The future students in the region of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Montreal are not yet registered that already, we tear them away. Instead of spending tens of millions of dollars on infrastructure to send them to Rimouski, Quebec should use the facilities of La Pocatière, claim elected officials from this region of Bas-Saint-Laurent, who make it an electoral issue.
Posted at 7:00 a.m.
“It’s still the cradle of agriculture in Canada, 163 years, it’s not flat! We have all the equipment to accommodate this, we do not understand, ”laments the prefect of the regional county municipality (MRC) of Kamouraska, Sylvain Roy, in a telephone interview.
The first permanent agricultural school in Canada, founded in 1859 in La Pocatière, is today a campus of the Institut de technologie agroalimentaire du Québec (ITAQ). The Cégep de La Pocatière, which offers a technique in animal health, is also in the municipality.
“It’s as if no one had seen this happen,” says the mayor of Saint-Roch-des-Aulnaies, André Simard, who directed the Institut de La Pocatière from 1996 to 2010 and himself been a veterinarian.
The faculty of veterinary medicine plans to open 25 additional places in the region in the fall of 2024, half of which for candidates interested in farm animals. This “decentralized program”, the first three years of which will take place at the University of Quebec in Rimouski (UQAR), aims to alleviate the shortage of veterinarians outside the major centers, which particularly affects breeders and the biofood sector.
This expansion, which includes investments in faculty facilities in Saint-Hyacinthe, will cost more than $101 million, including $38 million in Rimouski, Quebec announced in mid-June.
The University of Montreal already having relations with UQAR, she turned to it to discuss a partnership, she explains. Quebec granted them nearly $630,000 in March 2020 to produce an opportunity file, support announced six months later. But it was only last spring, after the Legault government had included the project in the Quebec Infrastructure Plan (PQI), that La Pocatière stepped up to the plate.
“It’s a project that is tied up, very advanced”, underlines the dean of the faculty, the DD Christine Théoret.
A requested satellite campus
“We cannot be told that we are in reaction, since for the moment, the work has not started », pleaded the Kamouraska-L’Islet Chamber of Commerce in a press release highlighting its petition on the site of the National Assembly, at the beginning of June. The petition demands that “the site of La Pocatière be retained for the establishment of a training program in veterinary medicine under the aegis of the University of Quebec at Rimouski and the University of Montreal”.
The idea would be to use the infrastructures of La Pocatière instead of building in Rimouski.
The opportunity study already mentions a partnership with ITAQ, but La Pocatière would like to have full-time students for three years, and be a satellite campus, like the one that UQAR operates in Lévis. The law that created the ITAQ provides that this institute can “offer university education programs,” argues Mr. Simard.
The RCMs of Kamouraska and L’Islet, which have already passed unanimous resolutions of support, now intend to target candidates in the riding of Côte-du-Sud. The MRCs will ask that they undertake to carry out “a comparative study to see if La Pocatière could be considered”, summarizes the prefect Roy.
For Quebec as for the faculty, there is no question.
We have enormous needs for the profession and we do not want to fall behind.
The DD Christine Theoret, Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
“The train has left the station,” it is reported to the office of the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. “Minister Lamontagne understands and shares the objectives of the elected officials of La Pocatière […]. However, given the importance of acting quickly, we believe that local elected officials are on the wrong track.
“We invite all partners who may be interested in collaborating on the project to discuss with the two institutions,” said Minister of Higher Education Danielle McCann by email. Minister Lamontagne also mentions “a possibility” of a partnership with the ITAQ.
When the Faculty wondered in which region to choose a partner university, the La Pocatière facilities played in favor of the Bas-Saint-Laurent, the dean also told us.
The opportunity study includes 75 pages of letters of support, including those from ITAQ and Cégep de La Pocatière. Almost all use the same arguments and twists.
“We provided them with a template from which they could draw inspiration”, recognizes the DD Theoret, adding that this is common practice in funding applications.