MARKET MONITOR
Canada Veterinary Locum Market
Observed information on temporary veterinary cover.
Explore monthly locum and relief data across the UK, EU, USA and Canada.
Temporary cover: a response to staffing gaps
Canada’s roughly 4,700 veterinary practices create a substantial potential need for temporary cover, although not every practice is currently seeking a locum. Official projections anticipate continuing workforce shortages, with greater pressure on veterinarian supply than on veterinary-technician supply.
Recruitment delays show why interim staffing can matter. Government analysis found that more than half of veterinary-technician vacancies remained unfilled after three months during 2021–2023. In late 2025, the CVMA continued to warn of workforce gaps affecting both professions.
Temporary cover can help practices manage absences alongside permanent recruitment. The evidence supports persistent staffing pressure, but does not establish whether total Canadian relief bookings are growing or declining.
Sources: CVMA 2025 practice statistics and November 2025 workforce statement; Canadian Occupational Projection System, veterinarian and technician profiles, with historical analysis for 2021–2023 and projections for 2024–2033. Context and sources.
Monthly snapshot of locum veterinarian and RVT/technician opportunities observed across monitored public sources.
Locum vets
Updating
Observed locum vet ads.
RVTs / techs
Updating
Observed RVT/tech ads.
Individual shift dates
Updating
Explicit dates identified
This month at a glance
Early observations across monitored Canadian sources show active demand for both locum vets and RVTs/technicians. Some job ads represent multiple explicit dates of cover rather than a single vacancy, which is why eufenia tracks job listings and individual shift dates separately. Coverage varies by province and source, and some platforms do not expose a public national live count.
Current cover patterns
Ad-hoc dates
Single days or specific dates of cover.
Short blocks
Several consecutive days or weeks.
Ongoing temporary cover
Longer or recurring locum requirements.
Compared with last month
Vet opportunities
Data update in progress.
RVN opportunities
Data update in progress.
Explicit shift dates
Data update in progress.
Reports
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Past summaries
Earlier monthly summaries will be available here as regional data is published.
About the data
Eufenia draws on publicly accessible veterinary locum and relief sources. Figures represent opportunities observed across monitored public sources, not the total Canadian market. Duplicate listings are removed where identifiable, and job ads are kept separate from explicit individual shift dates whenever possible.
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