Hello

If you wish to help BC veterinarians address the shortage of veterinarians, you may wish to write your local MLA and ask them to support and increase to the number of BC students trained as veterinarians. Below is a sample email for you to send to your local MLA. You can also add to the email or replace it with your own. After the sample email, on page 2 and 3, is a list of all MLA email addresses to help you to find your MLA contact information.

Should you wish to learn more about the shortage of veterinarians and the need for additional BC students to be trained as veterinarians, please scroll down to page 4 to read our summary document.

Your help is greatly appreciated!

Dear MLA,

I wish to add my name to the list of British Columbians who find the shortage of veterinarians in BC unacceptable. We understand that BC can add an additional 20 BC student seats to BC’s regional veterinary college, but that the government declined to do so, citing costs.

In the interest of animal health and welfare issues including relief from suffering and unnecessary death, public health, and biosecurity for BC, we ask you to ask the Minister of Advanced Education to fund an additional 20 BC seats at WCVM effective immediately.

As a BC resident, I want my voice added as an individual who cares about the health and welfare of animals and who wishes the government to provide funding to help alleviate the shortage of veterinarians in BC.

Name: ______

Address: ______

City: ______

Constituency MLA E-mails Party [email protected] BC Liberal Party Abbotsford West Michael de Jong, Q.C. [email protected] BC Liberal Party Abbotsford-Mission [email protected] BC NDP Boundary-Similkameen [email protected] BC NDP North [email protected] BC NDP Burnaby-Deer Lake Hon. Anne Kang [email protected] BC NDP Burnaby-Edmonds Hon. [email protected] BC NDP Burnaby-Lougheed Hon. [email protected] BC NDP [email protected] BC Liberal Party Cariboo-Chilcotin [email protected] BC Liberal Party Chilliwack [email protected] BC NDP Chilliwack-Kent [email protected] BC NDP Columbia River-Revelstoke [email protected] BC Liberal Party -Burke Mountain [email protected] BC NDP Coquitlam-Maillardville Hon. [email protected] BC NDP Courtenay-Comox Ronna-Rae Leonard [email protected] BC NDP Cowichan Valley [email protected] BC Green Party Delta North Hon. [email protected] BC NDP Delta South [email protected] BC Liberal Party Esquimalt-Metchosin Hon. [email protected] BC NDP Fraser-Nicola [email protected] BC Liberal Party -North Thompson [email protected] BC Liberal Party Kamloops-South Thompson [email protected] BC Liberal Party West [email protected] BC Liberal Party Kelowna-Lake Country [email protected] BC Liberal Party Kelowna-Mission [email protected] BC Liberal Party Kootenay East [email protected] BC Liberal Party Kootenay West Hon. [email protected] BC NDP Langford-Juan de Fuca Hon. [email protected] BC NDP Langley [email protected] BC NDP Langley East [email protected] BC NDP Maple Ridge-Mission Bob D'Eith [email protected] BC NDP Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Hon. [email protected] BC NDP Mid Island-Pacific Rim Hon. [email protected] BC NDP Hon. [email protected] BC NDP Nanaimo-North Cowichan [email protected] BC NDP Nechako Lakes [email protected] BC Liberal Party Nelson-Creston [email protected] BC NDP Hon. [email protected] BC NDP North Coast [email protected] BC NDP North Island [email protected] BC NDP North -Lonsdale Hon. [email protected] BC NDP North Vancouver-Seymour [email protected] BC NDP Oak Bay-Gordon Head Hon. , Q.C. [email protected] BC NDP Parksville-Qualicum Adam Walker [email protected] BC NDP Peace River North [email protected] BC Liberal Party Peace River South [email protected] BC Liberal Party [email protected] BC Liberal Party Port Coquitlam Hon. [email protected] BC NDP -Coquitlam [email protected] BC NDP Powell River-Sunshine Coast Hon. [email protected] BC NDP Prince George-Mackenzie [email protected] BC Liberal Party Prince George-Valemount [email protected] BC Liberal Party Richmond North Centre [email protected] BC Liberal Party [email protected] BC NDP Richmond-Queensborough [email protected] BC NDP Richmond-Steveston [email protected] BC NDP Saanich North and the Islands [email protected] BC Green Party Saanich South Hon. [email protected] BC NDP Shuswap [email protected] BC Liberal Party Skeena [email protected] BC Liberal Party Stikine Hon. [email protected] BC NDP Surrey South [email protected] BC Liberal Party Surrey-Cloverdale [email protected] BC NDP Surrey-Fleetwood Jagrup Brar [email protected] BC NDP Surrey-Green Timbers [email protected] BC NDP Surrey-Guildford [email protected] BC NDP Surrey-Newton Hon. [email protected] BC NDP Surrey-Panorama [email protected] BC NDP Surrey-Whalley Hon. , Q.C. [email protected] BC NDP Surrey-White Rock [email protected] BC Liberal Party Vancouver-Fairview Hon. [email protected] BC NDP Vancouver-False Creek [email protected] BC NDP Vancouver-Fraserview Hon. [email protected] BC NDP Vancouver-Hastings [email protected] BC NDP Vancouver-Kensington [email protected] BC NDP Vancouver-Kingsway Hon. [email protected] BC NDP Vancouver-Langara Michael Lee [email protected] BC Liberal Party Vancouver-Mount Pleasant Hon. [email protected] BC NDP Vancouver-Point Grey Hon. , Q.C. [email protected] BC NDP Vancouver-Quilchena , Q.C. [email protected] BC Liberal Party Vancouver-West End [email protected] BC NDP Vernon-Monashee [email protected] BC NDP Victoria-Beacon Hill [email protected] BC NDP Victoria-Swan Lake Hon. [email protected] BC NDP -Capilano [email protected] BC Liberal Party West Vancouver-Sea to Sky [email protected] BC Liberal Party

