Regional Recruitment and Retention of Veterinary Service
VET Closed
This program is no longer accepting applications. Please sign up to the newsletter to learn about similar opportunities.
The Regional Recruitment and Retention of Veterinary Service Delivery for Food Animals (VET) Program supports organizations and veterinary practices to increase the availability of veterinary services for food-producing animals in underserviced communities and regions.
A sub-program of the Recruitment, Retention and Innovative Skills Program, VET supports the recruitment and retention of new veterinarians and registered veterinary technologists (RVT) to practices that deliver veterinary services for food-producing animals. For this program, food-producing animals are defined as animals raised to produce food or fiber and include cattle, swine, sheep, goats, poultry, bison, and fish. The VET program also supports community capacity building and strategic planning to support the delivery of veterinary services to food-producing animals.
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Program Objectives
- Pilot new and innovative recruitment and retention practices for delivery of veterinary services, particularly services for food-producing animals in rural BC.
- Develop partnerships to improve the attraction and retention of veterinarians and registered veterinary technologists to veterinary practices that provide veterinary services for food-producing animals, particularly outside of the lower mainland.
Program Goals
- Increase recruitment and retention of new veterinarians and RVTs to BC Veterinary practices that provide services for food-producing animals, especially in regions of BC outside of the lower mainland.
- Expand the provision of telemedicine and/or other innovative mechanisms identified by community veterinary practices and partners to facilitate delivery of veterinary services in rural communities and for food-producing animals.
- Build partnerships, capacity, and improved mutual understanding between stakeholders on the challenges and solutions for delivery of veterinary services for food-producing animals at the community level, including producer organizations, other community organizations, First Nations, and veterinary practices. Partnerships may include other agencies, such as local governments.
- Support community-level strategic planning to address the challenge of delivery of veterinary services in rural communities and for food-producing animals.
Resources
The Regional Recruitment and Retention of Veterinary Service Delivery for Food Animals Program is funded under the Agriculture and Food Workforce Development Initiative (AWDI). AWDI is funded by the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction through the Canada-British Columbia Labour Market Agreement. The initiative is a $15M fund designed to support BC’s agriculture industry to provide a stable and increasing food supply through targeted efforts to recruit and retain a sufficient workforce to meet the labour needs of the industry. AWDI is delivered by IAF.
Please note: the Government of BC may, from time to time, give instructions to IAF in relation to the delivery and administration of this program. IAF must and will comply with those instructions.