huron–Middlesex. Today, I’m proudly in front of you representing both Huron and Bruce counties. Jack had an amazing tie and connection to the agricultural community throughout all of Ontario.

In introducing this bill, I believe that it’s a tribute to the amazing work that Jack started and we’re continuing to modernize. I think he would be pleased that another person who calls Huron county home is picking up and getting it right. Because we need to make sure that not only animals across Ontario but our professionals have the right supports in place, and that’s all defined through legislation.

Our government recognizes that animals play such an important part in our world, from cats to dogs to unique household pets through to livestock in our barn. We all do our very best to make sure that they’re well cared for. I think it’s important to share that not only do we need to think about our companion pets, but we need to think about what it means to have the responsibility of caring for both pets and livestock.

We know animals serve society in more formal roles. Service dogs are trained to assist many people who are visually impaired. They are also being trained to help in other ways, like alerting owners to an imminent epileptic seizure, or just a calming feature for people who need that outlet to relieve their stress. From police horses to Canada Border Services Agency dogs, we also rely on animals to protect our society. Finally, we need to recognize that a good source of protein is realized through livestock as well. According to Stats Canada, in 2021, there were more than 20,000 livestock farms in Ontario. Farmers take good care of their animals, and they take pride in that. This bill is intended to help them do that as well.

Drew Spoelstra is the new president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, and he has hit the ground running. I appreciated his comments on this particular bill, and I’m going to quote him: “Veterinarians play a critical role, promoting the health and welfare of animals and maintaining a healthy, safe and sustainable agri-food system. These proposed changes to modernize and streamline the act will ensure Ontario farmers have access to modern and quality care for their livestock, a crucial component to the economic stability of Ontario’s rural communities.” That is so true.

Honest to goodness, when we take a look at the overall landscape, all animals need access to veterinary care, regardless of whether they are pets, service animals, working animals or livestock. Even wild animals sometimes depend on veterinary care if they are injured and are taken to a wildlife sanctuary.

So much was harvested, if you will, through the consultations that Associate Minister Flack facilitated on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Knowing that access to veterinary care has long been a challenge, especially in rural and northern Ontario, we began to look at how the Veterinarians Act could be modernized to address that. We reached out to stakeholders and the public to hear their suggestions and ideas about how to increase access to veterinary care.

Just as we developed the Grow Ontario Strategy, things were happening in tandem. Some of you may recall that we have three main pillars in our Grow Ontario Strategy: a safe and secure supply chain; a commitment to research and innovation; as well as attracting the very best talent, and veterinarians are part of that as well. We made a commitment to listen to stakeholders in that spirit and take time to consider their feedback carefully.

In November 2022, my ministry launched a pre-consultation for the public to submit ideas to modernize the Veterinarians Act through a dedicated web page. A more detailed discussion paper based on consultations and research done by the College of Veterinarians of Ontario and a proposal to modernize the Veterinarians Act—all of that information was posted on the regulatory registry on March 1, 2023, for three months.

That particular proposal that was posted on the regulatory registry stated, “The goal of this modernization is to better define the scope of practice for veterinary medicine, improve transparency and align oversight of Ontario’s veterinary profession with other self-governing regulated professions in the province, to uphold the public interest. By modernizing the act, the government is laying the groundwork to increase the availability of veterinarian services for both pets and large animals.”

Between the posting and the web page, our ministry received nearly 300 submissions from veterinarians, vet techs, agricultural groups, animal welfare groups and individual citizens. In April and May 2023, OMAFRA staff also provided information about the proposal during four public webinars. Alongside these sessions, former parliamentary assistant Flack hosted several round table discussions across the table. The round tables were held in St. Thomas, Barrie, Lindsay, Huntsville, Pembroke, Thunder Bay and Toronto. I want to thank my colleagues who co-hosted these round tables, which included agricultural groups, local humane societies, veterinarians and other interested individuals.

I again want to commend the Associate Minister of Housing for the work that he did on this, and I expect he will speak to this bill and share with members of this House more about what he heard from the over 120 people who attended the round tables and webinars.

The majority of these submissions supported the proposed modernization of the Veterinarians Act and the proposals outlined in the discussion document. There was also a strong interest among stakeholders in ensuring a modernized legislative framework so it could better serve the needs of veterinarians, the public and our agricultural industry—not just for today but for years to come.

Now, in the spirit of modernizing the legislative framework, I also want to reflect and talk about our veterinary technicians. After a year and a half of consultation with stakeholders and partners, I’m so very pleased to bring forward proposed changes to the legislative framework for veterinarians and veterinary professionals to better reflect how veterinary medicine is delivered today.

Our proposed legislation will, if passed, recognize the important role that veterinary technicians play in delivering care to animals. Over the past 35 years, delivery of veterinary care has become a team endeavour—I can’t stress that enough; veterinary care is really, truly facilitated by a team in our communities—however, vet techs are not recognized in the current Veterinarians Act. This new, modernized act will, if passed, regulate both veterinarians and veterinary technicians, reflecting a “one profession, two professionals” approach to the delivery of veterinary medicine in Ontario.

