Halifax - Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery

Dalhousie UniversityHalifax, Nova ScotiaCMG stream

Approx. quota: 2 positions
Length: 5 years
Applications per year: 0–50
Offered interviews: 51–75%

CMG stream · open to Canadian medical graduates

Info session

details

Wed 2 Dec 2026,8:00–9:00 pm ASTvia CANPREPP source (opens in a new tab)

Interviews

1 date, 5 Feb 2027virtual

Halifax, 9 teaching sites

Program website Instagram CANPREPP profile CaRMS program page

What stands out about this program

Two-station temporal bone lab with a year-specific dissection curriculum supervised by faculty otologists.
From “Training sites” on the CaRMS page
Required research project in every year of otolaryngology training, presented at a divisional research day.
From “Program curriculum” on the CaRMS page

Dalhousie's five-year Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery program begins with 1.5 years of Core Surgery.
PGY-3 to PGY-5 are spent on otolaryngology subspecialties at the Victoria General Hospital, IWK and Dartmouth General Hospital, with a community ENT rotation typically in PGY-3.
Residents must complete a research project in each year of otolaryngology training.

The summary is written by CdnMD from the program’s CaRMS description.

What training looks like

Setting: Academic / tertiary hospital
Urban community
Regional community
Rural exposure: Not stated on CaRMS page
Research: Required · research project · protected time

By year

PGY-1: General Surgery
Otolaryngology
Emergency
Thoracic Surgery
Anesthesia
Neurosurgery
Infectious Diseases
Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery
PGY-2: Plastic Surgery
Intensive Care
Otolaryngology
PGY-3: various subspecialites of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck surgeryVictoria General Hospital, IWK, and Dartmouth General Hospitalentire PGY-3 year
community ENT rotationone of the training sites in either New Brunswick or Nova Scotia
PGY-4: various subspecialties of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck SurgeryVictoria General Hospital, IWK and Dartmouth General Hospitalentire PGY4 year
Elective rotationssites throughout the Dalhousie system or at other university centres2-4 months
PGY-5: various subspecialties of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck surgeryVictoria General Hospital, IWK, and Dartmouth General Hospitalentire PGY5 year

✓ = the CaRMS page states it; – = not stated. From the program description and its rotation list.

Where you train

Halifax, Nova Scotia: 9 teaching sites.

QEII Health Sciences Centre (Halifax Infirmary & Victoria General Hospital)
IWK Health Centre
Dartmouth General Hospital (Dartmouth)
Hants Community Hospital
Saint John, NB (Saint John · rural or distributed site)
Fredericton, NB (Fredericton · rural or distributed site)
Moncton, NB (Moncton · rural or distributed site)
Sydney, NS (Sydney · rural or distributed site)
Kentville, NS (Kentville · rural or distributed site)

Record systems at the listed sites: Oracle Health (Cerner) at 5 of 9; no published record for 4.

Moving to a new system: Sydney, NS; Kentville, NS (by Dec 2026).

Hospital facts

6 sites · public figures and clinical record systems where they are published

Public figures for hospitals named above, each with its source and reference period. They describe the hospital, not the program. We match names to the sources by name, so check each source before you rely on it.

Clinical record: One Person One Record, fully electronic record since May 2026 As of 31 Oct 2026. At QEII Health Sciences Centre (Halifax Infirmary & Victoria General Hospital), Dartmouth General Hospital.
Clinical record: One Person One Record, moving to a new system, by Dec 2026 As of 31 Oct 2026. At Sydney, NS, Kentville, NS.

How to read the figures

Hospital type. As the province lists it. The list has no volumes or beds.

QEII Health Sciences Centre (Halifax Infirmary & Victoria General Hospital)

This name covers 2 hospitals in the province’s lists. Each is shown on its own, A to Z, and the numbers are never added together.

