Be careful. Be careful.

To the member for Timiskaming–Cochrane: I love your stories. Even more importantly, I love that you were a Masterfeeds customer for so many years; thank you for that.

I’ll cut to the chase. The member from Renfrew–Nipissing–Pembroke said it best: I think a lot of this legislation has to do with expanding the scope for veterinary technicians, which I’ll talk about in a few minutes. The vet act hasn’t been changed for 35 years, so my question is, what do you see in the future that will need to take place as animal agriculture consolidates? We’re going to need different types of vets. What do you see in the future, looking at dairy herds down the road? What are the needs going to be for veterinarians down the road, and/or veterinary technicians?

Speaker, as we’ve heard this morning and this afternoon, now is the time for the modernization, advancement and improvement to the vet act, and I’ve appreciated hearing and listening to the many comments that have been made, all supporting this particular piece of legislation. As we all have heard, the Veterinarians Act has not been substantively updated since 1989, and I want to take a moment to thank the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs for her foresight—again, emphasizing foresight—in bringing Bill 171 forward. It was long overdue, so kudos to her and her team.

If passed, the Enhancing Professional Care for Animals Act would provide a much-needed update to the legislation that governs veterinarians throughout Ontario. As the former parliamentary assistant, I heard from key stakeholders that I’ll talk about in a few minutes, representing organizations such as the College of Veterinarians of Ontario, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture the Ontario Association of Veterinary Technicians, amongst many, many other key stakeholders, about the need for change with this particular legislation. Their feedback was clear, and again, the vet act absolutely needs to be modernized.

I’d also like to acknowledge my colleague the member for Chatham-Kent–Leamington, who is also the deputy House leader, for his role and work as parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. He’s doing a great job and, I know, advocating well for veterinarians and animal health right across this province. I know he has worked hard and supported the minister in helping craft and develop this legislation.

I’d also like to give—and I believe they’re close to you, Speaker—a big shout-out to the entire team at OMAFRA, from the deputy minister and his team, who did a great job, and the chief of staff and her team in the minister’s office. Thank you.

In particular, I’d like to thank Ryan Puviraj—I’m going to call him my wingman—who travelled with me throughout the province, keeping me on the straight and narrow. He certainly was a great support. We had a lot of fun listening and learning to the people advocating on behalf of the changes that were needed to our particular vet act in Ontario.

Let me go back in a little bit of time. I’m not going to tell all kinds of cow stories—but maybe a few, like my friend from Timiskaming–Cochrane. They were great stories. The only thing I would say about—how he did the twisted stomach was a little bit archaic, but there are different ways.

We talked at one time in this Legislature about all kinds of animals—avian, livestock, pork. We even talked about poultry husbandry at one point. I think we even talked about turkey breeding back in the spring of this year or fall of last year.

Agriculture and food is near and dear to my heart, having spent my life around it. My grandfather was a farmer in the Ottawa Valley—not too far from the member from Renfrew–Nipissing–Pembroke. I grew up around animals, and I love them. To this day, I have beef cows. I have a farm in that riding—I have had for years—and I have purebred Polled Herefords, so I can tell a lot of vet stories throughout my life.

My first story of remembering what a vet didn’t do: I was probably under five, and I was at the farm at Highway 17 and White Water Road. It’s a blueberry farm now, but that was my grandfather’s farm. I remember that Aunt Lizzie—his aunt, actually; great-whatever she would be—had a dog with porcupine quills in its snout. I remember she was saying, “Call the vet. Call the vet.” My grandfather, coming from the Depression era, said, “It’s going to cost money. We can do this.” So at the age of four or five, I can remember bending down, scared to death, holding on to the muzzle of this collie mix mutt or whatever it was, and my grandfather holding it and pulling those darn quills out with tweezers—and it was kind of gross, but he didn’t want to spend the money. So the need for vets has been around for decades. The dog lived; I’ll tell you that.

I, too, thought about being a vet at one point in my career. But as my teacher said in one of my report cards, “Robbie, school”—

Interjection.

