From the perspective of animal lovers, Canada’s vet shortfall is shaping up to be a full-on crisis in the coming year—from coast to coast. Mississauga’s Clarkson Village Animal Hospital was a 24-hour clinic. Recently, short of staff, it cut its hours to 8 a.m.-8 p.m. In Penticton, B.C., a pet advocate addressed city council to plead for vet care. In Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade, west of Quebec City, the delay to see a vet for deworming medication has grown so long that breeder Marie Côté says her border collie puppies are thinner and growing more slowly. Her vet ignored her calls for weeks. Only after she went on TV to complain, she says, did she get results: “I got my medication the next day.”
