The Agenda with Steve Paikin (Audio) - What Is Breaking Canada's Veterinary Care System?

Episode Date: April 22, 2026

Why is veterinary care getting harder to access just as more Canadians bring pets into their homes? With clinics facing staff shortages and burnout, and owners paying more for care, we look at what's driving the strain on the pet care system. Then, how well do we actually understand pets? Science broadcaster Jay Ingram explores what research reveals about the animals we live with, and why it matters.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hi, I'm Nam Kiwanuka, host and producer of mistreated, a podcast on women's health. There just hasn't been a lot of money put into researching women's health issues. If women are in pain, it's hysteria, it's an emotional issue. And this is what you see consistently. Women's health is not taken seriously. How did we get here? Find us wherever you get your podcasts, and be sure to check out the video version of the show on the TVO Today YouTube channel. Hope to see you then. Pet owners know the stress. Your cat started throwing up. Your dog has a limp. Maybe your rabbit stopped eating. You hope it's nothing serious, and maybe it isn't, but there's only one way

to find out. You have to go see a vet. And that's a whole world of stress. Even if the diagnosis ends up being good, what will it cost? Will you be able to afford it? Do they really need this test? Or is the vet just looking to make some money? Add in the cost of food, medication, stuff like dog walking or cat sitting, and you're looking at a pretty hefty price tag every year. We dig into what it costs to have a pet and how pet owners are coping during an affordability crisis. And when it comes to our furry or scaly or feathered friends, many people are willing to spare no expense because they are part of the family. We look at what science has to say about the bond between people and their pets and what they

really think of us. Welcome to the rundown. Vets are under pressure. There's a workforce shortage, long hours, burnout, and pet owners are facing their own challenges, as cost climb and care is harder to find. Joining us from Ottawa, Charmaine Brett is the president and CEO of the Ontario SPCA and Humane Society. Cliff Redford is a veterinarian who owns and operates the Wellington Veterinarian Hospital. Great to have you here, Dr. Cliff. Great to have you on the line, Charmaine. Charmaine, I'm going to come to you. When it comes to affordability, can you give us a sense of what areas of pet care are affected right now? Well, it's really, we're seeing pressures right across the system. We're seeing shortage of veterinarians, which is causing a lot of stress in the

system with people having access to it. We're seeing rise of pet care costs, which is like the supplies, the pet food, rising costs for just basic appointments in care. care. So really it's, it's accessibility right across the system that's affecting families, and we're really trying to address it from a preventative stream of work where we're really trying to hit families at the community level and offer all services that can really help them keep their pets and people together. What's driving the increase? I think it's a multitude of effects. We're calling it pet flation. We're seeing rising food costs in the grocery store, right? So it's the same thing with pets. You're seeing the pet food prices go up, but you're seeing the pet food prices go up,

you're seeing every single thing that a pet needs is going up in cost, just like our clothing is going up, our groceries, our apples, all of it. So it's just an impact across the system. But it's also hitting the veterinary costs. Your operating costs are going up in the clinics as well, which is causing from my side nonprofit increase in costs, right? But it's across the board. It's just a systemic pressure across the system,

which is really just hitting families and really making them struggle and need that preventative care so they can keep their pets and people together. Dr. Cliff, Let's talk pet health care. That's a big one. What is the cost of veterinary care right now? Is it rising? What are we saying?

Yeah, it is rising for a lot of the reasons that she mentioned. Not only are my rents higher significantly more than it used to be, my laboratory costs, my medical costs, like as far as medicines that I have to purchase, but also the services that veterinarians can now provide and the services that pet owners are expecting and wanting for their pets is so much more technologically advanced than it was even five years ago. What do you mean by? Well like every single animal hospital has to have a x-ray machine and now you better have a digital x-ray machine and you better be able to read it really, really quickly. I only have a two veterinarian hospital. I've got a digital x-ray machine. I now have

an ultrasound because we're doing urgent care to try and remove some of the burden on emergency hospitals, in-house blood machine, the types of surgeries that are being done are much more elevated and technique. And then last but not least, you know, the economy, everything's gone up in price. So for me to be able to keep my team happy, I have to pay them, thank goodness what they're worth, they're amazing. So I have to pay them more. And they've, I've been able to give them raises, you know, far beyond, let's say inflation because they deserve it. And unfortunately, all these things increase the bottom line. I don't want to get right into the nitty-gritty of your books, but I am curious.

