Edmonton - Ophthalmology

University of AlbertaEdmonton, AlbertaCMG stream

Program websiteWebsite CANPREPPCANPREPP1 more link

Open on carms.ca

CaRMS program description, 2026 match, last approved 10 Sep 2025

From the 2026 match (R-1 2026). See the 2027 version

Positions (approx. quota): 3 positions
Length: 5 years
Stream: CMG
Discipline: Ophthalmology
Applications per year: 51–200
Applicants offered interviews: 0–25%
Accreditation: Accredited
CaRMS program ID: 30157

Bands are 5-year averages the program reports to CaRMS. They describe past cycles, not your odds.

Summary

The University of Alberta's Ophthalmology Residency Program is a comprehensive 5-year training program designed to produce exceptional ophthalmologists with high surgical expertise and professional standards. The program offers extensive clinical exposure, diverse learning opportunities, and a supportive educational environment that prepares residents for Royal College specialty examinations.

Training

Research

Residents are required to actively participate in or lead research projects from PGY-2 onwards, with support from clinical researchers and visual scientists.

Training setting

Urban medical training environment in Edmonton, Alberta, with multiple training sites including Royal Alexandra Hospital, Stollery Children's Hospital, and community eye clinics.

Teaching approach

Competency-based medical education with progressive independence, individualized learning, and a focus on comprehensive patient care and surgical expertise.

Setting types

Academic medical center
Tertiary care center
Community clinics

Focus areas

Comprehensive Ophthalmology
Surgical Training
Subspecialty Exposure
Research

Patient populations

Pediatric patients
Adult ophthalmology patients
Diverse patient populations

Highlights

Ophthalmic Surgical Skills Centre with virtual surgery simulator
Mentorship Program
Resident Wellness Day
Local, national and international elective opportunities
Annual research presentations
Mock examinations
Protected academic time

Strengths

Large catchment area with diverse pathology
High surgical volumes
Supportive and enthusiastic teaching staff
Responsive program leadership
Comprehensive surgical training

Enhanced skills

International elective opportunities
Surgical skills training
Research development

By year

PGY-1

General Ophthalmology Clinics8 weeks
TORIC CourseToronto6 weeks
Internal Medicine
Pediatrics
Plastic Surgery
Neurology
Rheumatology
Emergency Medicine
Neuro-radiology
Elective/Research opportunities

PGY-2

Preceptor-specific general rotation4 weeks
Elective4 weeks
Ophthalmic Diagnostics1 week
Day CallRegional Eye Centre
General ClinicsRoyal Alexandra Hospital
Glaucoma
Retina

PGY-3

Clinical or Research Elective8 weeks
Pediatric Ophthalmology
Adult Strabismus
Oculoplastics
Glaucoma
Retina
Neuro-ophthalmology
Cornea/External Disease
Basic Science Didactic Course

PGY-4

Pediatric Ophthalmology
Adult Strabismus
Oculoplastics
Glaucoma
Retina
Neuro-ophthalmology
Cornea/External Disease
Cataract SurgeryOperating Room

PGY-5

Dedicated Study Time8 weeks
Cataract SurgeryOperating Room
Senior Glaucoma Rotation
Senior Retina Rotation
Elective
Community/Flex Rotation

From the program's rotation list.

Selection

What the program looks at

Academic performance
Electives
Casper test
Extra-curricular activities
Leadership skills
Medical Student Performance Record (MSPR)
Personal letters
Reference documents
Research/Publications
Transcripts

Applications per year

51–200

Applicants offered interviews

0–25%

Interviews

Dates (2026 match): 5 and 6 Feb 2026

Programs can change interview dates. Confirm on carms.ca.

Pay

Provincial scale, last updated 22 Jul 2026 · check the current agreement(opens in a new tab)

Annual salary by PGY level, Alberta
Level	Annual salary
PGY-1	$67,440 / year
PGY-2	$74,153 / year
PGY-3	$80,058 / year
PGY-4	$86,281 / year
PGY-5	$92,698 / year

One provincial scale for Alberta, set by the resident agreement, so every program there pays the same. Showing the 5 levels this program covers.

Benefits

Benefits as listed by CaRMS in 2022–2024; check the current agreement(opens in a new tab)

Annual vacation: 4 weeks/yr
Call Stipends: weekday in-house – $118.02weekend in-house / holiday – $178.72weekday home call – $59.01weekend home call / holiday – $89.35
CMPA dues paid: $1,500
Dental plan: 75% premium paid
Educational leave: 14 days paid leave
Extended health insurance: 75% premium paid$1000 per year Flexible Spending Account*
Frequency of calls: In-house call: 7/28. 2/4 weekend call.Home call: 9/28. 2/4 weekend call**A Resident scheduled on Home call but who is required to work more than four hours in hospital during the call period, of which more than one full hour is past 12:00 a.m. and before 6:00 a.m., or more than six (6) hours in hospital during the call period, shall be remunerated at the rate for In-House call.$100 per day for each scheduled weekend day of patient rounds when not on-call
Life insurance: 100% towards $150,000 coverage
Life Support Course Costs (Program Approved: 100% paid
Long-term disability insurance: 100% paid for 75% gross income
Maternity Leave: 18 weeks total (17 weeks paid to match 90% of salary when combined with EI)
Parental Leave: 2 weeks leave with full pay and benefits;52 weeks (inclusive of Maternity/Paternity/Adoption Leaves) – unpaid leave
Practice Stipend: $1,500
Provincial dues (% of salary): .95%
Sick leave: Up to 3 months or to end contract paid leave, whichever occurs first
Statutory holidays: Paid days. Additional days off are given if resident works the day before and part of a named holiday.

