• Clarifying and adding to the roles and purpose of the College
Executive
Summary
• Increasing public member representation on Council and committees
• Adding powers to the Minister’s oversight of the College to increase its
public accountability
• Redefining the scope of practice of veterinary medicine to ensure high
risk medical activities are safely provided to animals
• Recognizing veterinary medicine as a system and acknowledging the
skill set of veterinary technicians within the team
• Acknowledging that certain health care activities such as massage
therapy, manual therapy, and other alternative options should be
able to be directly accessed by animal owners rather than under the
delegation of a veterinarian
• Introducing a more streamlined approach to managing investigations
and their resolutions
• Introducing a mandatory quality assurance program for licenced
members
• Introducing a mandatory reporting requirement for a veterinarian to
report suspected incapacity of a colleague to the College
• Permitting interim suspensions and emergency investigations to take
place swiftly in certain high risk circumstances
• Increasing the information provided about veterinarians on the public
register including the posting of notices of a hearing, and
• Several administrative amendments to increase the College’s ability
to be agile and responsive to a changing practice and political
environment
Fundamental to this proposal is a recognition that the delivery of animal care
is within a system. Veterinary medicine is team-based, inclusive of veterinarians
and veterinary technicians with auxiliaries providing support at the level of
veterinary assistants or lay staff. Other providers, often highly skilled, offer
health services to animals that may not require medical intervention or
oversight.
The safe care of animals, and ensuring that veterinary medical procedures are
managed with careful vigilance to safeguard great outcomes, is the College’s
primary business. Strengthening compliance with the scope of practice of
veterinary medicine by being clearer about where harm lies, and that both
veterinarians and veterinary technicians are accountable in that delivery, is
imperative for the future. Further, professional regulation will work best when
it is guided by professionalism and focused on the promotion of standards of
competence and conduct, taking action where standards are breached, and
through quality assurance mechanisms.
Modernization of the Veterinarians Act is essential to promote the profession
with the best tools possible to protect animals and the public. The Council is
pleased to present this document for full and open public consultation.
* Please note references are found in the endnotes on page 42
Achieving a Modern Approach to the Regulation of Veterinary Medicine in Ontario 5