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New Brunswick rally

Photo by Nancy Brown

Dozens of people gathered in front of the New Brunswick legislative building on March 31 to protest the decision to phase out the Provincial Veterinary Field Service.

Vanessa Leclair was deboarding her mare from a trailer when the horse slipped, slicing a hind leg open. Leclair lives in a rural part of New Brunswick, Canada, a three-hour drive from the nearest private-sector equine veterinarian. She immediately called the Provincial Veterinary Field Service (PVFS), and a practitioner arrived in an hour.

New Brunswick is one of two Canadian provinces that have government-funded large animal veterinary care. Clients pay for the services, which include both emergency and routine treatment. 

Leclair, who has a business offering pony rides, relies on the service regularly. That's why she was one of the many New Brunswickers dismayed to learn on March 17 that their provincial government was planning to phase it out.

"That can't be true," Leclair recalled thinking when she read it on Facebook. She called her veterinarian from the PVFS, who confirmed the news. The decision to phase out the services had been announced as part of the province's annual budget.

The intended timeline is as follows: Equine services will cease by the end of this year. The remainder of the field services, which include veterinary care for livestock such as pigs and cattle, will end a few months later, in March 2027. The province's diagnostic laboratory will shutter last, by the end of March 2028. The field service and the laboratory combined employ over 30 people, according to the government directory. All together, the services operated at a deficit of CA$3.95 million in the previous year, Pat Finnigan, minister of the Department of Agriculture, Aquaculture and Fisheries, said during a legislative committee meeting.

The uproar was immediate. Leclair started an online petition that has garnered over 34,000 signatures to date. Dozens of people attended a rally on March 31 in front of the legislative building, snow falling as speakers addressed the crowd.

Inside the building, members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) had already been duking it out in session.    

"Minister, without any prior conversation, you told farmers to swallow this pill of canceling the large animal vet service they have known and appreciated for 50 years," MLA Tammy Scott-Wallace said on March 20.

Finnigan stated that the private sector will fill the gap.   

"We'll make sure that this service is sustainable, but better," Finnigan said in response to Scott-Wallace's comments. "It's going to be better before we're done in three years, I can guarantee you that."

The specifics of the transition are not yet publicly known.

Short notice

To PVFS clients like Leclair, the news came with "no warning whatsoever."

Leclair said she's not against using private services; she just doesn't want to lose access to care, which she worries is now on the horizon.

"It's not specifically private care that we're opposed to — it's just, the private infrastructure is not there," she said.

Meaghan Hudson, a horse owner who organized the March 31 rally, is doubtful that new practices can open before the provincial service ends.

"I just don't think it's realistic in a short period of time," she said.

Veterinarians in New Brunswick didn't have forewarning, either. Dr. Mary Ellen Themens, registrar of the New Brunswick Veterinary Medical Association, said that no one consulted with the organization before the provincial budget and program cuts were announced.

Themens is worried about the capacity of the private sector to meet the needs of rural New Brunswickers.

"The distances between small farms can be prohibitive," she said in an email to the VIN News Service, referring to the possibility that calls can be as much as 200 kilometers [124 miles] apart. "How to charge for time and mileage to get from point A to point B and cost recover/make a profit? In areas that are populated, near large [centers], or have a concentration of farms, private sector can make a go of it. In more rural areas? It will be challenging, at best."

New New Brunswick map.jpg - Caption. [Optional]

The economics may be complicated by rising fuel prices. Finnigan suggested to legislators on March 20 that his department was prepared to help private-sector veterinarians who want to supply the service. "We will support their mileage and their travel," he said.

During a legislative session on March 24, MLA Keith Chiasson defended the cut by emphasizing that the public value of the service is determined by how many livestock animals it serves. Finnigan's office had reported in an announcement on March 18 about the service change that only 27% of PVFS services are provided for commercial livestock.

"If the public-sector vets were servicing strictly the bovine and farmer industry, we wouldn't be having this conversation," Chiasson said.

Hudson, the rally organizer, said food animals are only part of the province's agricultural economy.

"We still have these programs in New Brunswick that bring in tourists and bring in visitors," she said. "You go to the Albert County Fair in September, and the majority of that show is 4-H, cattle, hobby farms, equine. And without these services, people can't keep those [animals]. Just because the majority of it isn't food doesn't mean it's not important."

Province to lose its laboratory

The last thing to be eliminated, in about two years, will be the provincial veterinary laboratory. It is the only veterinary diagnostic laboratory in New Brunswick, and the only one in the four Atlantic provinces that tests for several highly contagious pathogens, including those that cause avian influenza, foot-and-mouth disease and African swine fever. 

The March 18 announcement from the Department of Agriculture, Aquaculture and Fisheries said the government would facilitate the transfer of laboratory functions to the private sector, "ensuring continuity of diagnostic services." The chief veterinary officer will stay on board to oversee disease management.

A spokesperson for the department said in an email to VIN News that "any changes to the delivery of laboratory services will be determined only upon completion of a comprehensive analysis being facilitated by the Department, in collaboration with the Research and Productivity Council, a [Government of New Brunswick] Crown corporation."