Recent provincial budget cuts to Prairie Diagnostic Services mean the corporation will have to refocus its efforts on agricultural animals, says Saskatchewan agriculture minister Mark Wartman.
Concerns were raised last week that the Regina lab, one of two operated by PDS, would close as managers looked for ways to keep operating after losing $700,000 in base funding. The lab employs about 20 people.
Opposition agriculture critic Lyle Stewart said veterinarians are worried about what that might mean in light of the animal diseases present in the province and quoted from a letter written by Saskatchewan Veterinary Medical Association president Bob Bellamy.
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“The ability of our system to monitor, test for and quickly diagnose these and other diseases capable of being transmitted from animals to humans will be severely compromised if PDS were to restrict or shut down some of its services,” Bellamy wrote.
PDS was incorporated as a non-profit corporation in 1998 when the agriculture department’s Provincial Veterinary Lab in Regina was combined with the Western College of Veterinary Medicine diagnostic lab in Saskatoon.
Wartman said the province had to look at how to get the best value for its dollar.
“With the $1.2 million in base funding and the additional $500,000 in testing, another $400,000 into lab service, I think there is enough funding to keep our operations going very well.”
Wartman said the province has spent $1 million on equipment and wants it used for agricultural testing, including testing domestic deer and elk for chronic wasting disease.
“We’re very, very clear that what our focus is, what our investment is for, is to make sure that the agriculture sector is looked after.”
Wartman said he recognizes that people love their pets but the government did not invest in facilities so cats and dogs could be tested.
