Good evening, everyone, and thank you for the invitation to join you here this evening.
My name is Dr. Trevor Lawson. I'm a large animal practising veterinarian in Nova Scotia, and I am the president-elect of the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association.
As an organization that represents the national and international voices of Canada's veterinarians, the CVMA represents over 25,000 veterinarians and registered veterinary technicians throughout the country. The CVMA advocates on behalf of the profession with our strategic priorities including animal welfare, national issues, and the balanced and supported lives and careers of veterinarians. As a national organization, the CVMA is comprised of elected delegates from all provinces, veterinary colleges, students and registered veterinary technologists, and it speaks as a national voice for veterinarians through means like our science-informed position statements developed by our largely volunteer committees, and the tools and resources we develop to help support and sustain our core competencies.
One of the key areas the CVMA remains focused on is antimicrobial use in animals. The CVMA takes seriously the risk of antimicrobial resistance and has been advocating for prudent antimicrobial use and stewardship in animals for over 30 years. Further to this effort, we developed, with guidance from an array of stakeholder groups, SAVI, or the stewardship of antimicrobials by veterinarians initiative.
SAVI is a four-year project funded by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada that concluded in March of this year. This project has engaged Canadian veterinary experts in developing CVMA veterinary antimicrobial use guidelines to support informed decision-making by veterinarians on prudent antimicrobial use in eight species groups of animals. SAVI has also supported the development of a prototype for electronic prescription data collection and of a reporting system involving selected food-animal practices in Canada.
In November 2021, in partnership with experts from the University of Calgary, SAVI launched the Firstline app, an efficient on-farm application, so veterinarians have ready access to the guidelines. The SAVI team has worked closely with the veterinary colleges in Ontario and Quebec to make the Firstline app accessible to all veterinary students as well—our new generation of animal health experts.
The CVMA hopes to secure new funding to build on the significant accomplishments under SAVI and to further improve decision support for veterinarians on prudent antimicrobial use in animals.
Veterinarians in private practice, industry and government play an integral role in early detection and management of foreign animal and zoonotic diseases, and in helping to ensure food safety and security for all Canadians. They work closely with livestock producers to promote and maintain biosecurity on thousands of farms from coast to coast.
Further to this, CVMA is pleased to have collaborated on many projects, and it continues to participate in committees and advisory groups with colleagues in the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the Public Health Agency of Canada, Health Canada and, as previously mentioned, the AAFC. To cite one example, the CVMA has been actively involved with CFIA over a number of years in communicating guidance for practising veterinarians on disease threats such as African swine fever, which we've discussed to some extent already, and avian influenza, which I think everyone is aware is a significant and current problem.
In order to continue to provide these valuable services to veterinarians and to protect Canadians and our animal industries, we must ensure that there is a robust veterinary workforce to meet these demands. Unfortunately, the profession in Canada and most other countries is facing a workforce shortage that has been exacerbated by the recent pandemic. The number of veterinary professionals leaving the workforce, either through retirement or as a result of burnout, currently outpaces the number of graduates from our five national veterinary schools.
We applaud the work of several of our provincial counterparts in securing funding to help increase the seat count for training new veterinarians in Canada, and we hope to work more closely with the federal government as well to secure additional funding, including for infrastructure, to continue this trend of growing and training more veterinarians here at home.
We also look forward to our continuing partnership with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to help Canadians and Canadian employers navigate the immigration process to recruit foreign-trained veterinarians, and perhaps to simplify and accelerate the process, to allow these much-needed, highly trained professionals to enter the Canadian workforce as expeditiously as possible.
I would be remiss if I did not mention the toll the increased workload has had on the veterinary team. The stressors that veterinary professionals face are many, and the added burden of significantly longer days without respite has impacted the mental health and well-being of many of our colleagues. We have increased our attention on, and resources for, this very important area, but there is ever more to be done.
Thank you, again, for allowing the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association the opportunity to speak tonight. I look forward to your questions and further discussion.