Hang on. Yes, “Stick to politics.” No, he said my sporting activities greatly interfered with my scholastic abilities, or studies, so I didn’t get to vet school, and I’m glad I didn’t—because it’s a really tough job. But I remember, many years, many times, going to the barn, and I always wanted to be there when the vet came. No matter what happened or was going on, I would be the one who wanted to go to the vet, to the barn—calvings, twisted stomachs. We heard about milk fever, Caesarean burst, bloat, whatever it may be—I remember being there right in the middle of it and learning and listening and enjoying it very much.

I didn’t give up on my dream totally. After going to Guelph, I started a career, obviously, in animal nutrition—and I thanked the member opposite for his great business over the years. Really, animal health is part of animal nutrition, or animal nutrition is part of animal health, and whether it’s livestock, poultry, specialty animals or companion animals, it’s very, very important.

The bottom line is that never before has the need for a modernized vet act been needed in this province. If passed, this legislation will make many positive changes, and it will impact animal care professionals such as vets, veterinary technicians and farmers alike.

Ontario farmers and pet owners rely on vet services to keep their animals healthy and safe. Ontario consumers who depend on livestock farmers for animal nutrition, protein, also benefit from these services which ensure that the food we consume is safe, healthy and humanely produced.

We must properly recognize our animal care professionals for their tireless work in the role of keeping our animals, large and small, very healthy. Part of that recognition is making their governing legislation reflective of the current realities in their industry.

Again, as I said, I spent a career in animal nutrition. The Feeds Act plays a lot with how we handle feed medicines, and I’ll tell another little brief story here. In 2008, our company acquired the assets of Land O’Lakes in Ontario. With it came an animal health division, and it was called PharmBarn—not F-A-R-M, but P-H-A-R-M; pharmacy barn, a play on words. I thought, “Ah, what do we want to be in this business for? I don’t think this is going to be worthwhile keeping.” Actually, the business is in the minister’s riding in Wingham, where our plant is at, where the base of the business is. It was a distributor of animal health products—prescribed by veterinarians, in some cases—so we had a stronger working relationship with the Ontario veterinary community. I learned a lot with that business, and we’ve grown it. It still is a very important part of that business. What’s important is the working relationship between our vet, vet technicians, animal nutritionists—as the member opposite said, they have to be in harmony.

On my beef farm—again, the member for Renfrew–Nipissing–Pembroke will know Dr. Tony Ruyter, who is a great vet—I’ll come back to this a little bit later. What concerns me, here’s a guy who has been a vet, graduated from Guelph, has probably been a vet for 45 years, and he wants to retire. He is, I think, about seventy-ish. If he’s listening, I’m sorry if I’m divulging his age. He wants to go, but he’s Johnny-on-the-spot. He’s still working.

This phone is an amazing thing—I know you’re not supposed to use props. Sorry, Speaker. But I can turn that phone on today—technology today; I was showing some folks earlier—and I can see live—my cows are calving right now—who is calving, who isn’t, if they’re having problems, if they are not. I’ve got other people, my herdsmen and people at the farm, with that technology, so you don’t have to necessarily get out of bed to go check cows. You can check the camera. The technology is great.

This year, we’ve had 45 calves. I can tell you that there has been a few times where we see someone who is having a little trouble, so what we do is we will phone the vet if we need the vet and they can come out right away. It speeds up the process for service. The key is, in underserviced areas—and I’m going to say where the member opposite may not have that choice anymore—you can’t phone the vet and expect someone to show up in 20 minutes or 30 minutes or 40 minutes. It could be four hours or half a day. This is where the role of vet technicians can come in, and this legislation deals with it directly.

So to all those who want to retire, I say to those vets, for the sake of animal welfare, please hang around as long as you can. And we’ll talk in a few minutes about how we’ve added 20 spots for veterinary students in the province of Ontario.

Again, I’ll talk a little bit about animal consolidation. What we used to do on farms years ago—herd sizes have changed. I’ll give you an example: In the early 1980s, there were 22,000 dairy farms in Ontario; today I think 3,700 or a little bit less. There were 23,000 hog farms; today, I can tell you, less than 400 farms produce more pork than they did out of those 23,000. It’s changed immensely. As such, the need and the desire for different services in terms of veterinary medicine needs to be done, and that’s what this legislation deals with, absolutely.

