(File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Ian Gustafson

Local clinic appealing for loan forgiveness for P.A. veterinarians due to shortage

Jan 22, 2022 | 8:00 AM

Due to a veterinarian shortage in Prince Albert, Park Range Veterinary Services are asking Premier Scott Moe to include P.A. in the Loan Forgiveness Program for Veterinarians and Veterinary Technologists.

The program, according to the Government of Saskatchewan website, is meant to encourage veterinarians and veterinary technologists to work in rural or remote communities by forgiving a portion of Saskatchewan student loans.

The amount of money that will be forgiven by the government is determined annually. This means their student loans will be forgiven for 20 per cent of their outstanding debt up to $4,000 annually for five years for a total of $20,000.

Those eligible for the program must be working in a rural or remote community with a population of 10,000 or less. The only exception made in the program for communities over 10,000 are Estevan, Weyburn and Lloydminster.

Dr. Peter Surkan with Park Range Veterinary Services is asking Scott Moe to include Prince Albert on that list.

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“What they really, in my eyes, didn’t realize is that Prince Albert is really not a large area,” Surkan said. “Meaning that even though we have a city population of approximately 36,000, we probably draw to twice that population within our city. The number of veterinarians per client number is enormous compared to some other comparable city sizes.”

For example, he said Saskatoon has close to 28 or 30 vet clinics and Prince Albert has five veterinarians. Moose Jaw, which is close to Prince Albert’s population size, has 18 veterinarians to service their city. Prince Albert veterinarians, he explained, one vet is servicing approximately 8,000 people themselves.

“We’re hoping the government might look at that and say, with the exception of Saskatoon and Regina where they seem to have quite a few veterinarians, the rest of the province should be able to be included in that,” Surkan said.

Surkan has been at Park Range for 35 years and he said this is the first time they’ve had to stop doing after hour calls because of a staff shortage, losing two veterinarians in the past year to larger centres. In fact, neither vet clinics offer that service in P.A.

“Somehow we’ve got to end up training more veterinarians that are going to remain in our province through programs like the loan forgiveness thing,” he said.

He said if the government leaves P.A. exempt from the program and a student has a choice to move to Lloyminster, where they’ll have a portion of their student loan forgiven and save thousands of dollars, or Prince Albert where you can’t do that, it will be an easy choice for every vet student in the province.

Park Range he said has not been able to attract veterinarians to come to P.A. and hopes this program can change that.

“Something’s got to give, and you know what’s happened is you’ve ended up with animals that can’t find a vet now. It’s just very difficult for them to find vet services. Our waiting list to get into to get spays/neuters are now three months to make a booking to get in.”

Getting support

MLA for the constituency of Saskatchewan Rivers, Nadine Wilson, has thrown her support behind the local clinic writing a letter to Premier Moe on their behalf.

Wilson said in the letter that many constituents of Saskatchewan Rivers have communicated to her there is an extreme shortage of both veterinarians and veterinary technicians. She also said Prince Albert should also be allowed to be in the program given there are already exemptions.

“I believe it is critical to support this industry through the aforementioned programs with a thought to assess whether there are other ways for government to ensure that all affected parties can look to the future with optimism.”

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Ian.Gustafson@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @IanGustafson12