Background

The Veterinarians Act provides a framework for the licensing of veterinarians and the accreditation of the facilities where veterinary professionals, including registered veterinary technicians, practice. The Act also governs the practice of veterinary medicine in Ontario and sets out the authority framework for the College of Veterinarians of Ontario (CVO), which regulates the veterinary profession and includes public participation in decision making.

The Ontario government launched consultations to explore opportunities to modernize the Veterinarians Act in November 2022. The government’s first substantial review in 30 years explored amendments to the legislative framework, opening the door to a new standard of veterinary medicine in Ontario that is modern and flexible.

We’ve heard from the veterinary community and the public that the investigations, complaints and resolution processes need to be more efficient. That’s why we proposed updates to the current legislative framework to open the door to establishing a new standard of veterinary care in Ontario.

The proposed changes included the scope of veterinary medicine, improving accountability in the profession, and aligning oversight of the CVO.

About the proposed changes

We sought input from the public on the framework for the regulation of veterinary professionals in Ontario.

We asked for specific feedback on how we could modernize the Veterinarians Act including how to better define animal care activities provided by veterinary professionals and how we could improve accountability and transparency. This included:

  • the scope of practice for veterinary medicine, such as the procedures, services and processes a licensed veterinarian or other veterinary professional, such as a veterinary technician, is permitted to perform in Ontario. We also sought to clarify in the Act the care activities, like massage therapy or animal rehabilitation, that can be provided to animals by individuals other than veterinarians and veterinary technicians.
  • how to improve accountability and transparency to make sure that powers, responsibilities and processes under the Act are clear to the public.
  • how to align oversight of the Ontario veterinary profession with other self-governing regulated professions in the province to ensure that the veterinary profession continues to be managed in the public interest.This included, for example, a proposal to alter the composition of the governing council to include a wider range of membership and voices (including academic representatives, additional public members and veterinary technicians).

By taking steps to solicit a broad range of input on the modernization of the Veterinarians Act, the government would be in a position to propose informed updates to the legislation that reflect how veterinary care is delivered in Ontario now and in the future.

In Ontario, the regulation of the practice of veterinary medicine is delivered independently by the CVO of Ontario at arm's length from the provincial government. Anyone who believes that a veterinarian has not acted or treated them professionally can submit a complaint to the College.

What we heard

During the consultation, we received approximately 320 submissions from a wide range of individuals and stakeholder organizations including:

  • veterinary medicine professionals
  • farmers and agriculture organizations
  • other animal care practitioners and service providers
  • professional regulatory bodies and associations
  • individual animal owners

We heard a strong consensus that improvements to the existing legislation governing veterinary professionals were needed.

On March 7, 2024, the Ontario government introduced Bill 171, the Enhancing Professional Care for Animals Act, 2024, designed to create a new flexible and modern legislative framework for the veterinary profession and enable improved access to veterinary care. Bill 171 received Royal Assent on June 6, 2024.

The Veterinary Professionals Act, 2024 better defines the scope of practice for veterinary professionals, streamlines the complaints resolution process, allows the regulatory college to establish quality assurance requirements including continuing education, and aligns oversight of the Ontario veterinary profession with other self-regulated health professions in the province.

The input received helped to inform the content of Bill 171.

Your privacy matters

If you submitted your questions to us via email, some of your personal information including your name may be shared.

If you provided contact information (including where the contact information is personal contact information), we may use it to follow up with you on your questions or to provide you with future consultation materials.

Information collected as part of any questions submitted about the Discussion Paper is subject to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

For questions on this collection of information, please contact:

Modernization of the Regulation of the Veterinary Profession
Food Safety and Environmental Policy Branch (FSEPB)
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA)
vetact.omafra@ontario.ca