A long-simmering dispute over the lack of federal support for the
veterinary college at Ste. Hyacinthe, Que., exploded in the House of
Commons Dec. 6 when a Bloc Québecois MP was expelled for calling
agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief a liar.
Ste. Hyacinthe Bloc Québecois MP Yvan Loubier, once chief economist for
the main Quebec farm lobby group, is accusing the federal government of
treating the Quebec vet college different than the three colleges in
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English Canada.
On Dec. 9, the Quebec college had to begin preparing material for an
accreditation review by the American Veterinary Medical Association. It
said more than $50 million is needed from Ottawa to make upgrades
necessary to keep accreditation.
Vanclief said he has been trying to win money from the finance
department but so far has been unsuccessful.
“For over two years, my caucus colleagues and I have been working very
hard on this,” the federal minister told the Commons agriculture
committee Nov. 28. Vanclief acknowledged that the first college facing
the accreditation review is Ste. Hyacinthe.
“I thought I had achieved that goal some months ago,” he said. “I was
not as successful at that time as I had hoped to be.”
He also had downplayed the Quebec isolation angle, insisting that the
vet colleges in Saskatoon, Guelph, Ont., and Charlottetown also face
accreditation reviews, although none of the other three face such an
imminent deadline and all say they expect they are in compliance with
the standards.
That is what drove Loubier over the edge of allowable parliamentary
language.
“We are fully aware of the situation approaching as far as the review
of the accreditation of the college at Ste. Hyacinthe and there are
three other university colleges that are approaching similar reviews,”
said Vanclief.
Loubier shouted: “No, it’s the only one. Liar.”
Later, Progressive Conservative leader Joe Clark also accused Vanclief
of “making a statement that is not true.”
The Bloc MP said the lack of investment at Ste. Hyacinthe will
discourage students from enrolling in the only French-language
veterinary college in North America.
He said Vanclief was treating Quebec with “contempt” and noted that the
vet college at the University of Guelph, Vanclief’s alma mater,
received funding from the Canada Innovation Fund.