Some of these machines, when you talk about the x-ray machines or diagnostics, what are we looking at as someone who runs an independent veterinary clinic? What does that cost someone like you? Yeah, like a digital x-ray machine for, say, a whole body. So we're not even talking about the digital dental x-ray machine that I also have. It's about $50,000. Now, if you look at human health care, you go to your doctor, your doctor writes you a requisition to go get an x-ray machine at a separate facility that is churning out three, 400 of these x-rays

a day because they're servicing a large piece of the community. Think about every single brick-and-mortar veterinary hospital has to have one of those x-ray machines. It increases the price, but thank goodness the service and the ability of us caring through these animals is great as well. All right. Charmaine, the Ontario SBCA and the Humane Society reported a 17% rise in surrender requests from 2024 to 2025. Can you give us an idea of what you have seen on the front line so far?

Yeah, I think that goes right back to what Dr. Cliff's saying, that accessibility to affordable veterinary care is just not, it's not in the reach of families right now, and they're delaying those visits to the veterinarian to be able to see and to be able to be able to to treat their animals. So people are having animals in home that are getting sicker and sicker. And then they're showing up at our doorstep when they're in a really rough state and they're having to surrender them. And we're seeing it.

I spoke to one of our centers yesterday. They're getting about 15 calls a week for cases of surrender. And it's just really sad. And to address it, we really just have to offer that preventable care at the community level, access to veterinary services, but also just like pet food banks, partnering with human food banks and being able to have that resource available. behavior training accessible at the community level. We have this really neat program right now.

We're partnering with Meals on Wheels, where it's looking at, okay, all of those seniors out there that they need pet food or they need human food, let's just also give them pet food at the same time. And then it's that entry point to be able to go in and say, hey, has your cat had a nail trim? If you guys need anything else, when's the last time you saw a vet?

So it's just bringing those services to the population and the people that really need them and doing it at the community level. What have you seen of people in the situations that they've had to be in where they've had to make those calls? Yeah, we offer emergency boarding, which isn't always readily unknown to the community. So when there was this case, I think last week in Orangeville, where a family, their rent has gone up astronomically. They could no longer afford their place. They had two dogs and a cat.

So they came to us and they asked for emergency boarding so that they could keep their pets with us while they try to find that next step of their housing, and have their animals together. So it comes in all different types and shapes and forms where you have families that are really, they're open and they're saying, hey, can you help us find a solution? We really want to figure this out. But then there's also families that, like you said, they're just really, they're upset and they come and they don't even say it's their animal. They'll say that they found this stray, which for us is the worst thing because if it's a stray

animal, then we have to put a stray hold on it. And if it's not having a stray hold, then we can adopt it out into a family right away. So really just having those conversations with people, and trying to understand where they're at so we can really help them. First of all, stay with their furry friends. But second of all, really just help those animals if they can't take care of them anymore. All right. Let's change gears a little bit.

I want to talk about veterinary clinics. We have heard that more of these offices are being bought up by corporations. We know your office is an independent. You own it. There's one other veterinarian that who works in your clinic. Do we know if more of these offices are being bought up by corporations? Yeah, it's pretty easy to see. see in major cities across Canada, about 50% of veterinarian clinics now are owned by corporations.

Some of them change their name, so it's very, very clear, but a lot of them don't change the name because they want to kind of keep that community feel. So you may not even realize that your friendly neighborhood veterinarian has actually sold to a corporation. During the pandemic, for various economic reasons that I don't fully understand, the the buying power of these corporations became so high that they were offering veterinarians, including myself, two to two and a half times higher than I would have ever imagined. I could have got my clinic. I seriously thought about it.

I was in some need for some money to help take care of my mom. Me and my siblings wanted to help her out of a jam. Thank goodness I didn't pull the trigger. I just used the equity. I was able to use the equity in my business and get a loan from the bank. but the reality is, is I wouldn't have had the freedom that I want and I love. Some people say I don't get along with authority as well, and that may be why I own a clinic. But, you know, I do a lot of volunteer travel.

