Joining us in the members’ gallery today is Mr. Dan VanderLelie. He’s the zone 3 director of the Ontario Professional Fire Fighters Association. Dan has been a firefighter for over 25 years and currently holds the rank of platoon chief with the Burlington fire department. He is also a member of the Burlington Professional Firefighters Association, where he has served as president for the past 18 years.

Dan, we thank you for your service and joining us today. Dan is here to support the tabling of my private member’s bill for first reading.

Mr. Vanthof, on behalf of Ms. Stiles, moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 176, An Act to amend the Government Advertising Act, 2004 / Projet de loi 176, Loi modifiant la Loi de 2004 sur la publicité gouvernementale.

Mr. Blais moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 178, An Act to amend the Taxation Act, 2007 to provide for a non-refundable tax credit to encourage children’s extra-curricular activities / Projet de loi 178, Loi modifiant la Loi de 2007 sur les impôts pour prévoir un crédit d’impôt non remboursable afin d’encourager les activités parascolaires des enfants.

It’s the End the Public Funding of Partisan Government Advertising Act, 2024. I will read the explanatory note.

The Building Ontario Up Act, 2015, made numerous amendments to the Government Advertising Act, 2004. Among amendments made were changes to the rules that apply when the Auditor General reviews government advertising. The bill amends the act to reverse those amendments, so that the act reads substantially as it did before the 2015 amendments.

Mr. Yakabuski moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 177, An Act to proclaim Test Your Smoke Alarm Day / Projet de loi 177, Loi proclamant la Journée du test des avertisseurs de fumée.

The minister will please take his seat.

Next question?

There being no further business this morning, this House stands in recess until 3 p.m.

The House recessed from 1154 to 1500.

Nous avons aujourd’hui, dans la tribune du Président, un groupe de Franco-Ontariennes et de Franco-Ontariens qui ont été sélectionnés par un comité multipartite de parlementaires pour recevoir l’Ordre de la Pléiade. Ces personnalités sont reconnues pour leurs contributions exceptionnelles envers la francophonie ontarienne.

The recipients are; les lauréats sont les suivants : Ronald Bisson, Lise Bourgeois, Melinda Chartrand, Claudette Gleeson, Abel Maxwell et Denis Poirier. Please join me in warmly welcoming our guests to the Legislature and congratulating them for this important achievement. Félicitations.

First reading agreed to.

First reading agreed to.

First reading agreed to.

Yes, thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. The bill, the Promoting Leisure Activities for Youth act, or PLAY, would provide for a $1,000 non-refundable tax credit for children’s youth activities in sports and other extracurriculars.

I’d like to thank Lindsay from my home township of Douro-Dummer for the work on this petition.

“Whereas the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario was created in 1962 as an agency for the province of Ontario, accountable to the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs; and

“Whereas the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario last received major amendments in the 1990s and these amendments focused on formalizing the operational structure of the agency; and

“Whereas in 1962 when the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario was created robotics used in agriculture was not a technology that was even envisioned; and

“Whereas advancements in robotics for dairy farms has resulted in dairy farmers in Ontario having a competitive advantage by producing more milk with a smaller herd of cattle; and

“Whereas modernizing the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act would allow for more research to occur in this new technology; and

“Whereas in 1962 when the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario was created genomics was not a technology that was envisioned as something that could be used in the agriculture and food industry; and

“Whereas agricultural genomics is a rich field that contributes to advances in crop development to assist Ontario farmers in producing some of the highest-quality crops available in the entire world; and

“Whereas modernizing the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act would allow for more advanced genomic studies to occur in Ontario to ensure that Ontario farmers have access to this technology; and

“Whereas in 1962 when the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario was created autonomous vehicle technology did not exist and therefore was not a focus of any research in Ontario; and

“Whereas autonomous vehicle technology has seen advancements in tractors, drones, seed planting, weeding and harvesting robots and are several of the technologies currently under development that will transform agriculture and help alleviate food shortages by improving sustainability and productivity of agricultural activities; and

“Whereas modernizing the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act will help facilitate further research in autonomous vehicle technologies in Ontario so that Ontario can get that research out of the lab and into the field more quickly; and

