An equine veterinarian from Ontario serving the eastern half of the Pontiac recently passed the Quebec government’s French language exam, an accomplishment which should grant her a permanent license to practice in Quebec. 

Valerie Higginson is one of three veterinarians with Navan Veterinary Services who offer care for horses and other equine animals in the Pontiac. 

She’s been working in the region on a temporary license granted by Quebec’s Order of Veterinarians for about a year and a half, since the clinic she works with first realized there was need for more equine vets in the Pontiac region. 

She visits the Pontiac anywhere from one to three times every week, spending long days moving from appointment to appointment between Aylmer and Shawville. 

“Generally the days are pretty full when we go over, because there’s quite a demand. It’s anywhere from routine vaccines to emergencies,” Higginson said. 

Any vet working in Quebec on a temporary license has to pass a French language exam to obtain a permanent license, a regulation that comes from the Office québecois de la langue française (OQLF). 

Temporary license holders have three attempts to pass the exam – one for every year they hold the license. If, after their third attempt, they don’t pass, the license is removed. 

“Now that I’ve passed the exam, it’s a bit of a relief that I can continue coming over,” Higginson told THE EQUITY, noting that now two of the three vets from Navan who work in the Pontiac have the permanent license. 

The third, one of the owners of the Navan clinic, also took his French exam this year. Quebec’s Order of Veterinarians granted both Higginson and the other temporarily licensed vet an extension on their Quebec permits, which expired at the end of June, as they awaited the results of their exam. 

Dr. Gaston Rioux, president of Quebec’s Order of Veterinarians, said this extension on the temporary permits was given to avoid a break in service while the veterinarians fulfilled the license requirement. 

“In the Pontiac, there’s no doubt that there is a shortage of veterinarians in the region,” Dr. Rioux said, noting the order has addressed concerns around whether the language requirement might be restricting access to proper medical care for animals in the region. 

“We have already followed up with the OQLF to ask if we could have exceptions made for regions like the Pontiac,” Rioux said. “But until now the response has always been ‘No’.”

Shortage plagues region

Equine vets are in dire need in the Pontiac region. 

In the summer of 2022, Kemptville-based veterinarian Dr. Andrea Kelly passed away. She owned the Ottawa Valley Large Animal Clinic and, also licensed to practice in Quebec, she served close to 600 clients in the Pontiac and Ottawa surrounding area.

Around the same time, Dr. Melissa Jowett, a part-time vet also serving the Pontiac area, lost her license to practice in Quebec because she was unable to pass the OQLF’s French language exam. A petition circulated at the time calling on the province to reinstate the license collected more than 3,000 signatures within its first week. It now has more than 13,000 signatures.

Since the loss of two regular veterinarians in the region, horse and donkey owners have been cobbling together medical care for their animals using a mish-mash of various services. 

Those who live between Aylmer and Shawville are within reach of the vets from the Navan clinic, but those who live west of Shawville are beyond the area these vets serve. 

Garret Vekaryasz and Martin Leguerrier own Little Haven Farm in Mansfield where they raise all sorts of animals, including horses and donkeys. 

Their animals are too far to be seen by the vets from Navan, and they have not found another vet who can help them on a regular basis. 

Last year, a rescue horse the couple took in became ill. Vekaryasz said he and Leguerrier sought veterinary care for the horse multiple times over the course of the two months, but no vets were able to make the trip. 

“We had to watch her suffer every day for two months until she passed,” Vekaryasz said.

That’s why this summer Vekaryasz met with Pontiac MNA André Fortin to urge action on the file of bringing more vets to the Pontiac region, including to horse and donkey owners west of Shawville. 

In this meeting Vekaryasz inquired about the possibility of making virtual vet care possible, and also about the possibility that Ontario vets closer to the western portion of the Pontiac be granted temporary licenses to help their Quebec neighbours. 

Dr. Rioux told THE EQUITY it is usually up to clinics to seek out these permits themselves, as the Navan clinic did, but that there is no limit on how many temporary permits can be given out. 

While the shortage in equine vets is troublesome for Vekaryasz and Leguerrier, it’s not preventing them from continuing to grow their family alpacas, llamas, guinea hens, goats, chickens, and mini sheep, as well as horses and donkeys. 

This summer, they welcomed two new horses to the crowd. 

Vekaraysz said they’ve begun welcoming primary school children to the farm to interact with the animals and learn about how to raise, care for and train them, all with the view of encouraging more young people to consider careers in agriculture. 

“We weren’t going to let [the vet shortage] stop our long-term plans for our farm.”