I’m pleased to follow my colleague from Lanark–Frontenac–Kingston to speak about Bill 171, the Enhancing Professional Care for Animals Act, 2024. I’d like to start by recognizing the work that the minister has done on this important piece of legislation and her leadership in guiding us along the road to where we are today.

Speaker, veterinary medicine has been regulated as a profession in Ontario since 1877; that’s 147 years now. Veterinarians were one of the first of the five regulated professions in Canada.

As the minister said, the Veterinarians Act was last updated in 1989, 35 years ago. A lot has changed since that time, particularly with developments in technology.

As the minister described, the bill proposes to bring the veterinary technicians under the same college as veterinarians and rename that college the College of Veterinary Professionals of Ontario.

The proposed changes in Bill 171 are designed to increase access to vet care by letting the college better define a broad scope of practice for veterinary technicians. The proposed legislation would also streamline the complaints process, better define the scope of practice for veterinary medicine, and improve transparency. And, if passed, this bill would align oversight of the veterinary profession with that of other regulated professions in Ontario—both health care professions and others like architects, accountants, lawyers and teachers.

The Ontario Veterinary Medical Association’s president Dr. Brendon Laing, its CEO Mr. John Stevens and past president Dr. Matthew Richardson congratulated and extended appreciation to the ministry for its hard work on the development of this bill and for the improvements being proposed for the profession and animal care.

Modernizing the profession will make it more responsive to public expectations around governance, transparency, oversight and, most importantly, trust. Like many regulatory bodies in Ontario that oversee a profession, the veterinary regulatory college operates based on a self-regulation system. Members elect peers to serve on the governing council together with non-licensed individuals appointed by the Ontario government.

This bill, if passed, will expand the council of the newly renamed College of Veterinary Professionals of Ontario to include vet techs and faculty members from both a veterinarian program and vet tech program, as well as more public representatives.

The principal object of the college is to regulate the practice of veterinary medicine and to govern members in accordance with the act. This bill would also add a new object of the college: to work with the minister to develop strategies to “ensure the people of Ontario have access to adequate numbers of qualified, skilled and competent veterinary professionals.”

The regulatory college overseeing veterinary professionals has expressed its alignment with the proposed changes that aim to enhance ministerial oversight of the regulatory college’s governing council—something the current college is asking for to be more transparent to the public—and bring more voices to the council of the regulatory college, including a greater role for public appointees, to ensure public perspectives are reflected, and spaces on the council for veterinary technicians and academic members.

The proposed changes would also set out a new name for the regulatory college, to reflect its role in overseeing two categories of veterinary professionals within a single veterinary profession. If Bill 171 passes, the college will be known as the College of Veterinary Professionals of Ontario.

Like any legislation in place for decades, it’s important to revisit it to ensure it continues to serve its purpose efficiently and effectively. It is crucially important to consider, in these proposed changes, the needs of veterinarians, veterinary technicians, other animal service providers, the public and the agriculture industry.

The ministry has consulted widely on this proposed legislation, and the college will continue to consult as the regulations are developed. In order to ensure that happens, there is a requirement that consultations and collaboration between the regulatory college and other professions providing animal care is built into the proposed legislation.

An important aspect of the proposed changes is about quality assurance. If passed, the legislation would enable the regulatory college to develop a formal quality assurance program, which will be overseen by a new statutory committee. This change aims to better ensure continual learning and competence of members of the profession. The quality assurance committee would set the requirements for continuing education and refer cases of misconduct, incompetence or impairment to the college’s investigations and resolutions committee.

The proposal mirrors what is currently in place for professional regulatory colleges in human health care and other self-regulated professions. This is designed to maintain public trust and assurance in the profession, as well as ensure all active veterinarians and veterinary technicians are up to date on the latest developments in animal care.

In addition to governance and quality assurance, the proposed changes would bring about a streamlined complaints and resolution process. This is being proposed because the ministry has received several letters over the years complaining about how long and drawn out the complaints process can be. The complaints process was also raised by veterinarians during the consultations. This improved process would include the components dealing with investigations, professional misconduct, a member’s fitness to practise, and suspected incompetence.

The proposed changes would clearly enable a greater amount of information about a licence holder to be collected and, where appropriate, posted on the public-facing register.

Like other regulated professions, this would also allow for the college to post information about its members. This is intended to allow animal owners to check whether the veterinarian or vet tech is a member of the college in good standing.

This bill also proposes mandatory reporting requirements, which would require any member who suspects that another member’s fitness to practise is impaired to report that fact to the college. There would also be legal protections for members making such reports in good faith. Such a report could be used to bring about an investigation by the college if it is felt that there is a need to look into a matter further or potentially discipline a member.

