Rural Municipalities of Alberta wants vets included in the Canada Student Loan Forgiveness Program
An Alberta rural community wants farmers and ranchers to participate in a survey to highlight the importance of access to veterinary services.
The Municipal District of Wainright created the survey to gather input from producers on veterinary access and how it contributes to animal health, productivity, and business viability.
The 11-question survey, open until June 30, asks participants questions like how long they’re waiting to receive vet services, and what issues their herds and farms have faced due to a lack of veterinarians.
Results from the survey may be used to advocate for veterinarian inclusion in a federal program.
The federal government launched the Canada Student Loan Forgiveness Program in 2012 to incentivize doctors and nurses to work in rural or remote communities in exchange for having a portion of student loans forgiven.
Ottawa added more eligible professions to the program in 2025 like teachers, dentists, midwives, and pharmacists.
But veterinarians and animal health technicians remain ineligible for the program.
“The exclusion of veterinarians and animal health technicians from this federal incentive is a missed opportunity to support a critical service in rural communities that has a direct impact on the economic stability of the country,” Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA) said in a May 29 statement.
At its March 2026 convention, RMA passed a resolution to lobby the government to include veterinarians in the student loan forgiveness initiative.
Overall Canada is facing a shortage of veterinarians.
The Canadian Occupational Projection System estimates that between 2022 and 2031, the number of job openings will total 5,000 while the number of available vets will be around 4,300.
Between the country’s five accredited veterinary colleges, about 450 students graduate each year. Of those, about 350 are Canadian citizens while the remaining are international students who return home.
Some communities are taking matters into their own hands to address vet shortages.
In February, for example, Paintearth County and the Town of Coronation in Alberta, through a regional partnership, rented a former pipeline facility and invested about $55,000 to turn it into functional space for a vet to work with livestock.
“It’s a little bit of a different concept,” Paintearth County Reeve Stan Schulmeister told CBC in April as the community waited for a vet to come practice in the community. “It takes a tremendous amount of investment for the infrastructure. This will eliminate some of those problems for a young veterinarian.”
The RMA says it’s working with the Alberta Veterinary Medical Association to understand recruitment and retention challenges in rural communities.