Five months after provincial veterinary services fell victim to budget cuts in New Brunswick, a new private service will be taking over.
As of April 1, 2027, Hartland-based company Carleton AgriSolutions will take the reins of providing care for the province’s livestock. The company will work in collaboration with the province’s current provincial veterinarians.
Carleton AgriSolutions was formerly known as NB Seed Grower Coop and is a seed wholesaler that also supplies feed and farm supplies.
Peter Carpenter, the company’s vice-president of sales and marketing, says they don’t have experience delivering this kind of veterinary care, so their role in the partnership will be facilitative.
“Just on the management side to make sure they have the equipment and the facilities that they need to perform the duties that they do and let them look after that side,” he said.
During the unveiling of the provincial budget in March, New Brunswick’s Liberal government announced it would phase out provincial veterinary and veterinary laboratory services over three years.
The province said the cuts will save $4 million annually as it tries to address a $1.4-billion deficit. The announcement sparked backlash and a protest from industry members and supporters.
Carpenter says many moving pieces remain to ensure a successful transition but the company decided to make the announcement now so the industry can prepare.
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“We can’t wait until February to make an announcement,” he said. “It’s not fair to industry, so we want to get it out that this is what we are looking at doing, what we are collaborating on and everyone’s intention is to get there.”
Lisa Freeze, the current provincial field veterinarian supervisor, says the majority of the current provincial veterinarians have agreed to stay on while the transition process is ongoing.
“There have been a couple of veterinarians who have left the province since March, but the majority of the rest of the people are planning to stay on until the end of March 2027 with the government,” said Freeze.
“So long as this process is figured out by then, (they) hopefully (will) transition to Carleton AgriSolutions at that point.”
Agricultural Alliance of NB’s president, Danielle Connell, says while maintaining a government-funded service would have been best, the sector had to find a solution that addressed the reality it faced.
“In a perfect world, government would have appropriately resourced and funded veterinary services from the get-go, but over the last 20 years it’s been death by a million cuts and there is just a skeleton left,” she said.
Connell isn’t worried about Carleton AgriSolutions having a monopoly on these services, because she says the company has enough motivation to keep prices reasonable.
“If they charge too much, no one will call. If they charge too much, we’ll have dead animals, and that’s not good for their business,” Connell added.
In a news release, the province says it will contribute up to $1.2 million to support the transition.
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