“Whereas in 1962 when the Agriculture Research Institute of Ontario was created, artificial intelligence was not a technology that existed; and

“Whereas by modernizing the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act, Ontario will be able to enhance this invaluable research into technologies that can help explore the soil health to collect insights, monitor weather conditions and recommend the appropriate application of fertilizers and pesticides to ensure maximum crop yields and reducing the amount of waste created by over-fertilizing or applying the inappropriate amount of pesticide to a crop; and

“Whereas modernizing the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act is a key component of the Grow Ontario Strategy that aims to strengthen Ontario’s agriculture and food supply chain; and

“Whereas modernizing the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act also aims to increase agri-food technology and adoption; and

“Whereas modernizing the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act also aims to attract and grow Ontario’s agri-food talent; and

“Whereas by modernizing the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act, Ontario would further its status as a world leader in agriculture; and

“Whereas by modernizing the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act, Ontario would help the development of the industry’s unique technologies; and

“Whereas by modernizing the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act, Ontario would increase its competitiveness and productivity in the agriculture and food industry; and

“Whereas by modernizing the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act, Ontario would help in the development and adoption of new technologies in the agriculture and food industry in support of the key goals set out in the Grow Ontario Strategy; and

“Whereas the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario owns 14 research stations across the province that provide industry with the latest in agricultural and food-specific research; and

“Whereas Ontario needs to take action to strengthen the agriculture industry by proposing to amend the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act by expanding the current scope of research to be more relevant today and serve the future needs of the entire agricultural and food value chain; and

“Whereas modernizing the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act would allow research in Ontario to move at the speed of business; and

“Whereas modernizing the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act would allow for the results of the research to be distributed to Ontario’s agricultural and food industries in a more accessible way; and

“Whereas modernizing the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act would provide appropriate information directly to the fingertips of the farmers of Ontario; and

“Whereas modernizing the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act would provide a direct benefit to the research focused on aquaculture being performed at the research institute location in Alma, Ontario; and

“Whereas modernizing the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act would provide a direct benefit to the research focused on equine, poultry and swine being performed at the research institute located in Arkell, Ontario; and

“Whereas modernizing the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act would provide a direct benefit to the research focused on vegetables being performed at the research institute located in Bradford, Ontario; and

“Whereas modernizing the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act would provide a direct benefit to the research focused on horticulture crops being performed at the research institute located in Cedar Springs, Ontario; and

“Whereas modernizing the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act would provide a direct benefit to the research focused on beef, dairy and swine being performed at the research institute located in Elora, Ontario; and

“Whereas modernizing the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act would provide a direct benefit to the research focused on field crops being performed at the research institute located in Elora, Ontario; and

“Whereas modernizing the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act would provide a direct benefit to the research focused on field crops being performed at the research institute located in Emo, Ontario; and

“Whereas modernizing the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act would provide a direct benefit to the research focused on field crops being performed at the research institute located in Huron, Ontario; and

“Whereas modernizing the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act would provide a direct benefit to the research focused on beef, field crops and horticulture crops being performed at the research institute located in New Liskeard, Ontario; and

“Whereas modernizing the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act would provide a direct benefit to the research focused on general animal facilities and sheep being performed at the research institute located in Ponsonby, Ontario; and

“Whereas modernizing the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act would provide a direct benefit to the research focused on field crops being performed at the research institute located in Ridgetown, Ontario; and

“Whereas modernizing the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act would provide a direct benefit to the research focused on horticulture crops being performed at the research institute located in Simcoe, Ontario; and

“Whereas modernizing the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act would provide a direct benefit to the research focused on horticulture crops being performed at the research institute located in Vineland, Ontario; and

“Whereas modernizing the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act would provide a direct benefit to the research focused on field crops being performed at the research institute located in Winchester, Ontario; and

“Whereas modernizing the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act would provide a direct benefit to the research focused on field crops being performed at the research institute located in Woodstock, Ontario;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“To urge all members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to fully support and endorse Bill 155, the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Amendment Act, 2024, introduced by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs on November 27, 2023,” which has already gone through second reading and committee and has been referred back to the chamber for third reading.

I fully endorse this petition. I will sign my name to it and give it to page Tyler.

J’aimerais remercier M^me Nicole Sabourin de Hanmer dans mon comté pour ces pétitions.

« Loi concernant les briseurs de grève.

« Alors que les grèves et les lock-out sont rares : en moyenne, 97 % des conventions collectives sont négociées sans interruption de travail; et

« Alors que des lois contre les travailleurs et travailleuses de remplacement existent au Québec depuis 1978, en Colombie-Britannique depuis 1993 et en Ontario sous le gouvernement néo-démocrate, la loi a été renversée par le gouvernement conservateur de M. Harris; et

« Alors que les lois anti-briseurs de grève ont permis de réduire la durée et les dissensions des conflits du travail; et

« Alors que le recours à des briseurs de grève pendant une grève ou un lock-out est préjudiciable au tissu social d’une communauté à court et à long terme, ainsi qu’au bien-être des résidents et résidentes; »

Ils et elles demandent à « l’Assemblée législative de l’Ontario d’adopter le projet de loi concernant les briseurs de grève afin d’interdire le recours à des travailleurs et travailleuses de remplacement lors d’une grève ou d’un lock-out. »

J’appuie cette pétition. Je vais la signer, et je demande à Reyan de l’amener à la table des greffiers.

Nor will I, John.

“Petition to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to restore 24/7 urgent care services at the Fort Erie and Port Colborne hospitals:

“Whereas it is within the legislated powers of the Minister of Health and Ontario Health to require public hospitals to provide particular services and the level of those services;

“Whereas the Niagara Health System has closed the urgent care centres at the Douglas Memorial Hospital and at the Port Colborne Hospital from 10 p.m. to 10 a.m.;

“Whereas the Welland Hospital has also had recent service cuts resulting in no emergent and urgent care from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m. Monday to Friday and none on the weekends;

“Whereas these cuts and closures result in poor or no access to urgent care for more than 100,000 people in south Niagara overnight;

“Whereas more than 20,000 people living in Fort Erie, Port Colborne and southeast Wainfleet do not have a family doctor;

“Whereas there is limited taxi service and none at night and no public transit services at night. These, combined with increased travel time and long waits in the emergency departments of the remaining hospitals in north Niagara, mean that residents from Fort Erie, Port Colborne and the southeast region of Wainfleet face serious health risks due to the time to get medical help at the St. Catharines and Niagara Falls hospitals, as well as financial hardship;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly to immediately work with Niagara Health to restore the urgent and emergent care services in the NHS hospitals in south Niagara to operate 24/7.”

I fully support this petition. I will sign my name to it and send it with page Anne to the table.

That concludes the time we have available for petitions this afternoon.

I should perhaps remind members that, while we have had a long-standing practice of allowing members to read petitions verbatim, another alternative is to summarize the petition more briefly than that if they choose to do so, but they can’t do both.

Welcome back, Mr. Gilchrist. It’s great to have you here.

Resuming the debate adjourned on March 20, 2024, on the motion for second reading of the following bill:

Bill 171, An Act to enact the Veterinarian Professionals Act, 2024 and amend or repeal various acts / Projet de loi 171, Loi visant à édicter la Loi de 2024 sur les professionnels vétérinaires et à modifier ou à abroger diverses lois.

Bon après-midi, monsieur le Président. Je vais commencer mon discours en souhaitant à tout le monde une bonne journée de la Francophonie.

Beaucoup de personnes ne savent pas que je peux parler français. Je peux comprendre tout, mais c’est très difficile pour moi de parler français sans bière. Malheureusement, aujourd’hui, je n’ai pas bu de bière, so je vais continuer de parler en anglais. Merci beaucoup.

I had a few minutes this morning to start the opposition’s response to the debate on Bill 171. I would like to commend the member from Peterborough. That petition was almost longer than the whole debate on the ARIO Act. Just to clarify, we are all in favour of that act, and we hope that it goes through the Legislature as quickly as possible.

This is also an agriculture bill, An Act to enact the Veterinary Professionals Act, 2024 and amend or repeal various acts. Basically what this act is doing is replacing the veterinary act of 1989. I said this morning that we are also in favour of this. The veterinary act needed renewal. We have many things to oppose this government on. They have made many mistakes, some grave ones. They have had to rescind many pieces of legislation. I think they hold the record on rescinding legislation.

But they have, on this act—and I said it this morning—at least on this act, which we support, they did full consultations. They took this piece of legislation seriously, and I commend them for it. That’s one of the reasons why we are supportive.

And veterinarians and vet techs—because this act also recognizes vet techs as a registered profession, and that’s very important. I’ve been a farmer my whole life and none of my neighbours would ever consider me a vet tech. They would never, never, never—

No.

I’m trying to find a way to say this. I said it this morning: Veterinarians play a key role not only with companion animals, with service animals—the minister herself mentioned service animals this morning, and that was a good thing to talk about—and livestock and exotic animals. There are exotic animals in the province as well. But the relationship between the vet and the animal and the caretaker or the owner is different with the different types of animals. Anyone who owns an animal wants to take care of it, has not only a respect for it but certainly a love, in many cases. But the relationship between a companion animal and an animal that’s farm livestock and a vet and the owner is different. I know that because our families had both for many years.

The working conditions for veterinarians and vet techs are also different in many cases for livestock and for small animals, companion animals. I think that’s one of the reasons that we are facing in this province a shortage of veterinarians across the board, but that shortage is more pronounced in rural Ontario and even more pronounced in northern Ontario. And that can have grave consequences.

Now, this act itself does not address that, but I think to have a good conversation about veterinary medicine in the province, you need to think about that. This act basically sets out the parameters of how veterinarians and vet techs are to be regulated, to make sure that they perform at a certain quality level, that they have an administration body to ensure that their members perform at a certain quality level. That’s very important. It’s important in all jobs but certainly when you’re dealing with living things, it’s incredibly important. That’s basically what this act does. It helps the animals that are in the care of the veterinarians—it improves their care.

But if you’re going to talk about improving the care of any type of animal in the province, you will also have to think about how there need to be enough vets, because lack of access to a veterinarian or a vet technician also impacts the health of the animal, as it does with our current human health care system. We have a lack of doctors. There are 22.2 million people in Ontario who don’t have access to a primary care doctor—

It’s 2.3 million now.

It’s 2.2 million.

Yes, 2.2 million.

I’m not trying to compare the two directly, but I know, on our farm—I like talking about farming; it’s one of the few things I have a lot of experience in—we had a very good relationship with several vets. Over my 35-year career, that relationship changed. When I started farming, vets were mainly ER vets. If there was a bad calving, if there was something we couldn’t handle ourselves, we called the vet. But as my farm, and I think as agriculture progressed—but I’m using my farm as an example, a dairy farm—as we got better at our craft and as our animals started producing more, we started using the vets a lot more in a consultative and preventative medicine role.

Once, on our farm, we milked 70 cows, which is a normal-sized dairy farm—it’s a little bit below average; right now I think it’s a little bit higher, but we had 140 animals altogether—we got the vet once a month on a regularly scheduled visit simply to do herd health. That took half a day a month, to check the cows: the ones that should be in calf, the ones that needed a postpartum check, to make sure their vaccines were up to date, check the growth curves on the calves, check the feed formulations. On modern farms, the feed, what we feed cattle—and that goes for all livestock; I know cattle, so I’m going to stick to cattle, but it goes for all livestock—it’s very carefully formulated, what you feed. That was a scheduled visit. We would book that six months or a year ahead. We would know what times we would be busy harvesting crops, and we’d know what times we wouldn’t be, and that’s when we scheduled them. It was much easier to get a vet to do that. It’s preventative—and not just preventative, but a productive relationship is always more beneficial for everyone involved.

But there’s also the other part of being a large animal vet—and a small animal vet, same thing, because if an accident happens to a small animal late at night, that has to be treated right away—we still had emergency vet calls, primarily when a cow was having a calf. I have delivered—and we have delivered—many calves over my lifetime, but sometimes something happens that is beyond the farmer’s capability. So we call the vet. That can be at 3 o’clock in the morning—often, calvings don’t happen at 10:30 in the morning; the difficult ones never happen at 10:30 in the morning—and then it’s much harder to get a vet.

We were very fortunate where I live. In the New Liskeard area in the district of Timiskaming, we’ve always had access to enough vets. It’s a hub of agriculture and we serve many other parts of northern Ontario, both equipment-wise—we’ve always been very fortunate. But there are many parts of northern Ontario where the vet is not coming or the vet won’t be able to come until the next day. In that case, the animal—in ultimate severe cases, the animal might have to be euthanized.

