University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Dean Dr. Renate Weller speaks at a news conference on Friday.

By Curtis Galbraith

Agriculture

Province announces more money for planned expansion at the University of Calgary’s veterinary medicine program

Dec 1, 2023 | 5:29 PM

The province has announced another $11.2 million to support an expansion to the faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Calgary.

The announcement was made Friday at a groundbreaking for a new building, one that will allow the number of spots available to train new vets to double from 50 to 100.

The province says in a release that $10 million of this new money will go towards this capacity expansion. That brings the total from the government for this project to $68.5 million, after $58.5 million was announced in the 2022 budget.

Minister of Advanced Education Rajan Sawhney says the other $1.2 million is for equipment “for molecular diagnostics for livestock and capital funding for renovations to the Clinical Skills Building and lab equipment.”

The new spaces are supposed to be available for the 2025/26 academic year, with the first students from the expanded program graduating in 2029.

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Faculty Dean Dr. Renate Weller is thanking everyone who made this expansion possible;

“The other thing we need is a new curriculum because what works for 50 students doesn’t necessarily work for 100 students. We have a very dedicated team working on this.”

The province says in that same release that Alberta has a “critical shortage of large animal veterinarians.”

Dr. Weller had a suggestion for the provincial government on how to cover the shortage in the immediate term.

“We would like to help to recruit and onboard international veterinary graduates.”

“I came here because the people are nice, the skiing is good, the hiking is good, and so on. The university is (an) awesome (place) to do things.”

The province says the new money for livestock diagnostics will lower costs for producers as samples are currently sent out of the province for testing.