Two things a buyer cannot buy: the seller’s licence, and the clinic’s certificate of accreditation. Veterinarians Act section 15 forbids operating a veterinary facility without a certificate; O. Reg. 1093 section 12(2) expires it early once the facility has no facility director; and the departing seller is usually the facility director.
Key takeaways
SECTION 01 OF 11
Ontario passed a replacement Act and has not turned it on. The Veterinary Professionals Act, 2024 carries the note “Sections 1-98 come into force on a day to be named by proclamation of the Lieutenant Governor.” The Veterinarians Act says it in reverse: “This Act is repealed on a day to be named by proclamation of the Lieutenant Governor.”
The College agrees: “While the Veterinary Professionals Act is now law, it is not yet in full effect” (CVO), and “The new model is expected to be in place in 2027” (CVO) — an expectation, not a commencement date. An agreement reciting 2024 Act sections cites law that binds nobody yet.
SECTION 02 OF 11
One attaches to the person: section 11(1) bars anyone but a licence holder from practising veterinary medicine. The other attaches to the place: section 15 requires a certificate of accreditation to establish or operate a veterinary facility, and a facility means a building, land or vehicle practised in or from — so a mobile or house-call practice needs its own certificate.
The College joins the two: “In Ontario, a veterinarian providing clinical care to animals is required to work from an accredited facility” (CVO). Accreditation is the permission to trade, and it is issued to a veterinarian, not to the company that owns the clinic.
SECTION 03 OF 11
No provision says in terms that only a veterinarian may own a clinic; the rule is assembled from three sources. Section 17(1) has the Registrar issue or renew a certificate “upon the application of a member of the College”. O. Reg. 1093 s.11(2) then requires that applicant to hold a general or restricted licence and to “be engaged in the practice of veterinary medicine conducted in or from the veterinary facility in respect of which the application is being made.” An absentee holder is not contemplated.
Third is the College’s own standard: “Veterinarians with a restricted licence with direct or indirect supervision are not permitted to own a practice” (Accreditation Standards). That is the body that inspects the premises speaking about ownership, and it speaks for Ontario veterinary practice only. The general rule is in buying a professional practice.
SECTION 04 OF 11
Section 5.1 lets one or more members establish a professional corporation to practise veterinary medicine, and it then needs a certificate of authorization from the College (Treadstone Law). The share rule is in Business Corporations Act s.3.2(2): “All of the issued and outstanding shares of the corporation shall be legally and beneficially owned, directly or indirectly, by one or more members of the same profession” (who may hold them).
The family-share workaround some health professions enjoy is unavailable. Section 3.2(6) permits regulations “exempting classes of health profession corporations, as defined in section 1 (1) of the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991”, and searching the consolidated Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991 for “veterin” returns zero occurrences. The College allows one layer of indirection: “a shareholder may hold shares of the professional corporation through a holding company, if all of the shares are held by individuals holding licences issued by the College” (CVO).
SECTION 05 OF 11
It does not transfer. Section 12(1): “A certificate of accreditation expires five years after it is issued or renewed”, and s.12(2) expires it sooner on relocation, on loss of the facility director, or on loss of any member holding the licence or having given the undertaking that s.11(2) requires.
The College states the consequence plainly — “A veterinary facility Certificate of Accreditation will expire if there is no facility director” — and puts the fix on the buyer: “The new facility director is responsible for submitting the Change of Information for Accreditation Facility” purchase form (CVO). Section 13 requires immediate written notice of a change of facility director, name or scope of services, so a closing-day rebrand is itself reportable.
SECTION 06 OF 11
Designating one is the owners’ job. Section 10(1) requires that “the owners of the veterinary facility or the partners in the practice conducted in or from the facility, as the case may be, shall designate a facility director”, and where that person is not an owner or partner, s.11(2) paragraph 7 requires “a written attestation from the owners or partners, as the case may be, that the facility director is authorized to be the facility director.” That attestation is what makes non-veterinarian ownership workable at all.
The commitment is real: “A facility director is expected to be employed or contracted at the accredited facility they oversee, and to practice veterinary medicine onsite at the accredited facility not less than 4 days a month” (CVO). Where the clinic’s only veterinarian is the retiring seller, that is a recruitment problem disguised as a closing condition (transition period, staff on a sale). That director also undertakes, under paragraph 6, to “ensure that only members will have responsibility for and control over all of the clinical and professional aspects of the provision of services through the facility.”