I'm going to Jamaica next month. I was into Jamaica a couple of months ago after the hurricane. I've traveled all around the world. My clinic pays for it. I pay for it through my clinic. There is no way a private equity firm, which is who owns these corporations. Berkshire is a big one. they're not going to approve me spending $20,000 to go help animals in another country.

So I like that freedom. I like the freedom to be able to offer discounts if I need to, to maybe avoid those animals being surrendered to Charmaine and her facilities. So it just gives me some freedom, and I feel that the service and the care is better. You had mentioned it's pretty obvious to see. You're talking about sort of the titles and the branding of a company, but what does it look like when it comes to the cost of vet care?

Yeah, it's difficult. And I mean, every single clinic or, let's say, corporation is a little bit different. And it really depends upon sort of the leader that's there. But a lot of these veterinarians are reaching retirement age. So they'll sell, understandably. They're going to try and get as much as they can. And then they're gone within a year. And you will start to see there's pressure to the associates.

I hear it all the time. The associates that are now working. for this private equity firm that have no interest in actual medical or surgical services. They're looking at a bottom line. They got to worry about their investors. They are feeling pressure to produce, essentially. And so I see these invoices that are just climbing, climbing, climbing, for reasons I can't fully understand. And it's anecdotally, it's something I'm seeing happen regularly now. Shermaine, you had mentioned, you know, programs to help alleviate some pressure. You've partnered with 57 food banks across the province.

Can you give us a sense of how these conditions that we talked about, access to that's food affordability for our furry friends differ across the province? Yeah, I think at the Ontario SPCA, we're really uniquely positioned. We have 14 centers across the province. So we have a great ability to span in those remote areas and to bring animals throughout the province in a nice transfer way. It's amazing to see the difference in the communities up in Renfrew area in the east. It's not about having the affordability to access veterans. There's just no vet services there.

We have stories of people going with their animals to vet clinics and they can't pay to see a vet because the vet's booked up. So they have to drive hours to Ottawa to access care. And there's so many heartbreaking stories where the animals, they just don't make it because they haven't been able to do that trip down because they were so sick in the first place. So access is really about, one, is there veterinarians there or is there affordable veterinary care? And there's so many different models that we're trying to use to be able to support the population. We have mobile clinics going up to the rural parts where we're bringing vet teams in and having vet clinics up to bring affordable care, as well as brick and mortar care.

clinics in the cities. We have five of them now in Sudbury, Thunder Bay, in Durham, in York, and in Berry to really help the population bring it to the community level. But then also the behavior training, the affordability to pet, just offering pet food services to the population. But I think the biggest thing is really working it in a system, right? Working with the social services, with the municipalities, to get the word out there that we have this and we can offer it to the population. That's the biggest thing right now. I do have to ask a question, Charmaine. I think all three of us are animal lovers.

I'm going to throw that out there. But is there a serious conversation that needs to happen where people in this moment, in this crisis, if they can't afford to take care of a pet, perhaps they should not have a pet. Charmaine? I think situations are just changing, though. People who have had pets, elderly people who have had pets for 20 years.

all of a sudden are hitting an economic situation where it's just more difficult, right? And we want to keep those pets and people together because it's that human-animal bond. If you're an elderly person, that cat is your livelihood, right? So being able to keep them with them really helps the pets. It helps the people, it makes everybody happy. So I think it's really about what tools can we give them so that they can stay together. Dr. Cliff? Yeah, I mean, no one expected gas to go up 20% in the last month, right?

Things changed. Charmaine told the story of the family whose rent just kept climbing and climbing and climbing and climbing, and they couldn't keep their three animals. And then, you know, wonderful services like the SBCA were able to do an emergency foster, let's say. A lot of times people get pets. They get them for the right reasons. And usually, not always, but usually at the right time in their lives. And then emergencies happen or their lifestyle changes significantly due to their financial stability. and all of us need help. All of us need help sometime in our lives. And taking a pet away from a family is the last thing you want to do for the family and definitely for the pet as well. All right. I want to pick up on a note that Sharmin had mentioned about not having vets up there. We have a lot of conversations in this studio about the doctor shortage in the healthcare system. That is very much the same situation for vets across this province.

