Making Way For A New Vet Clinic In The South Cariboo

The first step toward the construction of a new Veterinary Clinic has begun at the old Marmot Ridge Golf Course in the South Cariboo.

Owner/Operator of Lakeland Vet Clinic, DR. Ross Dickinson, said it only took about 3 hours for that building to come down on Tuesday (April 15) once the excavator got started.

“The original plan was to try to renovate that building, trying to save it, it’s been a landmark of this community for a lot of years. We went in with about a $1 million budget hoping it would cover renovating and turning it into the new small animal Vet Clinic. It took about a year and a half with architects and engineers and hazardous materials assessments and came up with a plan that looked like it would work but unfortunately in that timeline the cost of construction just skyrocketed and our million dollar budget very quickly became insufficient.”

Dickinson said the last number they were throwing around was $1.6-1.8 million and that was sort of the best case scenario.

“Once you get started on the renovation you run into all sorts of surprises so that cost could have even been higher. At that point we started to look at option “B” and the plan was quickly changed to a full demolition of that building. We’ll build a new, small animal facility on site first then go within the next 5 years to add in large animal facilities so we’re currently in the design phase.”

Dickinson noted that they are in that design phase dealing with a group out of Quebec that specializes in Veterinary Clinic designs and he’s hopeful that design will be in place within the next 6 to 8 weeks.

“We can now reach for permits and start lining up our construction guys. I’m not sure exactly what their availability is going to be like and we’ll have to wait until we have that plan in place. Construction should start this year and if we can get the building to lock up before winter, do all the interior work through the winter, then in early Summer from next year, best case scenario we’re moved up there and the small animal clinic is operational.,” Dickinson said.

Right now the Lakeland Vet Clinic has 3 exam rooms limiting how many Vets can work out of the existing facility which Dickinson would like to expand on both space and Doctors with the new build.

“With 5 or 6 exam rooms, separate surgery, dental suite, and a design that maximizes efficiency, I think we could probably run 5 or 6 Vets out of the new location once it’s built,” Dickinson noted, “the hope is if you build it they will come. Finding Vets right now is hard to do, there’s not a lot of available workforce that’s out there and that’s a problem Canada-wide. But if we have this new Clinic in place, it’s welcoming, it’s attractive, and my hope is that our ability to recruit will be that much greater.”