Board certified US physicians can now receive a Canadian medical license in as little as 14 days.
Canada is actively recruiting US trained/licensed physicians and nurses for health care positions in Canada.
Canada has reserved 5000 permanent resident slots annually just for US physicians seeking to relocate to Canada.
How do physician salaries/net earnings in Canada compare to those in the US?
US physicians earn higher salaries**, but Canadian physician salaries are more standardized with significantly less variability among individual physicians within the same specialty.
US physicians have much higher malpractice costs and heavier case loads/longer work hours than Canadian physicians.
Many physicians cite a better work-life balance with less potential for burn-out as one of their primary reasons for moving to Canada.
Doctor Salaries in Canada vs USA | MCCQE1 Prep - Ace QBank Canada
**Canadian family practice median salary CAD $281K (US $200K)
US family practice median salary US $222-270K
Canadian specialist median salary CAD $350K (US $265K)
US specialist median salary US $330-381K
Specialist salaries vary by specialty.
(In Canada, emergency medicine salaries are actually higher than typical US salaries, according to 3 of D’s residency classmates who have already relocated to Canada. 2 to BC/Vancouver area and 1 to Ontario/Toronto.)
There was an article in the NYT recently about how many smaller municipalities in Canada are getting into bidding wars to attract family practice physicians. Signing bonuses in the 6 figure range are common, as are other perks like free housing, free daycare, free golf club/country club memberships, provincial tax rebates, free car service, individualized support for spouses looking for jobs after relocating…
Judging by my cousin, these are often in fairly remote /undesirable locations, but spending a few years there is a great way to build a nest egg.
I have no idea about the source of those comparable salaries but I have friends who moved from Canada because their earnings are significantly higher here than in Canada - of course part of that may be general Bay Area salaries and not representative of a US average.
It would be interesting to see the number of physicians that Canada is losing to the US and how that compares to the numbers they want to bring in from the states.
I think Canada has something of an advantage in that it’s not just a two-way flow for them - they are pretty active recruits outside of North America as well from my understanding. I don’t know how long that process takes (though clearly longer than the new fast-track they have for US doctors), but I would think that the kind of incentives offered above (for out of the way places) also likely have more pull for people from emerging markets than from the US - given that there is a permanent residence incentive built in as well as the pull of a significantly larger salary than they would be earning at home. I may have told this story before, but my cousin spent however many years was required (4?5?) at some little hospital in Saskatchewan. Of the 6 doctors at the hospital, 4 (including my cousin) were from my home country.
So interesting, thanks for sharing.
Per various Canadian medical journals, the number of Canadian physicians moving to the US has been consistently declining since 2000, when it hit a historic high. In 2015 (latest year I can find specific data for), only 27 CMGs who graduated between 2009 and 2013 moved to the US.
OTOH, MCC saw a 718% jump in the number US physicians applying for a Canadian medical licenses last year.
The BC Ministry of Health reports that 704 US physicians have contacted their office about credentialing since March 2025. (Which is when the new expedited pathways were announced.)
The Ontario Ministry of Health had 260 licensing inquiries from US physicians and issued 116 medical licenses to US physicians in 2025.
Prior to the new pathways opening, getting a Canadian medical license was a longer and more cumbersome process. US physicians had to take & pass the MCCQE (Canadian equivalent to USMLEs.) and demonstrate their US residency training & specialty board licensure was equivalent to Canada’s. The need for equivalency presented issues for several specialties, including internal medicine, emergency medicine, general surgery, all the surgical subspecialties due to training length differences. (Canadian residencies are longer.)
For example, EM in the US can be either 3 or 4 years; in Canada it’s 5 and includes additional rotations/training in critical care. Internal medicine residency in the US is 3 years; in Canada it’s 4. General surgery residency in Canada is 6 years; in the US it’s 5. And so forth.
RNs emigrating to Canada from the U.S. also on the rise: