Thank you to the member for that very relevant question. That whole continuum of care has to include farmers, it has to include the people that—it could be pet owners. Sometimes, modernizations include that continuum, using technology and using the people that have some experience, some training through different mediums—it could be through technology or through a veterinarian technician—to triage, care for and provide that whole wraparound level of care to extend that, especially in farming communities, remote communities and underserviced areas.

Sometimes the veterinarian could be an hour- or a two-hour drive away while there is an animal emergency. To have someone in close proximity to provide that care, under professional guidance, is critical. This act addresses that.

Now they have enabling legislation to reach out to connect to someone with the care and say, “We don’t have a vet on hand right now. We have an animal emergency,” or “We have some concerns for the safety of animals.” I can connect to someone with a level of care to provide that care to the animal and be fully protected under the law. Thank you for the question.

This enabling legislation, first and most importantly, enables veterinary technicians to practise a level of care to the full scope of their training and experience, where sometimes in the past it was limited. Little procedures that a vet tech can certainly take care of for your pets and for my pets had to be under the care and direct supervision of a veterinarian, who may be more apt to be taking care of more serious surgical concerns. So this enabling legislation allows everyone to do the care and to practise that care to the full scope of their training.

That’s what the college regulates, and that’s where the legislation takes us. Other areas of care are important. That’s one component, but I don’t think it’s really critical to the bigger conversation of advancing and modernizing animal care.

We have a great veterinarian in the riding of Essex. His name is Dr. Richard Barnett. As the member from Timiskaming–Cochrane said, veterinarians often form very strong relationships with their clients, almost become members of the family. I’d like to invite the member to talk about any famous veterinarians that he has in his riding, like our riding of Essex, where we have Dr. Richard Barnett.

I can appreciate that perhaps the member from Oshawa might not have as many farm or veterinarian concerns in her riding as we have in some other ridings, such as my riding or as the member from Timiskaming–Cochrane, but I’d like to ask her a question about veterinarians that might apply to small animals, because certainly those are common everywhere across the province of Ontario. I think that this piece of legislation would be very useful to all ridings, including the riding of Oshawa, in that it would provide more veterinarians and trained experts in that field to take care of not only farm animals, but also pets, and everybody loves their pets.

So I would like to invite the member from Oshawa to comment on whether or not she thinks the training of more veterinarians and vet techs under this legislation will be of benefit to the constituents in her riding.