In order to reflect that change, the College of Veterinarians of Ontario will be renamed the College of Veterinary Professionals of Ontario. The renamed college will create regulations, subject to the government’s approval, that will outline the scope of practice for veterinary technicians. It is our expectation in government that the regulations will define a broad scope of practice that is in line with the skills and training registered vet techs possess.

I think it’s really important to share with you that I was honoured to speak at the registered vet techs conference in Hamilton just a couple of weeks ago. In doing so, the magnitude of what we’re doing by enabling a scope of practice for registered vet techs really hit me. Honest to goodness, Speaker, people were in tears when they heard that we were moving forward to recognize their training and their expertise. I know that this has been asked for for a long time. It’s our government that is proudly getting it done on their behalf.

Why does this matter? Well, we all know, especially in rural and northern Ontario, we have a shortage of veterinarians. By recognizing the scope of practice for registered vet techs, there’s going to be increased access to care in the spirit of that team approach that I just referenced. And I know when I travelled to Thunder Bay about 18 months ago or so and visited a vet clinic, the veterinarian and his techs alike really were truly advocating for a modernization of the act so that he could extend his services through the expertise and training of his amazing team of vet techs. That was a really good visit and drove home for me that we were indeed on the right track to get this done.

For those who aren’t aware, the vet tech program is a two-year diploma program offered at a variety of institutions across this province. I think it’s amazing because, again, it’s so important that students, if they so choose, can learn at home. When they learn at home, chances are, in rural Ontario, they stay close to home as well. There are two-year programs offered at Algonquin College, Collège Boréal—en français—Georgian College, Northern College, Seneca College, Sheridan College, St. Clair College, St. Lawrence College and, as well, at the University of Guelph’s Ridgetown campus.

Each college describes their program a little differently. The following is the Northern College’s description of their vet tech program based in Haileybury, in Temiskaming Shores:

“Students learn to perform basic patient examination, collect data on vital signs, administer medications and prepare pharmaceuticals as prescribed by a veterinarian. They will explore anaesthesia, animal nursing, surgical assistance, dental prophylactic procedures, diagnostic laboratory work and tests, such as blood chemistries, culture and sensitivity, and electrocardiograms. This program covers veterinary practice management skills including computer applications, recognizing behavioural signs of small animals and educating and counselling clients in the area of pet nutrition.”

These programs are all accredited by the Ontario Association of Veterinary Technicians. Graduates of these programs are well trained to perform a number of veterinary services. The intent of this legislation is that vets will now be able to use the skills of vet techs to their fullest potential. That is amazing news.

I have also met with a number of vet techs over the past year or so, as I mentioned. The conference in Hamilton was amazing. There were 1,200 registered vet techs in attendance. The trade show was incredible, and the spirit and the commitment were palpable. You could tell registered vet techs are very proud of their position and what they do in the spirit of animal care.

While that was before Bill 171 was introduced, the association was aware of the consultations. All of the registered vet techs who were able to exercise their voice, I can tell you with certainty, were very excited about future opportunities in this profession based on how we’re moving forward with Bill 171.

Vet tech students are also excited about the future because, again, they have the potential of having their full scope of practice recognized and valued. I was pleased to be joined by two Seneca College students, Elizabeth Crouchman and Joner Kuo, for the introduction of this bill.

I want to talk about other non-veterinary animal service providers as well, because we need to also recognize that there are important animal care services that are currently being performed by qualified and competent non-veterinary practitioners. The proposal acknowledges that there is a role for non-veterinarian animal health practitioners in the delivery of services respecting animal care. We have had an approach which continues access that I think reflects the fulsome picture of animal care, all the while protecting health and well-being.

I have to say, when pet owners know their pets—and/or farmers with their livestock—are stressed and not well, it can create a situation whereby there’s a lot of anxiety. So this new act would enable regulations to be made in consultation with the stakeholders that could formalize exemptions for non-veterinarian practitioners and help ensure that the public and these animal care providers will be qualified and competent to provide safe care. Because again, that’s what we do on farm; we work diligently to make sure our animals are healthy and safe and relaxed, just like pet owners. The regulations that would be set out in the terms and limitations, guidelines and prohibitions in this legislation will set out how these professionals can safely continue to provide care to animals.

I think it’s important to recognize that this also applies to pharmacists. They would be able to compound, dispense and sell medication that an animal owner has a prescription for. This would also enable the ability, through regulation, to clarify that people can request a copy of their prescription if they would like to get it filled by another provider.

Similar to when you visit the eye doctor, you have a choice of whether you purchase glasses through them or you take your prescription to go to another store. That’s the perfect analogy that speaks to what we’re enabling here. It’s about access to care and choice.

Another concern, though, that was raised during consultation was access to ultrasounds for pregnant animals, in particular, small ruminants such as sheep and goats. Albeit we’ve had a herd dispersal in the fall of 2023, we still have six does, and we really could have used a few preg-checks because, honest to goodness, the last three weeks have seen six goats that we kept produce 18 kids, and that’s a lot. That is a lot: two sets of quads, two sets of triplets and two sets of twins. Honest to goodness, I want to give a—actually, I have to do this. I have to give a shout-out to my brother and sister-in-law, who have adopted our goats while my husband recovers. They have been busy. Oh my goodness.

Interjections.