SECTION 07 OF 11
The hardest edge for a corporate buyer is s.43(2): “It is a conflict of interest for a member who is employed by a person other than another member or a professional corporation, or who has a contract to provide veterinary services with such a person, to perform veterinary services in the course of his or her employment or pursuant to his or her contract for a client other than the employer or the contractor.” Subsections (3) to (6) carve out the Crown, universities, pounds, zoos and municipalities; a general practice serving the public is in none of them, and a conflict of interest is itself misconduct under s.17(1) paragraph 25.
Payment mechanics are caught too. Section 42(2)(a) makes it a conflict to enter “any agreement, including a lease of premises, under which any amount payable by or to a member or a related person is related to the amount of fees charged by the member or the net revenue from the member’s practice of veterinary medicine”. A percentage-of-revenue management fee, or percentage rent to a landlord in the buyer’s group, is that shape exactly — read the lease early (the landlord who can stop your deal, landlord consent).
SECTION 08 OF 11
The accreditation standards regulate the site too: the practice must have, and appear to have, veterinary medicine as its primary purpose, and must be separate and distinct from any other business enterprise. Ancillary revenue is allowed but not as a sublease — “As an example of what is not permitted is the renting or leasing of space within the practice to a provider of ancillary service, such as a groomer.” Rent from a groomer in the back room does not survive accreditation.
SECTION 09 OF 11
Animal records are not health records, and borrowing that framework gives the wrong answer. The College points veterinarians to the federal private-sector Act: “veterinarians are legally responsible, under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) , for protecting the privacy of the personal information they receive” (CVO). Confidentiality comes from s.17(1) paragraph 6 of the regulation.
Retention is fixed by regulation: s.22(5)(c) requires records “retained for a period of at least five years after the date of the last entry in the record or until two years after the member ceases to practise veterinary medicine, whichever occurs first”, while the standards state only the first limb. For the data room, PIPEDA s.7.2(1) — Prospective business transaction — permits disclosure without consent under a restricted-use agreement.
SECTION 10 OF 11
Start with the expiry date. Section 50(2) allows renewal only on an application made “not earlier than five months and not later than three months before the expiry of the certificate”, and s.50(3) turns a missed window into a fresh application rather than a renewal.
Then the people: name the incoming facility director, confirm the licence class, and get written confirmation they will sign the paragraph 6 undertaking. If a professional corporation is being bought, confirm every post-closing shareholder holds a College licence — section 5.3 requires notice to the Registrar of a shareholder change, and Treadstone Law on transferring a professional corporation and a shareholder’s death shows what follows when no eligible holder is left. Make the College’s sign-off an express closing condition (before funds move), draft the vendor non-compete for a regulated practice, and test notifiability.
SECTION 11 OF 11
Accreditation carries over rather than restarting. Section 103(1): “A certificate of accreditation that was in force under the Veterinarians Act immediately before the transition date is deemed, on the transition date, to be a certificate of accreditation issued under this Act.” Section 104 does the same for a certificate of authorization.
The share rule becomes explicit and slightly narrower: s.70(4) requires that “all of the issued and outstanding shares of a professional corporation shall be legally and beneficially owned, directly or indirectly, by one or more veterinarian members.” Because the new Act adds a veterinary technician licence class, technicians become members without becoming eligible shareholders. None of it is in force yet. And the boundary: this is Ontario; every other province accredits veterinary facilities under its own statute and college.
No. The certificate of accreditation is issued to a licensed veterinarian, not to the business, so no purchase agreement can assign it. It also expires early once the facility loses its facility director — a change that happens by default when the departing seller was that person.
No. It has Royal Assent, but its main sections are not yet in force, and the older Veterinarians Act still governs. The College expects the new model to be in place in 2027, but that is an expectation, not a commencement date.
Only through one narrow route. All shares of the professional corporation must be owned by members of the profession, but the College allows a shareholder to hold those shares indirectly through a holding company, provided every shareholder of that holding company is itself a licensed veterinarian.
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