QEII - Halifax Infirmary Site (Halifax)

Hospital type: Tertiary

QEII - Victoria General (VG) Site (Halifax)

Hospital type: Tertiary

IWK Health Centre

Clinical record: Oracle Health (One Person One Record), fully electronic record since Dec 2025 As of 31 Oct 2026

Matched to IWK Health Centre (Halifax) in the province’s hospital list.

Hospital type: Tertiary

Dartmouth General Hospital

Matched to Dartmouth General Hospital (Dartmouth) in the province’s hospital list.

Hospital type: Regional

Show facts for 1 more sites

Hants Community Hospital

Matched to Hants Community Hospital (Windsor) in the province’s hospital list.

Hospital type: Community

Nova Scotia's One Person One Record is live at IWK Health and at Nova Scotia Health's Central Zone. The other zones follow, provincewide by the end of 2026 (the province's date). As of 31 Oct 2026

Verify with the official source: each source button opens the publisher’s own page.

Sources and licences

Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Nova Scotia.

About Halifax

People
439,819residents, 2021 Census
Municipality of Halifax
Housing
2.6%rental vacancy rate
October 2025 survey, Halifax, Nova Scotia (census metropolitan area)
Winter and summer
−4.1 °CJanuary mean18.5 °CJuly mean
1991–2020 normals, Shearwater, 11.0 km away
Job outlook
Very goodfor the specialty here, 2025–2027

More about Halifax (its page: housing, getting around, weather, things to do, and every program that names it)

Sites as the program’s CaRMS page lists them. City figures are public statistics for the place named by the location; they describe the place, not the program.

How they choose

Application file components: CV
Electives
Examinations
Extra-curricular
Leadership skills
MSPRs
Personal letters
Reference documents
Research/Publications
Transcripts
Return of service: Not stated on CaRMS page. Check the provincial return-of-service rules.

Application file components as the program describes them.

Interviews and info sessions

Interview dates (2027 match): 5 Feb 2027
Format: Virtual
MMI or rotating station

Info sessions

Wed 2 Dec 2026
8:00–9:00 pm AST
Info session · VirtualCANPREPP source (opens in a new tab)

From the program’s CaRMS page (opens in a new tab), read 20 Oct 2026; a row tagged CANPREPP is on CANPREPP’s events calendar (read 24 Oct 2026), alone or as well. Dates and times are as the program wrote them; “your time” is worked out in your browser when your time zone differs. Programs add and change sessions.

Pay and call

Provincial scale, last updated 24 Jul 2026 · check the current agreement(opens in a new tab). One provincial scale for Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, set by the resident agreement, so every program there pays the same. Showing the 5 levels this program covers.

Annual salary by PGY level, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island
Level	Annual salary
PGY-1	$78,578 / year
PGY-2	$83,904 / year
PGY-3	$89,462 / year
PGY-4	$95,485 / year
PGY-5	$101,926 / year

How provincial pay and rent compare

Call

Call (provincial max): 1 night in 4 in-house
Post-call rule (provincial): No work required once handover is completed
Max continuous duty (provincial): Handover begins by the 24th consecutive hour on duty

The union agreement’s limits and rules for all residents in the province; your program’s actual call schedule may be lighter. MarDocs agreement, 1 Jul 2024 to 30 Jun 2027. Read as of 1 Oct 2026.

Benefits

13 lines as listed by CaRMS in 2022–2024: Annual vacation, Call stipend, CMPA dues paid, and more

Annual vacation: 4 weeks
Call stipend: Yes
CMPA dues paid: Yes
Dental coverage: Yes
Educational leave: Yes
Extended health insurance: Yes
Life insurance: $100,000 of insurance
Long-term disabilityinsurance: 66.7% of salary
Maternity leave top up after one year’s service: eligible for up to a maximum of 17 weeks top-up allowance for maternity/pregnancy leave
Provincial dues (% of salary): 1.30%
Provincial health insurance: Yes
Sick leave: Yes
Statutory and floating holidays: paid

Past matches

No repeated vacancies in CaRMS’s lists of open positions, 2019–2026.

