Parental/Disability Leave Program

New OVMA Membership Option

Taking a leave from the clinic? Don’t fall out of the loop with the latest news and research. Now you can keep your membership active during your leave with OVMA’s new Pregnancy/Parental or Disability Leave Membership option.

Criteria for Reduced Membership Fees for Members on Pregnancy/Parental or Disability Leave

Members who meet the following criteria are entitled to receive a 50% reduction in their membership fee. The half-price membership fee shall only apply to individual membership fees, not clinic fees, associate member (out of province veterinarian) fees or the fees for new graduates, which are already discounted.

Pregnancy/Parental Leave

In keeping with the definition of parent in the Employment Standards Act, reduced membership fees shall be extended to: expectant mothers; birth parents; adopting parents; and a member who is legally married to or otherwise in a relationship of some permanence with a parent of a child and who plans on treating the child as his or her own.
To qualify for the reduced fee, the member must not be working for at least four months during the membership year due to pregnancy or to care for a new child. The reduced fee can be granted for a maximum of one membership year per child. The member must apply to the association for this reduced fee, specifying the length and dates of the absence.
Where a member has already paid the full fee for the year, and subsequently learns that she/he will be taking at least four months of pregnancy and/or parental leave during the year, the member shall be entitled to a 50% refund on her/his membership fees for the current year. If the member exercised that right, she/he shall not be eligible to receive a discount on the membership fee for the subsequent year.

Disability Leave

To qualify for the reduced fee, the member must not be working for at least four months during the memerbship year due to disability.
Where a member has already paid the full fee for the year, and subsequently learns that she/he will be taking at least four months of disability leave during the year, the member shall be entitled to a 50% refund on her/his membership fees for the current year.

Documentation

No documented evidence of the need for the leave shall be required. However, the member shall be asked to submit a form requesting the reduced fee. The form shall:

state the nature of the leave being taken;
indicate the start and end date of the leave; and
be signed by the member.

The reduced fee must be applied for either prior to or during the leave period. Should a member be unsure as to whether the leave will exceed four months in duration, the member may apply for the reduced fee if and when the length of the leave has been determined to exceed four months.

Requests should be forwarded to:

OVMA
Cheryl Coulombe, OVMA's Manager of Member Services
420 Bronte Street South, Suite 205, Milton, Ontario L9T 0H9
ccoulombe@ovma.org
T: 905.875.0756 / 1.800.670.1702 ext. 27
F: 905.875.0958 / 1.877.482.5941