Hamilton - General Surgery

McMaster UniversityHamilton, OntarioCMG stream

Program websiteWebsite CANPREPPCANPREPPContacts

CaRMS program description, 2027 match, last approved 28 Aug 2026 · See the 2026 version

2027 match programs, from CaRMS as of 5 Oct 2026. Programs can still change until file review opens 26 November; we re-check every two weeks. Always confirm on CaRMS (opens in a new tab).

Positions (approx. quota): 6 positions
Length: 5 years
Stream: CMG
Discipline: General Surgery
Applications per year: 51–200
Applicants offered interviews: 26–50%
Accreditation: Accredited
CaRMS program ID: 36515

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

Summary

McMaster's General Surgery program is a five-year residency whose first year overlaps with Surgical Foundations.
Training is centred at St. Joseph's, Hamilton General and Juravinski hospitals in Hamilton, with up to 6 blocks of community or elective surgery outside Hamilton.
Residents must complete two research projects and may request research blocks in PGY3-4.

Training

Setting

Academic / tertiary hospital

Sites

13 teaching sites

St. Joseph’s Hospital
Hamilton General Hospital
Juravinski Hospital and Cancer Centre

Show all 13

Oakville
Joseph Brant in Burlington
Brantford
Markham-Stouffville
MacKenzie Health
Kitchener-Waterloo
Cambridge
Guelph
Collingwood
Credit Valley

Rural exposure

Not stated on CaRMS page

Research

Required · research project · protected time

Highlights

Divisional endowment (Juravinski Surgical Fellowship) can fund salary support for a research leave of absence.
Program-specific "Rookie Camp" of educational sessions added to the Surgical Foundations Boot Camp in year one.

By year

Not stated on CaRMS page

Other rotations

Listed by the program without a single PGY year.

Surgical Foundations Boot Camp plus our program-specific "Rookie Camp" of educational sessions (YEAR ONE · 1 block)
Trauma (YEAR ONE · 1 block)
Acute Care Surgery (YEAR ONE · 1 block · HGH)
non-ACS general surgery (YEAR ONE · 6 blocks · SJH and JHCC)
pediatric general surgery (YEAR ONE · 2 blocks)
internal medicine or perioperative medicine (YEAR ONE · 1 block)
emergency medicine OR internal medicine OR perioperative medicine OR thoracic surgery (YEAR ONE · 1 block)
acute care surgery (YEAR TWO · 3 blocks · SJH or JHCC)
non-ACS general surgery (YEAR TWO · 2 blocks · HGH)
non-ACS general surgery (YEAR TWO · 2 blocks · anywhere in Hamilton)
ICU (YEAR TWO · 3 blocks)
Endoscopy (YEAR TWO · 3 blocks)
community or elective general surgery (YEAR THREE + FIRST 10 BLOCKS OF YEAR FOUR · Up to 6 blocks · outside Hamilton)
non-general surgery surgical specialty (e.g., Vascular, Thoracic, Head and Neck, Urology, Plastics) (YEAR THREE + FIRST 10 BLOCKS OF YEAR FOUR · Up to 4 blocks)
breast oncology (YEAR THREE + FIRST 10 BLOCKS OF YEAR FOUR · 2 blocks)
acute care surgery (YEAR THREE + FIRST 10 BLOCKS OF YEAR FOUR · 3 blocks · SJH or JHCC)
acute care surgery (YEAR THREE + FIRST 10 BLOCKS OF YEAR FOUR · 1 block · HGH)
Trauma (YEAR THREE + FIRST 10 BLOCKS OF YEAR FOUR · 1 block)
general surgery (YEAR THREE + FIRST 10 BLOCKS OF YEAR FOUR · 4 to 6 blocks · anywhere in Hamilton)
non-general surgery elective blocks, e.g., research, global health, non-surgical rotations (YEAR THREE + FIRST 10 BLOCKS OF YEAR FOUR · Up to 3 blocks)
general surgery (LAST 3 Blocks of year four + YEAR FIVE – THE “CHIEF YEAR” · 14 blocks)
“transition to practice” clinical experiences (LAST 3 Blocks of year four + YEAR FIVE – THE “CHIEF YEAR” · 2 blocks)

Selection

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.

Applications per year

51–200

Applicants offered interviews

26–50%

Interviews

Dates (2027 match)

22 Jan 2027

Mode

Virtual

Format

Panel

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

Pay

Provincial scale, last updated 6 Jan 2025 · check the current agreement(opens in a new tab)

Contract expired, may change.

Annual salary by PGY level, Ontario
Level	Annual salary
PGY-1	$73,367 / year
PGY-2	$79,670 / year
PGY-3	$85,564 / year
PGY-4	$92,701 / year
PGY-5	$98,567 / year

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

Call

Call (provincial max): 7 nights in 28 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.

PARO agreement, 1 Jul 2023 to 30 Jun 2026. The term has ended; its terms continue until a new agreement is signed.

Hospital facts

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

Contacts

Grouped by the titles CaRMS lists. The program office (administrators and coordinators) usually answers questions about the program and applying; the director leads the training.

Program officeadministrators and coordinators

niblock@mcmaster.ca

Katie Niblock · Program Coordinator

Program director

Dr. Ilun Yang
Program Director
yangi@mcmaster.ca
(905) 521-2100, ext. 76241

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

Location

Hamilton, Ontario

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: −3.1 °C Burlington Piers, 5.0 km away
July average: 21.9 °C Burlington Piers, 5.0 km away
Snowfall: 114.5 cm a year Toronto Pearson (Airport), 49.4 km away
Days below −20 °C: 0.7 days a year Burlington Piers, 5.0 km away

People

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

Population: 569,353 people up 6.0% from 2016
Official languages: English only 92.3% · French only 0.1% · English and French 5.8% · neither 1.9% Share of residents who can conduct a conversation in each. This is not the language spoken at home.
Immigrants: 25.9% of residents arrived 2016–2021: 3.6% · non-permanent residents: 2.3%
Indigenous identity: 2.2% of residents
How people commute: car, truck or van 85.4% · public transit 7.4% · walking or cycling 5.2% · other 2.0% Average commute: 25.3 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: $86,000 before tax $75,500 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: Hamilton, a large urban population centre (100,000 or more people) 729,560 people in 2021
Remoteness index: 0.066 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: 3.5% October 2025 survey, Hamilton, Ontario (census metropolitan area). The share of purpose-built rentals (three units and over) vacant, not a rent.
Basic cost of living: $59,504 a year Market Basket Measure 2025, Hamilton/Burlington, Ontario, 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, Hamilton, Ontario (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: Good The employment outlook will be Good for specialists in surgery (NOC 31101) in the Hamilton - Niagara Peninsula 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 residency.fyi 6 Oct 2026.