Positions at this site, all streams.

What this means

A position can go unfilled because of where the site is, because it is open to IMGs only or to another restricted stream, or because the quota changed late.
It says nothing about the quality of the training or how heavy the workload is.
A site’s numbers are shown when it had positions open after round 1 in at least 2 of 8 years or at least 3 in one year.

Source: CaRMS’s lists of positions open after round 1 and after round 2, as read in October 2026 (latest: 2026 round 1 (CaRMS PDF, opens in a new tab), 2026 round 2 (CaRMS PDF, opens in a new tab)).

Year by year

2027 match

The 2027 match, one row per stream (scrolls sideways on narrow screens)
Stream	Positions	Length	Interviews	What changed
CMG stream	2	5 years	1 date, 5 Feb 2027Virtual	Nothing noted

2026 match

The 2026 match, one row per stream (scrolls sideways on narrow screens)
Stream	Positions	Length	Interviews
CMG streamHead and Neck Surgery - Otolaryngology	2	5 years	2 dates, 2–30 Jan 2026

The 2026 page of the CMG stream: our summary of its CaRMS description

Dalhousie University's Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery residency is a comprehensive 5-year program designed to train skilled surgeons and clinicians in the specialty.
The program offers extensive academic and clinical training across various subspecialties, with a strong emphasis on research, surgical skills, and multidisciplinary patient care.

Research: Residents must complete a basic or clinical research project annually, with opportunities to present at divisional, departmental, and national levels.
Training setting: Training occurs across multiple hospitals in Halifax, Nova Scotia, including QEII Health Sciences Centre, IWK Health Centre, Dartmouth General Hospital, and Hants Community Hospital, with potential community-based rotations in the Maritime provinces.
Teaching approach: Competency-based medical education with progressive independence, emphasizing comprehensive skill development across CanMEDS roles and providing structured, supervised training with increasing autonomy throughout the residency.
Enhanced skills: Not stated on CaRMS page
What the program looked at: CaRMS application
File review
Multi-mini interview (MMI)
Research portfolio
Reference letters
Personal letter
Academic performance

Positions, length and interviews as each match’s CaRMS pages stated them; what changed from our comparison of the two matches and our readings of the 2027 pages.

Contacts and links

Program director: Dr. Christopher Chin
christopher.chin@dal.ca
902-473-2737 902-425-3857
Program office: Program Assistant
Email on the CaRMS page(opens in a new tab)

Per CaRMS. Staff change during the cycle, so check the CaRMS program page(opens in a new tab) before emailing.

Program websiteWebsite CANPREPPCANPREPPdescribes academic half-dayFrom the programThis program on CaRMS

Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery elsewhere

Nearest to Halifax

Montreal - Otolaryngology - Head and Neck SurgeryMcGill University
Montreal, QC · 790 km
4 positions · Regular, Regular RoS
Bilingual
Ottawa - Otolaryngology - Head and Neck SurgeryUniversity of Ottawa
Ottawa, ON · 955 km
3 positions · CMG
Toronto - Otolaryngology - Head and Neck SurgeryUniversity of Toronto
Toronto, ON · 1,264 km
6 positions · CMG, IMG

All 16 Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery programs across Canada2027 match

Source

The program’s CaRMS page (opens in a new tab) · 2027 match · last approved 11 Sep 2026 · not final until file review opens 26 November; as of 19 Oct 2026, re-checked every two weeks.

Accredited · CaRMS program ID 35505 · How these pages are made › · See the 2026 match under Year by year

The Applications per year and Offered interviews figures are 5-year averages the program reports to CaRMS: past cycles, not your odds.

Independent. Not affiliated with CaRMS or the program. Programs edit their descriptions during the match; confirm on carms.ca (opens in a new tab) before you apply. Data last updated on CdnMD 24 Oct 2026.

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