That’s why it’s so important that we have universal access to veterinarians as much as possible. It’s at a crisis, as it is in human health care. Veterinary access is in crisis proportions, particularly in livestock medicine because many vets now who are trained go to small animal. The working conditions, in many cases, are better, and I am not criticizing anyone for their career choices. Anyone who goes into veterinary medicine, whether as a veterinarian or as a vet tech, it’s a calling and it’s a tough job, because to do that job, you have to love animals and you are going to lose animals.

I’m sure almost all of us have lost a pet. We know what that feels like. Every farmer has lost whatever type of animal they raise. It’s not quite the same as a pet, but it’s close. It can’t be quite the same as a pet because it’s your job, so you have to have a little bit of a wall, but you still feel it. If you’re a vet or a vet tech, you feel that a lot, because you get into the profession to make animals healthier. I don’t think anyone gets into the profession of veterinary medicine without a love for animals. I don’t think so.

There are cases where animals face cruel treatment. In many cases, not all, it has to do with mental health issues with their caretakers. Mental health wellness for farmers—and not just for farmers—is also in crisis. When the farmer or the farm family is facing mental health issues, often the animals suffer. I’d like to thank the member for Waterloo for bringing that up. It wasn’t part of my presentation, but I’m glad that we’re talking about that, because it is a vital role that vets play.

There’s a reality show about vets. Some of you might have heard of this show—

Just as an example—I am not going to spend an hour talking about agriculture and vets without at least having one or two cow stories.

Dr. Pol.

Dairy cows and yaks are close?

No, at least one.

Yes, because I usually put one or two cow stories in if I’m not talking about agriculture.

There are some common ailments that specifically dairy cows, but all cows can get. Cows have four stomachs, but dairy cows are very prone—because dairy cows are athletes. Dairy cows are athletes. They work very hard. They are attended very well, but they work very hard, and if something goes off balance, they just don’t have a bad day and come back—not often.

One of the things that afflicts dairy cattle—and it’s also partly if you get the feed wrong. There are a couple of things. One of them is called milk fever. When a cow has a calf and they start—and if there are any vets watching this, they’re going to cringe, because my description of how a cow works inside probably isn’t accurate at all. But from a farmer’s perspective, how a cow works is, a cow has a calf and its mammary glands demand calcium, and if there’s a bit of an imbalance, it takes the calcium from its muscles and it gets something called milk fever. It can’t stand up. You can feel them get cold. Everyone has a different way of handling it. I wasn’t very good at intravenous, so I didn’t do it, so we put bottles of calcium under their skin, and that would hold them until the vet came and did intravenous calcium. Most of the time, the cow would get up, but—

Something else that cattle are very prone to, especially if they get milk fever—and I hope the vets give me some latitude here—is twisted stomachs. I hope no one in the Legislature has ever talked about cows’ twisted stomachs before, but I’m—

When I first started farming, the vet would—and you couldn’t tell right away if a cow had a twisted stomach, but you can tell on their faces when they’re not happy, and their ears are cold. As soon as you see ears cold, you know you have to start checking your cow out.

Every farmer had his own something that gets cows’ stomachs activated. It doesn’t just activate my French; it also activates a cow’s stomach: beer. Very strong coffee does, too. If you mix really strong coffee and—I don’t think Hansard will cover hand motions, but you put your arm around the cow, hold their nose up and—

Laughter.

Interjections.

My first vet, Dr. Pierce, retired, and then I went to the Temiskaming vet clinic, and they did it differently. So, when we had a cow with a turned stomach, there’s a way to tie a rope right behind their front legs. If you tie it tight enough, the cow will fall on its side and then you tie the four legs, so the cow is lying prone in the pen.

Anyway, you flip the cow over and then the stomach will go naturally to where it’s supposed to.

They have four stomachs but it’s only the second stomach that causes the trouble. I hope it’s the second stomach; I’m sure a vet will text me and say no, it’s the third or fourth. But anyway, I always thought it was the second.

