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| Volume 9, Number 9 | January 11, 2002 |
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WCVM seeks federal & western funds in fight to keep accreditation
By Colleen MacPherson Although it appears its accreditation is secure until the fall of 2003, the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM) will continue to look to various levels of government for the infrastructure funding it needs to maintain its professional standing and its vital role in protecting public health and Canada’s food animal export industry. Dr. Alex Livingston, Dean of WCVM, said he “heard unofficially” late last year that the college has until 2003 to “achieve significant increases” in funding or face further downgrading, or even loss, of its accreditation. The American Veterinary Medical Association’s Council on Education, the international accrediting body, has “major concerns about the low level of financing assigned to the college”, he said — resources needed for facility renovations and upgrading courses to meet international standards and to attracting faculty. With accreditation, graduates of the WCVM are licensed to practice across Canada and in some other countries. Without it, WCVM grads would be required to study another year at an accredited college or take a North American licensing exam. The fallout of lost accreditation would be felt across Canada, which has only four veterinary schools and which relies on accredited veterinarians to monitor meat plant operations, act as border inspectors, and safeguard the national food supply from animal-borne diseases.
“If a country is going to achieve food animal export status,” said Livingston, “it has to have a system for producing qualified veterinary graduates. Food safety and animal welfare are national issues and we have to try to get acceptance by the federal government of their responsibility in maintaining the accreditation of Canada’s veterinary schools.” Accreditation concerns are nothing new to Canada’s four veterinary schools. In 1998, the WCVM received a three-year accreditation, down from the usual seven years, due to concerns over lack of facility improvements. Since then, “we’ve made repairs … but this facility is 38 years old” and is suffering from what Livingston termed “just regular wear and tear.” Creating a special challenge is that fact “a significant part of our facility is an animal hospital and obviously the level of expectation for a hospital is higher than for a lecture theatre. We achieved what they asked for (in 1998) by patching, but we have to do more than fill in the cracks.” In 1999, the Université de Montréal’s college in Saint-Hyacinthe was placed on a two-year downgraded accreditation for failure to make vital repairs and upgrades. The Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph, located in an 80-year-old building, undergoes its accreditation review in February. At Canada’s newest facility – Atlantic Veterinary College at the University of Prince Edward Island – news report indicate college officials there are worried about a lack of resources for research laboratories and capital refurbishment. The standards set by the American Veterinary Medical Association are high, the dean concedes. A case in point is North America’s “biggest and richest” veterinary school at the University of California, Davis, which is on limited accreditation because its facilities need upgrading. That school is spending $1 million per year for three years in an effort to fulfil its accreditation requirements. Livingston said he and his three counterparts as well as the presidents of the four universities with veterinary schools and the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association have joined forces to lobby the federal government for infrastructure funding. “We had kind of hoped we might have been in the (December) mini-budget, but no one was in the mini-budget,” he said. “Now we’re still hoping the government might look at it in the spring.” U of S President Peter MacKinnon said food security has become an increasingly “important and visible issue … in a world threatened by bio-terrorism”. The solution, he said, is top-rate research and instructional capabilities “and I look forward to opportunities to press the case of our veterinary colleges.” At the provincial level, negotiations are ongoing between WCVM and the four western provinces for a new funding agreement that recognizes the Saskatoon school serves students from the entire region. The last agreement, which was signed in 1994 and expired in 1999, saw B.C., Alberta and Manitoba contribute to their students’ education and some operating costs, but no bricks and mortar items. Livingston said funding has continued since the expiration of the agreement “but at a level based on the 1994 budget. We need to know what the provinces agree to so we can go back to the accreditation agency and say, ‘OK, they’ve agreed to fund us at this level. Will that be enough?’.” MacKinnon doesn’t believe WCVM will have to wait much longer: the four-way agreement is close to being signed, he said. The result will be a funding increase for the WCVM that could be as much as $2 million per year. He expressed optimism the accreditation agency can be satisfied by 2003 and added he is prepared to pursue other options, both provincially and nationally, in support of a college which is expensive to run but “very important right across western Canada.” “It (WCVM) is sensitive to the geography of the west, sensitive to the industry of the west, and to the animal population, large and small. It’s hard to imagine a viable substitute for the Western College of Veterinary Medicine.”
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