What does it like for those in the vet care profession? Yeah, we're seeing a crisis now that we never would have anticipated. There are five veterinarian schools in Ontario, and a lot of foreign trained veterinarians coming and wanting to work in Canada and Ontario, and the college is doing everything we can to license them and to get as many veterinarians in the field. But there's massive burnout due to, for students, high student debt, not being able to work the long hours, maybe getting bullied by clients. This is something that happens that people don't realize. And these young veterinarians are deciding not to be in the field. The pandemic

caused so many people to rethink their life and maybe chase a different dream. So not only the veterinarians, but if you lose technicians or ACAs or receptionists. ACAs, animal care assistance, I mean, God forbid, now the veterinarian has to draw blood. You do not want the veterinarian drawn blood in your animal. And so it just completely drops the number of team members, and it just affects the number of animals. A veterinarian like myself is able to see. So it is a higher demand because more people have pets,

more people want to take care of their pets, but there's less people to do so. All right. With everything that we've laid out here, Charmaine, what advice would you give to people? who are at a crossroads, not sure if they can take care of their pets. I encourage all people to reach out to social services, to reach out to us and ask for help. We have services available.

There are so many services to support pets and people to stay together, and we want to do it. So I think just being aware, asking the questions and being able to accept the help. Dr. Cliff, a study last year found that half of pet owners declined, recommended veterinary care, skipped, a vet visit in 2024. Charmaine had mentioned a little bit about that. What advice would you give to pet owners to reduce the costs of vet care? You know, there's sort of the long-term thing

you have to look at, which is sticking with the wellness visits and the preventative care, proper food, regular vet visits. But if you do have an emergency, you do have to triage it. And the big thing is be honest with your veterinarian. Be honest up front and say, hey, I've got some concerns,

ask for a quote right at the beginning. recognize that my job is to give you the best that I think is for your pet. I'm not going to make assumptions based on your financial ability. But if you can't afford it, it is then my job to work with you and see if we can reasonably cut corners, which may be discounts, payment plans. In the beginning, try and get pet insurance. And then in Ontario, there's a great organization called the Farley Foundation put on by the OVMA, which is basically a charity that helps

cover emergency services for people on disability and other government support. And you do not have to be an OVMA member as a veterinarian clinic to access some of those funds. So people just have to speak up. I understand it can be maybe embarrassing for them. But then also veterinarians like myself need to work with people and see what we can do to keep those families together, keep those pets healthy and minimize that sort of strain on the SPCA. And we're all in this together. So we just got to work together.

I think that's a great place to end our conversation. Great advice. Dr. Cliff, Charmaine, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. As of 2024, there were almost 9 million cats and more than 8 million dogs in Canada. And that's not even counting the birds, fish, reptiles, and smaller furry guys we live with.

So we love them, but what do we actually know about them? Jay, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks, too. Beautiful Grange Park. Now, since I've been here, I've seen lots of dogs being walked, and it's kind of crazy to think that at one point, humans didn't have pets. And I'm hoping you can tell us how far this relationship goes back.

Well, the true answer is a long time, but we're not sure exactly how long, but I can give you what are at least the minimum time. So dogs were first. Cat owners don't despair. They were a long time ago, too. And the oldest fossilized animal that is unambiguously a dog is just over 14,000 years old.

And it was buried with a human. So that's really much of the evidence that it was a pet. And it's distinguishable from a wolf, but wolves were the ancestors. They became dogs. You asked me, when did this first happen? It's really tricky because inevitably, if you have wolves transitioning to dogs, there are going to be a lot of ambiguous ones in the middle that have some dog features and some wolf features. On the dogs and wolves, the dogs that we know today, are they related to the modern,

wolf that we know today? No. The wolf that gave rise to dogs is extinct. So when people talk about wolf dogs, they're not, they're talking about a modern creation. And it's actually quite unfortunate that wolf is extinct and I'm not sure anybody knows how long ago it died out. Talk to me about ancient Egypt because there is a site, a zoo that was discovered, that kind of shed some light in terms of our relationship and our fascination with animals. So let's switch to cats because we've spent a long time on dogs. I'm a dog person, well, but I also had cats. Anyway, so ancient Egypt was a very interesting kind of cognitive dissonant culture when it came to cats.

