Consultation Summary

Submissions:

The College received 7 emails, 21 comments via the College’s website, and 53 stakeholders completed the survey questions provided by the College regarding the proposed draft standards for veterinary facilities in Ontario.  The College received 19 responses to the proposed change to the College By-Laws Amendment – Schedule A – Fees. Fifteen (15) were unique responses about the fees. In total the College received 100 responses.

Consultation period: February 8 to April 8, 2023

Part A: Draft Standards for Veterinary Facilities in Ontario

Analysis:

The following is a summary of the main themes of the feedback and comments received about the proposed standards:

• The standards document is long.
• They tend to be written for companion animal practices.
• Several standards are not easily applicable to large animal mobile practices.
• There is confusion about how to comply with the requirements and not enough information is provided in the guidance notes.
• Concerns about consistency between DVM inspectors and standardization of their inspections.
• Confusion that guidance notes are requirements rather than guidelines.
• Consideration of a different format for the standards so they are easier to read and understand.
• For safety management, consider whether worker safety needs to be included if covered under Occupational Health and Safety Act.
• For equine reproductive ultrasound imaging, should not have to save images
• Concern from large animal practices about requirement to conduct a weekly controlled drug audit.
• Concern related to emergency services being an Additional Scope of Practice Services Standard rather than an Essential Standard.

Based on the feedback, proposed revisions were made to the standards for Council’s consideration. Most of the changes to requirements were minor wording edits to clarify the requirement. The majority of changes involved adjustments to the guidance notes to assist with understanding how to comply with the requirement. 

Council June 2023 Decision

The College Council approved the proposed changes to the standards for veterinary facilities in Ontario and decided to circulate them for a second targeted consultation. 

Part B: By-Law Changes to Accreditation Fees

The accreditation inspection fees are set out in the College’s By-laws. An annual fee model was proposed by the Accreditation Models Task Force in their recommendations to Council on a cost-effective, contemporary model for facility accreditation; that is, a fee will be paid per practice on an annual (yearly) basis. 

Analysis:

Feedback from the consultation indicated an overall disapproval for the proposed annual fee and other fees, and confusion as to how a practice would determine the annual fee they have to pay. The following is a summary of the themes of the feedback about the proposed accreditation fees:

• Disagreement with having unannounced inspections
• Disagree with the annual fee
• Seems excessive
• Fee for inspection should be lowered
• Fees should be kept in accordance with inflation only
• It is not clear what the fees will be
• Feel there should be a reduction in fees for those facilities that only provide veterinary care to their own animals
• Annual accreditation fees add more administrative work
• Fees appear to be reasonable

Council June 2023 Decision

Council approved the By-law changes to the accreditation fees as proposed with an implementation date of October 1, 2023.

Download Standards for Veterinary Facilities in Ontario - Draft

Standards and Accreditation Fee Consultation Summary

Council September 2023 Decision

Council approved the draft Accreditation Standards for Veterinary Facilities in Ontario, except for the requirements regarding isolation facilities. The standards will be implemented October 1, 2023.

Draft Accreditation Standards for Veterinary Facilities in Ontario Consultation Summary