Lack of vet college funding upsets MP

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Published: December 12, 2002

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.

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