As the agricultural industry modernizes, so must this legislation. Advanced and modern livestock farms need flexibility and mobility that the current vet act does not allow. There are complex needs in administering the health of animals, and as my colleagues have already noted, the Enhancing Professional Care for Animals Act is a much-needed update to the vet act that will provide crucial structure for animal care professionals working in the province. It’s just not the same as it was 35 years ago, as is the question I asked the member opposite. We’re going to have to think about changing it in the next five to 10 years going forward because it’s going to continually evolve.

When I was parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, I had the absolute privilege—and I thank her for the opportunity—of chairing the vet act modernization round tables throughout the province. These round tables were held in communities like St. Thomas in my riding, Barrie, Lindsay, Huntsville, Pembroke—we were up to Thunder Bay and we held numerous—

Along with many virtual meetings, we dealt with all kinds of issues from veterinary needs to vet technicians, the role they need to play; the chiropractic choices that people are looking for in some cases; large versus small animals, companion animals; as well as urban versus rural needs. The purpose of these round tables was to receive as much public feedback from industry experts, farmers and animal owners as possible, and we got that feedback in spades.

Having worked in the business of agriculture my whole life, and currently owning and operating a farm, I can say those consultations were very informative. I learned as much as I could give back. And I thank the minister again. She provided, I think, all stakeholders, and I’ve heard it now spoken from everyone that the consultative process worked and worked well. We had sheep and goat producers there, cattle, pork, equine, companion animals—all were represented.

It’s an interesting statistic: Back before I was elected to the Legislature here, during COVID, it was said—and we had an animal health business and an animal pet food business, so we fed a lot of companion animals as well—that there was as much as a million more dogs in Canadian homes. Everyone is heard of the COVID dogs. Well, we got a lot. Whether it was a million or hundreds of thousands, whatever it may be, we did get a lot more. And we’re seeing the effect of it today in our humane societies; we’re seeing it in terms of need for vet technicians and vets. It’s created its own mini-pandemic itself. So, again, I think this vet act, along with the work it’s doing with technicians, is going to help manage that situation.

Our population continues to grow, and as it grows—people like pets—companion animals will need the changes in this act to help not only produce more food but to provide services to those family pets. There’s never been more need for veterinary professionals to care for these animals, and I am pleased to share that the minister has acted.

As a side note—and I think everybody knows; we’ve talked about it before—I was pleased to join the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Colleges and Universities last March for a historic announcement at the University of Guelph. Our government announced investments that would increase the number of vet graduates in Ontario by 20 seats, opening spaces for Ontario students to choose a career in veterinary medicine. That was a very important piece of investment that is already serving the province well. It’s the first time that a government increased the number of veterinary spaces since 1988.

We also introduced a new incentive—this especially helps northern Ontario and underserviced communities—to expand the number of large animal veterinarians practising in these underserviced communities. We’ll provide up to $50,000 over a five-year period to support their higher costs to service these regions throughout Ontario. So, again, I believe these changes—opening more spaces, providing the subsidization—help us immensely in terms of complementing the act that we’re presenting in the Legislature here. A bias for action will continue to get it done for animal care professionals. As such, we must ensure that strong legislation is in place to support these professionals, not only today, but in the future.

Speaker, in terms of the organizations that came out to these consultative round tables, I’d like to thank the federation of agriculture; many humane societies throughout the province; many equine specialty vet services. Mobile veterinarians were out; Ontario Pork was there; Beef Farmers of Ontario were there; Ontario Sheep Farmers; Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario. The college of veterinarians came to every meeting, whether it was virtual or in person. Ultrasound service providers were there; the Ontario Association of Veterinary Technicians—again, a big part of what this legislation is about; the beekeepers’ association; particular livestock organizations as I’ve talked about; and the list goes on. Really, really great to have this support.

I’ll give you a couple of quotes from key people that showed up. From Dr. John Stevens, CEO of the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association: “OVMA supports legislation that reduces the regulatory burden on the profession by recognizing the vital role of registered veterinary technicians.”

