This text is part of the special section Higher Education
By 2026, a quarter of veterinarians treating farm animals will be old enough to retire, according to data from the Quebec Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPAQ). The number of new graduates will not be enough to compensate for these departures, and the shortage of caregivers is already glaring. We must therefore train more of them, and quickly. To speed up the pace, the University of Montreal (UdeM) will offer its doctoral program in Rimouski at the start of the 2024 academic year.
The province has only one faculty of veterinary medicine, that of UdeM. Only 96 profiles are admitted to the doctorate each year, even if more than 1,000 applications were received in 2022. “We have already increased the number of students. Our campus located in Saint-Hyacinthe is really at its maximum capacity,” says Christine Theoret, dean of the faculty.
To remedy this lack of space, the veterinary medicine program will be decentralized to the University of Quebec at Rimouski (UQAR). Every year, 25 more young people will learn the basics of the trade in the Bas-Saint-Laurent, an increase of 26%.
Redevelopments will make it possible to receive the first cohort in the fall of 2024, while waiting for a new pavilion to be built. Candidates will follow their first three years of doctoral studies there, before starting the fourth in the Saint-Hyacinthe facilities. The fifth, the last, takes place in the field, in training.
The rector of UQAR, François Deschênes, approaches this interuniversity collaboration with great enthusiasm: “The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at UdeM is at the cutting edge, it has great researchers. Here, our expertise is really complementary, we have scientists who examine aquatic, marine and terrestrial fauna through our Department of Biology or our Institute of Marine Sciences.”
“The network, the marriage of our specialties will lead to interesting avenues in the observation and understanding of ecosystems, of which all animals are a part”, continues the man who imagines the establishment of a new interdisciplinary research center.
Attract practitioners to the region
Far from urban centres, veterinarians are becoming even rarer, while their expertise is required on farms. In southeastern Quebec, which includes Bas-Saint-Laurent and Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine, for example, only 41 specialists out of the 2,757 in Quebec care for large livestock, such as oxen, goats and sheep.
“The majority of students come from the city; they may not be familiar with rural areas and lack the appetite to settle there, explains Christine Theoret. We take the bet that the young people trained in Rimouski will stay there or move elsewhere in the countryside, because they will be exposed to the advantages, ”estimates the dean.
“In remote areas, veterinarians develop a unique relationship with their clients. That’s what students like. When we do practice for large animals, we regularly return to the farms, we end up getting to know the breeders, but also the family, their children, who sometimes form the next generation, future customers,” she underlines.
“Those who come to Rimouski stay there, the data shows it, supports François Deschênes. “The living environment has something to please: no traffic and outdoor activities. At 10 minutes, we are in the cross-country ski trails, in the Bic National Park or on the edge of the river. And in our small classes, teaching is done on a human scale”, he proudly lists.
Since 2019, MAPAQ has been offering veterinary medicine students incentive internships of 4 to 12 weeks at the heart of the biofood industry. The department guarantees financial assistance of up to $11,700 per year, and this amount is increased by 15% if the apprentice goes to areas particularly affected by the shortage: Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Capitale-Nationale, Côte -North, Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine, Laurentians and Outaouais.
“It’s extremely popular! We have the impression that it is bearing fruit, but we have little data for the moment”, specifies Christine Theoret. We know that in 2021, 13 new graduates decided to work with farm animals: among them, 11 had completed an internship.
To train more veterinarians, Quebec is providing an envelope of $101 million, in particular making it possible to decentralize the program and three infrastructure projects on the Saint-Hyacinthe campus, including the creation of a simulation center and veterinary virtual reality.
UdeM is studying other solutions it could bring to the crisis. She wants to set up a certificate for foreign doctors whose expertise is not recognized in Quebec, which could also see the light of day in 2024.
This special content was produced by the Special Publications team of the To have to, relating to marketing. The drafting of To have to did not take part.