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 Anne Kang 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 Abbotsford South Bruce Banman [email protected] BC Liberal Party Abbotsford West Michael de Jong, Q.C. [email protected] BC Liberal Party Abbotsford-Mission Pam Alexis [email protected] BC NDP Boundary-Similkameen Roly Russell [email protected] BC NDP Burnaby North Janet Routledge [email protected] BC NDP Burnaby-Deer Lake Hon. Anne Kang [email protected] BC NDP Burnaby-Edmonds Hon. Raj Chouhan [email protected] BC NDP Burnaby-Lougheed Hon. Katrina Chen [email protected] BC NDP Cariboo North Coralee Oakes [email protected] BC Liberal Party Cariboo-Chilcotin Lorne Doerkson [email protected] BC Liberal Party Chilliwack Dan Coulter [email protected] BC NDP Chilliwack-Kent Kelli Paddon [email protected] BC NDP Columbia River-Revelstoke Doug Clovechok [email protected] BC Liberal Party Coquitlam-Burke Mountain Fin Donnelly [email protected] BC NDP Coquitlam-Maillardville Hon. Selina Robinson [email protected] BC NDP Courtenay-Comox Ronna-Rae Leonard [email protected] BC NDP Cowichan Valley Sonia Furstenau [email protected] BC Green Party Delta North Hon. Ravi Kahlon [email protected] BC NDP Delta South Ian Paton [email protected] BC Liberal Party Esquimalt-Metchosin Hon. Mitzi Dean [email protected] BC NDP Fraser-Nicola Jackie Tegart [email protected] BC Liberal Party Kamloops-North Thompson Peter Milobar [email protected] BC Liberal Party Kamloops-South Thompson Todd Stone [email protected] BC Liberal Party Kelowna West Ben Stewart [email protected] BC Liberal Party Kelowna-Lake Country Norm Letnick [email protected] BC Liberal Party Kelowna-Mission Renee Merrifield [email protected] BC Liberal Party Kootenay East Tom Shypitka [email protected] BC Liberal Party Kootenay West Hon. Katrine Conroy [email protected] BC NDP Langford-Juan de Fuca Hon. John Horgan [email protected] BC NDP Langley Andrew Mercier [email protected] BC NDP Langley East Megan Dykeman [email protected] BC NDP Maple Ridge-Mission Bob D'Eith [email protected] BC NDP Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Hon. Lisa Beare [email protected] BC NDP Mid Island-Pacific Rim Hon. Josie Osborne [email protected] BC NDP Nanaimo Hon. Sheila Malcolmson [email protected] BC NDP Nanaimo-North Cowichan Doug Routley [email protected] BC NDP Nechako Lakes John Rustad [email protected] BC Liberal Party Nelson-Creston Brittny Anderson [email protected] BC NDP New Westminster Hon. Jennifer Whiteside [email protected] BC NDP North Coast Jennifer Rice [email protected] BC NDP North Island Michele Babchuk [email protected] BC NDP North Vancouver-Lonsdale Hon. Bowinn Ma [email protected] BC NDP North Vancouver-Seymour Susie Chant [email protected] BC NDP Oak Bay-Gordon Head Hon. Murray Rankin, Q.C. [email protected] BC NDP Parksville-Qualicum Adam Walker [email protected] BC NDP Peace River North Dan Davies [email protected] BC Liberal Party Peace River South Mike Bernier [email protected] BC Liberal Party Penticton Dan Ashton [email protected] BC Liberal Party Port Coquitlam Hon. Mike Farnworth [email protected] BC NDP Port Moody-Coquitlam Rick Glumac [email protected] BC NDP Powell River-Sunshine Coast Hon. Nicholas Simons [email protected] BC NDP Prince George-Mackenzie Mike Morris [email protected] BC Liberal Party Prince George-Valemount Shirley Bond [email protected] BC Liberal Party Richmond North Centre Teresa Wat [email protected] BC Liberal Party Richmond South Centre Henry Yao [email protected] BC NDP Richmond-Queensborough Aman Singh [email protected] BC NDP Richmond-Steveston Kelly Greene [email protected] BC NDP Saanich North and the Islands Adam Olsen [email protected] BC Green Party Saanich South Hon. Lana Popham [email protected] BC NDP Shuswap Greg Kyllo [email protected] BC Liberal Party Skeena Ellis Ross [email protected] BC Liberal Party Stikine Hon. Nathan Cullen [email protected] BC NDP Surrey South Stephanie Cadieux [email protected] BC Liberal Party Surrey-Cloverdale Mike Starchuk [email protected] BC NDP Surrey-Fleetwood Jagrup Brar [email protected] BC NDP Surrey-Green Timbers Rachna Singh [email protected] BC NDP Surrey-Guildford Garry Begg [email protected] BC NDP Surrey-Newton Hon. Harry Bains [email protected] BC NDP Surrey-Panorama Jinny Sims [email protected] BC NDP Surrey-Whalley Hon. Bruce Ralston, Q.C. [email protected] BC NDP Surrey-White Rock Trevor Halford [email protected] BC Liberal Party Vancouver-Fairview Hon. George Heyman [email protected] BC NDP Vancouver-False Creek Brenda Bailey [email protected] BC NDP Vancouver-Fraserview Hon. George Chow [email protected] BC NDP Vancouver-Hastings Niki Sharma [email protected] BC NDP Vancouver-Kensington Mable Elmore [email protected] BC NDP Vancouver-Kingsway Hon. Adrian Dix [email protected] BC NDP Vancouver-Langara Michael Lee [email protected] BC Liberal Party Vancouver-Mount Pleasant Hon. Melanie Mark [email protected] BC NDP Vancouver-Point Grey Hon. David Eby, Q.C. [email protected] BC NDP Vancouver-Quilchena Andrew Wilkinson, Q.C. [email protected] BC Liberal Party Vancouver-West End Spencer Chandra Herbert [email protected] BC NDP Vernon-Monashee Harwinder Sandhu [email protected] BC NDP Victoria-Beacon Hill Grace Lore [email protected] BC NDP Victoria-Swan Lake Hon. Rob Fleming [email protected] BC NDP West Vancouver-Capilano Karin Kirkpatrick [email protected] BC Liberal Party West Vancouver-Sea to Sky Jordan Sturdy [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.