Alberta boosts funding to Calgary veterinarian program, cuts ties with WCVM
CALGARY — The Alberta government is bumping up funding for more spaces at the University of Calgary’s veterinary medicine program.
Advanced Education Minister Marlin Schmidt says the province will reallocate $4.7 million per year to the Calgary program beginning in 2020.
However, the move is accompanied by a decision to withdraw more than $8 million in annual funding to the Western College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.
The dean of WCVM, Douglas Freeman, says he is “deeply disappointed” with the move, saying it severs a 54-year-old partnership that began in 1963 when the Saskatoon institution was jointly established by the four western provinces.