From Doug Brooks, the president and CEO of Ontario SPCA and Humane Society: “The Ontario SPCA and Humane Society strongly supports allowing registered veterinary technicians to practise at a level reflecting their training and expertise.” This will help “increase access to veterinary care....”

Finally, I will quote Drew Spoelstra, president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture: “These proposed changes ... 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.”

Speaker, this has gone a long way, I believe, in being consultative and also supporting every facet of animal agriculture plus companion animals that the province has today.

Bill 171 represents a meaningful step in the right direction for Ontario veterinarians, and this government remains committed to this action. We will continue to work with stakeholders to build a modern, responsive framework for crucial work that they do. During the many consultations that our government hosted, I learned that stakeholders wanted to ensure that authorization of care reflected the modern needs of farmers. Speaker, I’m pleased to see that there will be a healthy update for the government structure that will reflect the feedback that we received.

Interjection.

The member opposite got a little nervous there, got a little jumpy.

Last year, as part of the consultative process, I had a chance to go to the annual vet tech conference in Niagara, and I believe the minister experienced it this year as well when she went. It was amazing to me how excited these vet techs were to even have us talking about these proposed changes. There’s a growing number of vet technicians in this province and they do unbelievable yeoman service. I heard it said in the debate a little bit earlier: really see vet technicians like nurse practitioners. They can play that type of role. As we modernize and grow and continue to consolidate, I agree that I think you’re going to see the role of the vet technician continue to expand and be more important in everyday care of animals in this province.

We recognize that vet techs and farmers can administer the care on a day-to-day basis as informed by a veterinarian. We think this is very important and it’s recognized in the bill. We need to provide comprehensive legislation that enables improved, proper and efficient care for animals. It’s what I’ve heard during the consultations with stakeholders, and the government is proceeding, thankfully, in that direction.

Governments should support and allow professionals to provide informed and educated health care for animals, and after more than three decades, it’s time for the vet act to be modernized. Common sense prevails with this legislation. Logical and progressive changes prevail with this legislation. Speaker, I’m happy to have spoken in support of the proposed Bill 171, Enhancing Professional Care for Animals Act, and look forward to further debate. Thank you for your time.

I would also add one component to her question that she could maybe have asked. We want to see more Ontario kids get into these schools, and I would respectfully suggest that marks are important, always, but not always the only criteria that people should get into vet college on. There are lots of people who want to stay and live in the community they live in or the province that they grew up in, so it’s important that they get those opportunities, too, to get a seat in a vet college. But I would say that, in today’s world, our population has more than doubled since I was in high school, and I would argue that we still feed every Ontarian who is in this province, and we continue to have a wonderful, robust and successful agri-food industry, and we will have for decades to come.

Again, it was great to be in Lindsay that night. I remember, when I travelled the province, for me it was a little like Old Home Week. When people say, “Where do you go when you come to Toronto?”, I don’t know where I am, but if you tell me where somewhere in small-town Ontario is, I can usually find it or get there, because somewhere there’s a farmer with a feed bin somewhere that we used to try and at least do business with.

Vet techs are going to be a massively important part of the role going forward. The member for Timiskaming–Cochrane said it best, and I agree totally with him: In the future, farms are going to be bigger and farther apart, especially in the northern and eastern parts of this province, so vet technicians will play a more important role. Even more importantly, they’ll work in conjunction with their vet to make sure that the services can be done—things like ultrasounds, things like preg-checks—many different things that can be done, really, by a vet technician with oversight from a vet, but without a vet being on the farm. It’s going to work, and work really well.

So the answer is giving vet technicians more opportunity to perform some of the services without a vet on site, and secondly, it’s to continue to find more spaces for students to follow a career in veterinary medicine, like we did last year for the 20 spaces opening up both in Thunder Bay and in Guelph.

And lo and behold, this government, this minister, acted. It’s not part of this legislation, but it’s a meaningful and important step towards servicing those who are in underserviced or more remote parts of the province.

I would start off by respectfully submitting that $1.3 billion is a lot of money. And you’re right—

Generally, I take a look at the University of Guelph or Thunder Bay—up at Thunder Bay, we do a really good job in agriculture. That being said, we’ve opened up 20 spaces. There’s a demand for more. What we have to do is create the need in communities and—