Rural Vet Clinics Can Apply for $10,000 Student Wage Grant

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Rural veterinary clinics in Alberta can now apply for a pilot grant program offering up to $10,000 as a wage incentive to hire a veterinary student between May 1 and Aug. 31, 2026.

The two-year, $250,000 Veterinary Student Recruitment and Retention Pilot Grant Program is funded through the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (SCAP) and targets practices that provide livestock veterinary services in communities with a current or anticipated demand for veterinarians.

Alberta’s rural veterinary shortage

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The demand for veterinarians across Alberta is high, but the shortage is most acute in rural communities.

A 2021 report from the Alberta Veterinary Medical Association and Alberta Veterinary Technologist Association found the provincial vacancy rate for veterinary positions sits at roughly 17 per cent — rising to nearly 19 per cent in rural areas — compared to a provincial average of about three per cent across all jobs. The report estimated Alberta will need more than 1,600 new veterinarians by 2035.

“Rural and mixed-practice veterinarians are essential to the well-being of our livestock and the sustainability of our agriculture sector,” said RJ Sigurdson, Alberta’s Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation.

Lethbridge Polytechnic is also addressing the pipeline with a new pre-veterinary medicine diploma launching in fall 2026.

How to apply

Eligible clinics can apply now for the 2026 intake. Applications for 2027 will open next year. The program is centred around practices that provide livestock veterinary services and demonstrate a current or anticipated need for veterinarians.

The Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership is a five-year, $3.5-billion federal-provincial-territorial investment (2023–2028) supporting competitiveness, innovation and resiliency in Canada’s agriculture and agri-food sector.

About the author

Alexis Kienlen is a reporter with Glacier Farm Media. She grew up in Saskatoon but now lives in Edmonton. She holds an Honours degree in International Studies from the University of Saskatchewan, a Graduate Diploma in Journalism from Concordia University, and a Food Security certificate from Toronto Metropolitan University. In addition to being a journalist, Alexis is also a poet, essayist and fiction writer. She is the author of four books- the most recent being a novel about the BSE crisis called “Mad Cow.”