BC Veterinarians Need Your Help Right now, the shortage of veterinarians in BC -- the worst in Canada -- is responsible for animals suffering and dying. Public health is at risk, animal rescue groups are limited in which animals they can rescue, equine owners have euthanized their horses for preventable maladies, companion animal owners face delays that contribute to their animals suffering and dying, and puppy and kitten owners face lengthy waits for preventative and urgent veterinary care. The fastest and most effective way to start to address this shortage of BC veterinarians is to train more BC students to become veterinarians. Each year there are around 140 qualified BC applicants but there is only space for 20 to be admitted. The Chapter has asked the Minister of Advanced Education Anne Kang to fund an additional 20 seats (for a total of 40) to begin to address the horrors caused by this shortage of veterinarians. The Ministry has said funding to train veterinarians is not a priority. The Society of BC Veterinarians Chapter desperately needs your help. If you believe that veterinary medicine is important to the health and welfare of animals, and that this dire shortage is affecting the welfare of animals, please write to your MLA asking them to fund more BC students at veterinary university and copy the email to [email protected] At the request of the Ministry, the Chapter completed a labour market study demonstrating that BC was short 100 veterinarians per year for each of the subsequent five years, culminating in a shortage of 500 veterinarians by 2024. Daily, our veterinarians hear about situations where animals are dying and suffering as a result of an inability to obtain a timely appointment with their veterinarians, specifically due to a desperate shortage of veterinarians. Urban veterinarians are reporting two weeks or longer wait times to get appointments for veterinary care. Rural veterinarians report eight weeks or longer and, in some cases, the animals die before getting the help they need. Mobile veterinarians are in short supply and these veterinarians are the ones typically providing end-of-life care for animals belonging, in many cases, to the elderly or infirm who cannot pick up a large immobile animal and take it to a veterinary clinic, if an appointment was available. These animals, then, die painfully in front of their owners. Equine veterinarians are telling us that horses have died because a veterinarian was not available despite the horse having a treatable condition. In some cases, euthanasia is performed solely due to lack of an available veterinarian. We heard of one instance of a horse dying in a BC Ferries parking lot on its way to see a veterinarian who could not take the time to travel as it would leave other horses without veterinary care. Large and small animal rescue and welfare groups are calling us to ask what they can do to force the government to step in and help. Rescue animals cannot be rescued if there are no veterinarians to provide veterinary care. COVID only made matters worse: veterinarians were declared essential services and now work excessive hours caused by an increase in pet acquisition and increased time per appointment due to COVID protocols and increased delays between appointments due to cleaning procedures. BC veterinarians need your help. Please contact your MLA today and tell them you want BC to fund an additional 20 BC students at veterinary university.

PO Box 21088 Maple Ridge Square RPO, Maple Ridge BC V2X1P7 www.canadianveterinarians.net Email: [email protected] Telephone: 604.406.3713