Halifax - Ophthalmology

Dalhousie UniversityHalifax, Nova ScotiaCMG stream

Program websiteWebsite CANPREPPCANPREPP

Open on carms.ca

CaRMS program description, 2026 match, last approved 9 Oct 2025

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

Positions (approx. quota): 2 positions
Length: 5 years
Stream: CMG
Discipline: Ophthalmology
Applications per year: 51–200
Applicants offered interviews: 26–50%
Accreditation: Accredited
CaRMS program ID: 29219

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

Summary

Dalhousie University's Ophthalmology Residency Program offers comprehensive training in a state-of-the-art facility, preparing residents for both academic and community ophthalmology practice. The program emphasizes high-quality medical education, research, and clinical excellence, with a strong commitment to training ophthalmologists who can serve the Maritime provinces and Canada.

Training

Research

Residents are required to complete a research project, with protected research time and opportunities to present at annual research day. The Clinician Investigator Program supports one full year of research during residency.

Training setting

Urban medical center training across multiple sites in Halifax, Nova Scotia, including QEII Health Sciences Centre, IWK Health Centre, and community outpatient centers, with potential rotations in other Maritime provinces.

Teaching approach

Competency-based medical education with progressive independence, emphasizing group cooperation, collaborative learning, and comprehensive skill development through structured rotations and research opportunities.

Setting types

Academic medical center
Tertiary care center
Community hospital
Pediatric hospital

Focus areas

General Ophthalmology
Pediatric Ophthalmology
Subspecialty Ophthalmology
Surgical Training
Research

Patient populations

Adult eye patients
Pediatric eye patients
Emergency eye patients
Community-based patients

Highlights

Visiting Professor Program
Simulation and Wet Labs
Research Project Requirement
Clinician Investigator Program
Masters/PhD Concurrent Program Option
Funding for Educational Meetings
Toronto Ophthalmology Residents' Introductory Course (TORIC)

Strengths

State-of-the-art facilities
Comprehensive surgical training
Strong research infrastructure
Diverse clinical exposure
Commitment to equity and diversity

Enhanced skills

Medical Education Studies
Research Training
Community Medicine

By year

PGY-1

Off-service rotationsHalifax and Saint John8 blocks
Toronto Ophthalmology Residents' Introductory CourseToronto6 weeks
OphthalmologyHalifax1 block

PGY-2

Emergency Eye ClinicEye Care CentreVaries
Subspecialty ClinicsEye Care CentreVaries

PGY-3

Ophthalmology Subspecialty ServicesQEII and IWK Health CentreVaries
Pediatric ServiceIWK Health CentreVaries

PGY-4

Intraocular SurgeryHalifaxVaries
Community RotationMaritime ProvincesVaries
ElectiveFlexibleVaries

PGY-5

Emergency Eye ClinicHalifax1-2 blocks
Subspecialty RotationsHalifaxVaries
Community RotationMaritime ProvincesVaries
ElectiveFlexibleVaries

From the program's rotation list.

Selection

What the program looks at

Medical Student Performance Record (MSPR)
CV/Resume
Personal Letter
Reference Letters
Research/Publications
Elective Evaluations
Interview Performance

Applications per year

51–200

Applicants offered interviews

26–50%

Interviews

Dates (2026 match): 20 Jan 2026

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

Pay

Provincial scale, last updated 24 Jul 2026 · check the current agreement(opens in a new tab)

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

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.

Benefits

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

Annual vacation: 4 weeks
Call stipend: Yes
CMPA dues paid: Yes
Dental coverage: Yes
Educational leave: Yes
Extended health insurance: Yes
Frequency of call: l in 4 in-hospital and for homecall
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

Call

Call (provincial max): 1 night 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.

MarDocs agreement, 1 Jul 2024 to 30 Jun 2027.

Teaching sites

QEII Health Sciences Centre, Victoria General Hospital
QEII Health Sciences Centre, Halifax Infirmary
IWK Health Centre
Bayers Lake Community Outpatient Centre
Halifax Vision Surgical Centre
New Brunswick - Cornea, Rothesay

Hospital facts

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

QEII Health Sciences Centre, Halifax Infirmary

Matched to QEII - Halifax Infirmary Site (Halifax) in the province’s hospital list.

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

IWK Health Centre

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

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

Sources and licences

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

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

Halifax, Nova Scotia

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: −4.1 °C Shearwater, 11.0 km away
July average: 18.5 °C Shearwater, 11.0 km away
Snowfall: 215.2 cm a year Halifax Stanfield (Airport), 20.9 km away
Days below −20 °C: 0.9 days a year Shearwater, 11.0 km away

People

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

Population: 439,819 people up 9.1% from 2016
Official languages: English only 87.1% · French only 0.1% · English and French 12.2% · neither 0.6% Share of residents who can conduct a conversation in each. This is not the language spoken at home.
Immigrants: 11.6% of residents arrived 2016–2021: 4.1% · non-permanent residents: 3.9%
Indigenous identity: 3.8% of residents
How people commute: car, truck or van 81.5% · public transit 8.1% · walking or cycling 8.0% · other 2.4% Average commute: 21.4 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: $81,000 before tax $69,500 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: Halifax, a large urban population centre (100,000 or more people) 348,634 people in 2021
Remoteness index: 0.199 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: 2.6% October 2025 survey, Halifax, Nova Scotia (census metropolitan area). The share of purpose-built rentals (three units and over) vacant, not a rent.
Basic cost of living: $54,855 a year Market Basket Measure 2025, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 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: 5.8% September 2026, three-month average, seasonally adjusted, Halifax, Nova Scotia (census metropolitan area); standard error 0.5 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 Halifax 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.