So cats were definitely pampered. There are wonderful paintings of a cat underneath the dining room table eating a whole fish. When you can see the feet of his or her mistress, you know, sitting there. So there was that. The problem was they became so popular that there were at least two Egyptian gods with cats' heads. They were sort of cats personified. Now, when you have gods, you want to give offerings to them. And the perfect offering turned out to be mummified cats.

And so it wasn't apparently just a case of, oh, the cat died, let's mummify it and give it to the God. Cats were raised for that. And there was this amazing discovery in the late 1890s where a farmer was plowing a field in Egypt and started to uncover millions of mummified cats. millions. Then it got actually pretty disgusting because the wind started blowing these remnants of the stench was unbelievable. But many of these mummified cats had had their necks broken at like one or two months old. And so it was like the ancient Egyptian cat version of a puppy mill. And they were creating them solely to sell them at the market. Some of this is hypothetical, but it makes sense. and you'd buy a cat mummy and you'd give it to the garden.

So both good and bad from the cat's point of view. I want to talk science. Let's talk chemistry. When it comes to interacting with a dog or a cat, what happens to our bodies? So the best known example of what happens is the hormone oxytocin, which is well known to facilitate bonding between a mother and her. baby is also well known now that your dog if you stare into your dog's eyes dogs oxytocin will rise the humans oxytocin will rise more recently it's been shown that cats the same maybe not to the same degree because i know you're a cat owner and i know that you know that

they have an independent streak that dogs do not have that's true but if you look into the eyes of a wolf, there's no oxytocin response at all. So that's something, and you see it's, you've got at least, okay, oldest dog was 14,000. Let's say it started 20,000 years ago. 20,000 years of co-evolution of humans and dogs, I mean it would be shocking if there hadn't been changes. And there's been really good evidence. There was a great set of experiments done in the Soviet Union and then Russia on silver foxes. This guy, Belieyeyev had a colony of them. He'd only let the most approachable ones mate every year, 10%.

In 10 generations, he had foxes that had come up and lick your hand and allow themselves to be petted. And they started to look different. They started to look, like their ears used to be like this. They started to do this. Their colors changed. The way they held their tail changed. They started to look like dogs.

And yet they weren't being selected for any. of those appearance things they were being selected for tamedness. 97% of Americans, let me get, let me get sure I got this right, yeah, treat their pets like family members. Many people say they say they did. Many will say that they treat them like their children. Yeah. Why? Because they're messed up. I look I mean you know anybody that owns a pet feels that very strong, compassionate relationship with the pet.

And, you know, I think that's actually kind of extraordinary. I mean, I love my dog. I wouldn't discard my dog. But my wife would be pissed off if I said, yeah, he's pretty much the same. So I'm not going to say that. But that study or a study very much like that started asking further questions. Like, well, how much? How much is it a family member?

And I can't remember the exact numbers, but they range from 80. I'll try and do it in order, 80% down to about 60%. 80% would change their job if it interfered with keeping that pet. 70 some odd percent would move. 70 some odd percent would change roommates. 62 percent, and I do remember that number, would change their relationship. Okay, so that's ridiculous. I don't think my parents would do any of those things for me, and I am their children.

Jay, I've got one more question. It's another dark one. It's about death. We know that we will outlive our pets. Yet we continue to devout so much to them. Why? I don't want to waffle again, but I think it's just the extent of the relationship. And those animals that you think have... have become your companion and you really think you understand and they do things that you know

they're going to do and they know you. It is a relationship. It's not, I don't think equal to a human, a family relationship, but it's a relationship nonetheless. And I think animals that, like if your goldfish dies, well it's unfortunate, but you probably just, you know, some people flush them down the toilet and that's it, you know. Signs that are always interested in, is it possible to better do a better? better job of matching a human with a pet. So if the human has certain personality characteristics and the dog or cat does, you know, maybe that's a bad match. Empathy

sounds like a great quality to have, but the human with the most empathy is going to suffer with that pet, especially when it dies. And so, you know, it's, there's always two sides to that coin. Jay, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. We can talk hours. I'm pretty sure. We damn well good. Oh, sorry. No, that's all right. Oh, you guys are still here. Oh, didn't know. I'm Jay-N. Thanks for watching The Rundown. We'd love to know what you think. So send us your suggestions and feedback at tb0.org slash rundown feedback. Or as always, you can leave us a comment on YouTube. Until then, I will see you tomorrow.

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