Canada's Five Veterinary Schools Compared: Seats, Regional Quotas and Tuition
By Muntasir • Published Aug 21, 2026 • Updated Sep 20, 2026 • Money & Budgeting, Fields of Study, Canadian Universities & Colleges
Canada has five accredited veterinary schools, and most seats at each one are reserved for residents of specific provinces under interprovincial agreements rather than open to all Canadians equally.
🏠 Western College of Veterinary Medicine (Saskatchewan) allocates 88 seats: British Columbia 40, Saskatchewan 25, Manitoba 20, the territories 1, plus 2 Indigenous-designated seats
Alberta residents cannot apply to WCVM; Alberta funds its own school at the University of Calgary instead
Atlantic Veterinary College (PEI) reserves about 75 percent of its seats for the four Atlantic provinces combined
Universite de Montreal teaches its DMV program in French
The Five Schools
Every accredited veterinary program in Canada runs as a four-year Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree, called a DMV at the French-language school. There are only five of them for the entire country.
| School | University | Location | Language |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) | University of Guelph | Guelph, Ontario | English |
| Atlantic Veterinary College (AVC) | University of Prince Edward Island | Charlottetown, PEI | English |
| Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM) | University of Saskatchewan | Saskatoon, Saskatchewan | English |
| Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (UCVM) | University of Calgary | Calgary, Alberta | English |
| Faculte de medecine veterinaire | Universite de Montreal | Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec | French |
Seats and Regional Quotas
Most seats at each school are reserved for residents of a set list of provinces under interprovincial agreements, not open to every Canadian applicant on equal terms.
WCVM publishes its split clearly: 88 first-year seats total, allocated as British Columbia 40, Saskatchewan 25, Manitoba 20, the three territories 1, plus 2 seats designated for Indigenous applicants, according to the University of Saskatchewan . Alberta residents are not eligible to apply to WCVM at all, because Alberta funds its own program at the University of Calgary instead.
AVC reserves roughly 75 percent of its seats for residents of the four Atlantic provinces (PEI, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador) combined, with the remaining 25 percent going to international applicants, according to the University of Prince Edward Island .
OVC, UCVM and UdeM each primarily serve residents of their home province, Ontario, Alberta and Quebec respectively, but their exact current seat counts and any out-of-province quota splits were not available through official sources at the time of writing. Confirm the current-year seat count and quota structure directly with each school's admissions office before you apply, since these figures are set annually and change.
Tuition
Tuition depends heavily on whether you hold a quota seat in your home province or region. WCVM lists 2026-27 tuition at 16,228 dollars plus 1,331.66 dollars in student fees, for a total of 17,559.66 dollars for the year, according to the University of Saskatchewan , on top of additional program expenses and living costs. Exact current tuition for OVC, AVC, UCVM and UdeM was not available through official sources at the time of writing; check each school's admissions page directly, since out-of-region and international rates typically run well above in-quota tuition at every Canadian vet school.
How to Use This as an Applicant
Start by identifying whether your home province has a direct agreement seat at one of the five schools. If it does, you generally compete within that smaller, better-odds pool at in-quota tuition. If it does not, or you want a school outside your quota group, you compete for a much smaller pool of open or international-rate seats at a higher cost. Confirm the current seat count, quota list and tuition for any school you are targeting before you build your application timeline around it.