Construction on a new veterinary training centre at Lakehead University’s Thunder Bay campus is to begin this summer under a plan to boost the number of vets willing to practise in Northern Ontario, particularly in regard to care of farm animals.
Under a plan announced on Tuesday between LU and the University of Guelph, 20 Northern veterinary students are to be recruited each year to help alleviate a severe veterinarian shortage that impacts Northern centres like Thunder Bay and Sudbury.
“Beginning in 2027, the northern cohort of 20 students will complete their first two years at Lakehead University’s Thunder Bay campus, finishing their final two years of the program in Guelph,” a LU news release said.
It added: “Once the facilities are complete and the program launches, people will see cows, horses, sheep, dogs, and other live animals on (LU’s Thunder Bay) campus.”
The province says it will pony up $4.5 million towards the cost of the new training centre’s construction, but the structure’s price tag won’t be known until project tenders have been reviewed, Lakehead University says.
Another $10.2 million is to be allocated to the University of Guelph for its end of the new program, the news release said.
Meanwhile, the program’s 2025 and 2026 students “will complete the “entire program at the University of Guelph campus,” the news release said.
Thunder Bay veterinarian Domenic Sanzo said the need for new vets in the city remains dire.
“If you could materialize five full-time veterinarians right now in Thunder Bay, they would be fully booked tomorrow,” Sanzo said in the news release.
