Moving towards new legislation
The College Council welcomes its new legislation, the Veterinary Professionals Act, which received Royal Assent in the Ontario legislature on June 6, 2024. The new framework modernizes the regulation of the veterinary profession in Ontario.
News release from the College, June 6, 2024:
New legislation to govern veterinary profession
Enhancing Professional Care for Animals Act, 2024
An Act to enact the Veterinary Professionals Act, 2024 and amend or repeal various acts
Progressing towards modernization
A new graphic outlines the College's progress towards modernization beginning with the early work in 2013 towards final proclamation when the College becomes the College of Veterinary Professionals of Ontario.
A helpful reference to understand all the steps involved as we move towards modernized legislation.
Celebrating Royal Assent, June 2024
College President Dr. Wade Wright provides an overview on Council's long-term commitment to new legislation. The video includes reflections from College Past Presidents Dr. Liz Saul, Dr. Marc Marin, Dr. Patty Lechten, and Dr. Lorie Gold.
Enhancing Professional Care for Animals Act
Received Royal Assent on June 6, 2024
Bill 171, Enhancing Professional Care for Animals Act, 2024
An overview of the draft legislation, presented to College Council in March 2024
After 11 years of research, consultation, and conversation, the College is pleased the Veterinary Professionals Act has officially become law. The College acknowledges all our partners in this process, in particular the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association and the Ontario Association of Veterinary Technicians whose support and collaboration were fundamental to this achievement.
While the Veterinary Professionals Act is now law, it is not yet in full effect. Implementation will occur in two stages. The College is currently in stage one – known as the transition stage. The College is looking forward to the next 18-24 months of regulation and by-law development to facilitate installation of the new framework in the coming years.
The Veterinary Professionals Act represents the biggest update to the regulation of veterinary medicine in Ontario in over 30 years. The new legislation:
- enables the one profession, two professionals approach to veterinary medicine, including veterinary technicians as licensed members
- moves away from an exclusive scope of practice model in favour of an authorized activity model that outlines what activities constitute the practice of veterinary medicine and who is permitted to perform them
- recognizes intraprofessional (veterinarian and veterinary technician) and interprofessional (veterinary professionals and other non-veterinary animal care providers) collaboration in providing animal care
incorporates veterinary technicians into the regulatory model, recognizing their knowledge and training and empowering full utilization of their skillsets within veterinary teams
maintains veterinarians' primary responsibility for the oversight of the practice of veterinary medicine. There will continue to be activities (such as diagnosis, prescribing, etc.) that remain veterinarian-only. Veterinarians will also remain responsible for all forms of delegation.
permits and defines activities that are carried out by veterinary technicians. In this, there may be opportunities where veterinary technicians can perform activities either under their own initiative or under the order of a veterinarian. When performing these activities, a veterinary technician will still be required to work from an accredited veterinary facility. However, it is predicted that more flexibility will be achieved amongst veterinary teams when determining what type of professional provides what type of care within each facility. Details on these activities will be a key part of the regulation development process.
permits recognition of and allowances for other non-veterinary animal care providers. This includes chiropractors, pharmacists, farriers, artificial insemination technicians and other human-based practitioners who have taken additional training in animal care (ie: animal rehabilitation). Regulation development related to the authorized activity model will also include conversations surrounding what activities these non-veterinary care providers can perform, and what skills, knowledge, and training they need to possess to offer their services for animals.
FAQs on legislative change
Following Royal Assent, a transition Council will be established to oversee the development of regulations and by-laws for the new College of Veterinary Professionals of Ontario. Regulations, which are also finalized by the provincial government, offer more specifics on how the Act is applied and implemented.
- Recognizes team-based veterinary care and acknowledges the roles of veterinarians and veterinary technicians.
- Adds requirements for quality assurance programs similar to other regulated professions.
- Enables non-veterinarians to provide care to animals using lower-risk forms of treatment.
- Streamlines the complaints and resolutions process, enabling disputes to be addressed more quickly.
- Enables a greater amount of information about a licence holder to be collected, and where appropriate, posted on the public register.
- Ensures more public representation on the council of the regulatory college.
Following proclamation of the Veterinary Professionals Act, the College of Veterinarians of Ontario (CVO) will be renamed the College of Veterinary Professionals of Ontario. This name reflects its new role in overseeing two categories of veterinary professionals within a single veterinary profession.
During the period of transition, the existing CVO Council will continue to deal with matters concerning licensed members and the work of the College under the existing Act. At the same time, a transition Council will be established to support the work in developing regulations, drafting By-Laws, policies and procedures for the new College of Veterinary Professionals of Ontario.
The College welcomes the formal quality assurance program which is part of the Veterinary Professionals Act. This aligns with the requirements for other regulated professions in Ontario.
Registered Veterinary Technicians will be licensed through the College of Veterinary Professionals of Ontario, which will be established when the regulations and By-Laws governing the veterinary professionals are in place.
The Veterinary Professionals Act recognizes team-based veterinary care and acknowledges the role of veterinarians and veterinary technicians. Veterinary technicians will have a broad scope of practice that reflects their skills and training. Once licensed, veterinary technicians would be subject to the same quality assurance and complaints and resolutions processes as veterinarians.
Responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs
The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs has oversight of the Veterinarians Act. As a regulatory college, the College of Veterinarians of Ontario has legal authority through its governing legislation, the Veterinarians Act. While the College can identify the need for legislative changes, it is ultimately the responsibility of the provincial government to revise the governing legislation.
Recording, virtual town hall, March 2023
A recording of the presentation and question and answer session from the March 15, 2023 virtual townhall discussing the modernization of the Veterinarians Act.
Podcast with CVO, OAVT and OVMA, February 2023
In this podcast, Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of the College, Jan Robinson, is joined by John Stevens, Chief Executive Officer of the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association and Elise Wickett, Executive Director and Registrar of the Ontario Association of Veterinary Technicians. They discuss the ongoing consultation and progress towards the modernization of the regulation of the veterinary profession in Ontario.
The College Council adopted key principles to guide the work of the legislative reform working groups, College staff, and Council through the legislative review process.
Right Touch Regulation: Right touch regulation means utilizing the minimum regulatory approach required to achieve the desired result. The intent is to focus on identified and verified risks and simplicity in solutions.
Agility: Agility in regulation means looking forward and anticipating change. The Act intended to provide for broad authority which permits a flexible approach to actual implementation and the opportunity to refine regulatory responses over time.
Just Culture: A just culture ties discipline to an individual's intent or behavioural choices rather than the outcome of their actions. In promoting a just culture, we accept that mistakes occur. We consider both the individual and the system which gives rise to errors and seek to learn from incidents and errors.
Collaborative self-regulation: Collaboration in self-regulation is demonstrated by an approach that views the public, veterinarians, government, and others involved in the safe delivery of veterinary medicine as partners in achieving quality practice outcomes.
Risk Mitigation: Our regulatory solutions seek to mitigate risks in practice. Our processes support the measurement and evaluation of risk(s), and solutions which manage them effectively and responsibly.
Transparency: The public needs access to information to trust that profession-based regulation works effectively. Transparency includes the provision of information to the public that enhances its ability to make decisions or hold the regulator accountable. Transparency, however, must balance public protection with fairness and privacy.
For more information on the College's legislative reform activities, please review the noted reference materials.
Right Tough Regulation, Professional Standards Authority:
https://www.professionalstandards.org.uk/docs/default-source/publications/thought-paper/right-touch-regulation-2015.pdf
Achieving a Modern Approach to the Regulation of Veterinary Medicine in Ontario:
Achieving a Modern Approach to the Regulation of Veterinary Medicine 2018.pdf