Then, when they feel that the stomach is in the right place, when they hear it, then they will sew the stomach back in place from the outside, and it’s much less invasive. The cow bounces back much quicker. But it’s not as—how do I put it? It’s a skill to be able to do that. Some have a better knack at it than others; it’s just a skill. It’s just like Yak is a great speaker and some of us aren’t, right? It’s a skill. Anyway, it’s much less invasive.

By the same token, if you don’t have access to a vet, that cow is not going to make it, right? And even if you do preventive—and all farmers now do, regardless of what type of livestock you have. I’m pretty sure all farmers do regular herd health.

The ARIO Act had committee hearings. Yak, you were there.

But Mark Reusser was there from the OFA, and he mentioned something about vets. He’s a turkey farmer, and each time he gets a new flock, he also gets the vet to make sure that the birds are healthy. It’s kind of the same principle.

So it’s really important that everyone has access, that all livestock farmers—and all companion-animal people too, but for livestock farmers, it’s not only their business, but also, livestock is much harder to move. If you take my example of the cow with the turned stomach, if the nearest vet is 400 miles away—in my case, Cochrane is in the north of my riding; it’s about a three-hour drive for me to go from where I live to the north tip, and that’s the closest vet. So it’s a long trip for a sick cow and the chances of survival are less. Also, you’re trucking that cow back while it’s still in a frail state.

They are looking at ways to be able to do this because it’s a fact of life: We don’t have enough vets. We talk about this on all sides of the House: Animal agriculture is expanding in northern Ontario, but the vets haven’t. Because we’ve got a shortage of vets, it’s harder to get them. I give credit where credit is due: The government has created a program—I believe vets get $50,000 over five years. I think that makes sense.

Another thing that’s just happened is—I talked about this in my first session on this bill but we’ll talk about it a little bit again—again, similar to human health care, it’s harder to get doctors in remote areas, so it’s harder to get vets in remote areas. Where I live, close to New Liskeard, Temiskaming Shores, I don’t consider it remote, but other people maybe would. For years, we’ve had the Northern Ontario School of Medicine so that we get people who grew up in rural Ontario, grew up in northern Ontario, go to medical school, know how great a place it is to live, and it’s easier to not only attract them but to retain them, because they’re used to that, the lifestyle that we love so much.

With vets, it’s the same thing. A program has been created that you can do your first couple of years of veterinary school at Lakehead in Thunder Bay and then go to the University of Guelph, which is the veterinary school of Ontario where all of our vets are trained. But having a campus in Thunder Bay will attract people, hopefully, as the Northern Ontario School of Medicine does, from northern Ontario or from rural Ontario. And hopefully they will be more attracted to large animal agriculture than people who, if you’ve never been exposed to large animal agriculture—you love animals and you get trained to be a vet—it’s a bigger transition. If you’re used to small animals, great, but if the only exposure you’ve had to large animals is through the veterinary course, there’s less of a chance of you becoming a large animal vet.

I mentioned this this morning, too, and I think it’s worthy of mentioning again: To become a vet, to get into vet school, it’s really tough. Now, I was a farmer my whole life, but you know what? I never would have had the grades or the smarts to be a vet—ever. I love animals, but it’s really, really, really tough. I said this morning I don’t think the bar needs to be lowered, but it needs to be shifted. I don’t know exactly how to say this—and I’ve talked to lots of people about this in the farm world—we have to somehow also take the lived experience into account.

So an example—I always use personal experiences, but I hope that I can relate to people by using personal experiences: My kids didn’t want to be vets, and I’m not sure—some of my kids might have had the grades to make it; they didn’t get it from me, but they got some brains—but my kids did see all these things happening. My kids helped with cows with twisted stomachs. My kids helped cows calve. They did all these things. So they have a lived experience that some others might not have. And by the same token, I’m sure there are people who have lived experience with small animals that my kids didn’t have. But if we’re looking for large animal vets, we have to, over the long term, take that lived experience into account. It’s a bit like this place, right? Lived experience should count, and I think it does.

I’m really going on a tangent now, but one of the great things about this place that I didn’t realize—when I got elected here, I assumed that everyone else was going to be a lawyer or a poli sci grad. I’ve got nothing against lawyers and poli sci grads. I’ve got a daughter who’s a lawyer.

Interjection.

Could you demonstrate?