06/04/2025
In case any one knows someone with horses who may be considering moving to New Brunswick, or has a child who expresses an interest in becoming a large animal veterinarian in New Brunswick, please take a few moments to read the following post .
Government creates a Monopoly to Eliminate Private Clinics
Some of you may remember my post prior to the N.B. provincial election where I warned all Horse owners that if the Provincial Veterinary Service (PVS) was allowed to continue on its current path, that you would be allowing them to establish a monopoly over the provision of veterinary services to horse owners. Well by now I am sure many of you have already received a letter from the PVS (March 31, 2025) outlining exactly how they fully intend to create that monopoly and even worse they have openly stated that they want all Horse and Cattle work.
The PVS has presented the residents of New Brunswick with an ultimatum:
- Use only the Provincial Veterinary Service for all your large animal veterinary needs
- Failure to do so will results in indefinite / permanent withdrawal of all publicly funded veterinary services
These are public services funded by tax dollars of all New Brunswickers, including those who will be denied service if they do not meet PVS’s demands. Given this, I question whether the government’s actions are even legal.
Let me start with one simple quote from their letter:
“The basic eligibility for receiving veterinary services are as follows:
You must NOT already have a VCPR with a private clinic”
Many of my clients use several different service providers. Often, I will be in a barn providing service to one of my clients moments after they have finished receiving service from a fellow veterinarian. I will sometimes wait for the first veterinarian to finish and then after a short friendly conversation, I will proceed to provide my service. I don’t refuse my client service for choosing another veterinarian, even if that service is one that I also offer. That is just the way the world works. Clients deal with several clinics to get preferred or specialized services from different providers.
What we are witnessing here is a branch of the N.B. government working to crush private enterprise and create a monopoly for themselves. They are threatening to deny services to tax paying citizens if they will not accept the government as the exclusive provider in an otherwise private industry.
How can anyone even imagine this is acceptable? Owners of horses and cattle should be able to choose the service provider they feel best delivers the skills they are looking for.
What if you are looking for a second opinion, what if you need a referral? Will you first have to check with the PVS to see if they approve of your choice for veterinary service?
This ridiculous system has been allowed to exist for far too long. It has been, and continues to be, the barrier to the provision of veterinary services by private veterinarians.
This is a publicly funded provincial government Service that should only serve the taxpaying public. How can they refuse to serve any New Brunswick resident, not just the few that sometimes match their ever-changing list of requirements for service?
The PVS struggles to meet the needs of New Brunswickers, and from what I understand, this is largely due to being short staffed. And so, they of course have difficult decisions to make, but the ultimatum threatening unfair denial of service is not the appropriate response.
If they are short staffed they need to work on
1) Recruitment
2) Mentorship - to help the new hires feel more confident, maybe even have them job shadow a private veterinarian skilled in a particular field.
3) Salary – offer a competitive wage
4) Triage – learn how to use existing staff efficiently
5) Co-operation with private veterinarians.
I currently provide some of the highest level of Equine Dental and Lameness services in the maritimes, however, I am tired of watching my clients struggle to access basic veterinary services from what is supposed to be a government service to the citizens of New Brunswick.
The old expression that comes to mind is “If you can’t beat them, join them”. So, I propose to do just that and present my clients with a choice of their own.
I have recommended to my clients several times to contact their Minister of Agriculture, their elected representative for their area, the Premier of the province, or anyone who will listen. Make your voice heard. Unfortunately, very few have followed through – they feel defeated before they start, assuming there is nothing they can do because no one listens.
So now I am making a public announcement: for Prairie Schooner Equine to continue offering service, all barns must show me a copy of a letter they have written to one of the above. I don’t care if it is for or against myself or the PVS. I just want everyone to take a long hard look at how New Brunswick compares to other provinces or countries and decide if you think that the current delivery of services by the PVS is how veterinary service should be delivered to our province.
One last note, if any of you want to go to Fredericton and exercise your right to information I am sure you will find that in a province struggling to fund schools and hospitals, millions could be saved if the province got out of the veterinary business. That’s right, the PVS has been a very expensive, inefficient organization for many years. Currently agricultural producers pay a reduced, subsidized fee for veterinary services. If the province was to end the PVS tomorrow, I expect the government could pay 100% of the veterinary bills for agricultural producers from private veterinarians and it would require fewer tax dollars. It would result in a cost saving of several million dollars and private clinics would flourish in an environment where consumers only payed for quality service from the provider of their choice.