Call

Call (provincial max): 1 in 4 in-house

The union agreement’s cap for all residents in the province; your program’s actual call schedule may be lighter. Check with the program.

PARA agreement, 1 Jul 2024 to 30 Jun 2028.

Teaching sites

Regional Eye Centre, Royal Alexandra Hospital
Stollery Children's Hospital at the University of Alberta Hospital
Alberta EyeMD
Alberta Retina Consultants
Glaucoma Consultants

Hospital facts

Hospital size and activity: Alberta doesn't publish this as open data.

Unfilled positions in past years

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

Positions at this site, all streams.

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. Verify with the CaRMS lists. 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)). 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.

Contacts

Contacts weren't collected for the 2026 match.

The current program director and contacts are on the 2027 version of this program and on the CaRMS program page(opens in a new tab).

Location

Edmonton, Alberta

About the city

Public statistics for the place named by this program’s location label, each with its source and reference period. They describe the place, not the program, and are not a ranking. Check each source before you rely on it.

Climate

Canadian Climate Normals, 1991–2020. Each value comes from the nearest weather station that reports it, not from the city itself.

January average: −10.3 °C Edmonton (City), 4.5 km away
July average: 18.1 °C Edmonton (City), 4.5 km away
Snowfall: 123.9 cm a year Edmonton (City), 4.5 km away
Days below −20 °C: 23.8 days a year Edmonton (City), 4.5 km away

People

2021 Census. Figures are for the municipality of Edmonton, not the metropolitan area. Statistics Canada rounds counts, so small places are approximate.

Population: 1,010,899 people up 8.3% from 2016
Official languages: English only 91.0% · French only 0.1% · English and French 6.6% · neither 2.3% Share of residents who can conduct a conversation in each. This is not the language spoken at home.
Immigrants: 32.5% of residents arrived 2016–2021: 6.8% · non-permanent residents: 2.4%
Indigenous identity: 5.8% of residents
How people commute: car, truck or van 85.1% · public transit 8.1% · walking or cycling 4.4% · other 2.4% Average commute: 23.7 minutes. Shares are of people who commute.The way Canadians commute was altered in 2021 by the pandemic, with lockdowns to slow the spread of COVID-19 and changes in how and where Canadians worked leading to 2.8 million fewer commuters, compared with five years earlier. Statistics Canada, The Daily, 30 Nov 2022(opens in a new tab)
Median household income: $90,000 before tax $79,500 after tax · income year 2020, in 2020 dollars

Rural and remote

This describes the place named by the program’s location label. Programs can train in several towns, so it is not every site.

Population centre: Edmonton, a large urban population centre (100,000 or more people) 1,151,635 people in 2021
Remoteness index: 0.114 0 is least remote, 1 is most remote. Statistics Canada calls this index experimental.

Housing, cost and work

Each figure names the area it covers. A missing line means the source publishes nothing for this area.

Rental vacancy rate: 3.8% October 2025 survey, Edmonton, Alberta (census metropolitan area). The share of purpose-built rentals (three units and over) vacant, not a rent.
Basic cost of living: $58,876 a year Market Basket Measure 2025, Edmonton, Alberta, for two adults with two children. A modest, basic basket (the poverty line), not a resident’s budget. A size-class region is not the town itself.
Unemployment rate: 6.9% September 2026, three-month average, seasonally adjusted, Edmonton, Alberta (census metropolitan area); standard error 0.7 points. A survey estimate.

Job outlook

Employment and Social Development Canada’s rating for the occupation in the economic region. It is not a count of jobs, and says nothing about CaRMS positions or your match.

Outlook, 2025–2027: Very good The employment outlook will be Very good for specialists in surgery (NOC 31101) in the Edmonton region for the 2025-2027 period.
Canada-wide, to 2033: Strong risk of Shortage ESDC’s projection for specialists in surgery, 2024–2033. Recent conditions, 2021–2023: Strong signs of Shortage.

Sources and licences

Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence - Canada. Adapted from Statistics Canada, 2021 Census Cartographic Boundary Files.
Adapted from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Rental Market Survey, October 2025 (vacancy rates), and Statistics Canada, Table 34-10-0130-01. This does not constitute an endorsement by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation or Statistics Canada of this product.
Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence - Canada (Employment and Social Development Canada, Canadian Occupational Projection System (COPS), 2024 to 2033 projections).
Data Source: Environment and Climate Change Canada (Canadian Climate Normals 1991-2020).
Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence - Canada (Employment and Social Development Canada, 3-Year Employment Outlooks).
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Index of Remoteness (17-26-0001), 2021. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 14-10-0459-01 Labour force characteristics by census metropolitan area, three-month moving average, seasonally adjusted, reference month 2026-09. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 11-10-0066-01 Market Basket Measure (MBM) thresholds for the reference family by Market Basket Measure region, component and base year, 2025. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0011-01 Population and dwelling counts: Canada and population centres, 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0002-01 Population and dwelling counts: Canada and census subdivisions (municipalities), 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0057-01 Household income statistics by household type: Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions, 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0173-01 Mother tongue by knowledge of official languages: Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions, 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0266-01 Indigenous identity by Registered or Treaty Indian status: Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions, 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0307-01 Immigrant status and period of immigration by place of birth: Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions, 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0458-01 Main mode of commuting by commuting duration, time leaving for work, age and gender: Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions, 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.

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 5 Oct 2026.