This bill, if passed, would also increase penalties to better reflect the seriousness of actions that harm an animal. Fines for taking actions that could foreseeably cause serious harm to an animal without being licensed by the college would be set in legislation and would carry fines as follows: up to $25,000 for an individual on first offence and $50,000 for a subsequent offence; up to $50,000 for a corporation on first offence and $200,000 for a subsequent offence. Maximum fines for practising veterinary medicine without a licence would increase to the same levels.

This proposed legislation also would give the college the authority to mandate that vet clinics have malpractice insurance, something that is currently not mandatory.

Ontario needs modernized legislation that embraces contemporary approaches to professional regulation and governance; in other words, one profession, veterinary medicine, comprised of two professionals, veterinarians and veterinary technicians, serving the public interest. We feel that we have better reflected that reality in this proposed legislation.

These proposed changes are part of our broader efforts to support success for Ontario’s agriculture and food industry and to streamline and simplify processes for those doing business in Ontario.

Modernizing the legislation that oversees veterinary medicine will better support all animal owners. We feel strongly that these proposed changes will help to bring about a veterinary profession that is more responsive to public expectations around governance, transparency and oversight.

The new legislative framework we propose aims to take a balanced and risk-based approach to the practice of veterinary medicine, while continuing to protect animal health and well-being. We are confident these proposed actions will help us keep growing Ontario together.

I’d like to also take this opportunity to pay homage to a very special individual in my riding, the riding of Essex. This individual was a great contributor to his community in so many important ways. I think that this individual very much represents and reflects his chosen profession, the veterinary profession, and probably stands as a great example to others to follow: Dr. Richard Barnett.

I’d like to tell you a little bit about Dr. Barnett. He was the son of individuals who were part of the greatest generation, as we like to refer to them. His father served in World War II and was on active service for four and a half years in Sicily, Italy, France, Belgium and Holland.

Dr. Barnett always began his visits with a joke, and others who were in the practice and retired from the practice agreed that he was always a pleasure to speak with.

He once agreed to visit a pony gifted to a family, as it was quite sick, and even though he was not practising at the time, he was willing to give of his time and his professional efforts to ensure that pony stayed well.

Others have said about him that he played a very important role on a lot of farms. This is a great show of support to someone so important to farm operations. He was called a fine mentor, someone who took others under his wing and was willing to share his experience and his knowledge with others for the benefit of the community and of the profession.

People who met Dr. Barnett were not just his clients; they were like family. He spoke about how his mentor went out of his way to help those in need of veterinary care, but also might not have been able to fulfill the financial obligations that went along with that, and he went above and beyond, making sure that people were able to get the veterinary care they required, regardless of what their financial circumstances were.

Dr. Richard Barnett was a man who set the example for others to follow. He practised so long, it was said he had the oldest telephone message in the business.

He served as the president of the Essex-Kent Veterinary Association and as treasurer for the Ontario Association of Swine Practitioners.

Dr. Barnett said this of his career and his life: “I have been blessed in so many ways.” And when he talked about his youth and being educated in a one-room schoolhouse, which was next door to his family farm, he said this: “It was a great time to grow up.”

So I’d like to take this opportunity to pay homage to Dr. Barnett, his contributions to the community and his contributions to the profession, and encourage all members to vote in favour of this act, which will improve veterinary professions and veterinary care in the province of Ontario.

It’s Building Safety Month. Ontario’s building officials play a critical role in tackling the province’s housing supply shortage, while keeping us safe in accordance with the building code.

Since 1976, the Ontario building code has set the minimum standard for new and existing buildings in the province of Ontario. The code impacts our daily lives, from establishing safety standards in our homes to ensuring public spaces are accessible for all, and to establishing innovative approaches as we work to meet our ambitious goal of building 1.5 million homes by 2031.

We cannot unlock Ontario’s housing potential without keeping up with the latest innovations and standards.

That’s why I am proud of our government’s release of the 2024 Ontario building code, the largest building code update since 2012.

The new addition provides opportunities to accelerate the construction of new housing projects, such as the expansion and the use of encapsulated mass-timber construction, while ensuring the buildings in Ontario continue to be among the safest and the most accessible in North America.

I’m proud to be a part of a government that continues to work with municipalities and builders to deliver on our mandates to ensure that all Ontarians have access to safe and secure housing.

Mr. Speaker, we have, from the great town of Kingsville, Mayor Dennis Rogers and CAO John Norton.

Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Point of order, Madam Speaker.