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Kitchener-Waterloo - Family Medicine - Addiction Medicine

McMaster UniversityKitchener-Waterloo, OntarioCompetitive stream

Enhanced skills (FM/ES) match

Family medicine residents applying for a PGY-3 year (the "+1").

At a glance

Approx. quota
Not stated on CaRMS page
Length
1 year
Applications per year
0–50
Offered interviews
76–100%

Competitive stream · open to Canadian and international medical graduates

Return of service: Required · IMGs only

Interviews

3 dates, 5–8 Nov 2026virtual

Kitchener-Waterloo, 4 teaching sites

CaRMS program page(opens in a new tab)

What stands out about this program

  • Emphasis on treating concurrent psychiatric disorders, including acute psychiatry and residential concurrent-disorder treatment.

    From “Program highlights” on the CaRMS page

  • Required street outreach rotation combining addictions and primary care.

    From “Program curriculum” on the CaRMS page

  • Interview panel may include a person with lived experience.

    From “Interviews” on the CaRMS page

  • It is based at McMaster's Waterloo Regional Campus, with training at Homewood Health Centre in Guelph and hospital services in Kitchener and Hamilton.
  • Rotations include medical detox, consult service, opioid agonist clinic, residential treatment, street outreach, acute psychiatry and pain management, plus a weekly family medicine clinic half day.

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

Based on what the program says about itself.

  • You’re open to training at sites across a region, not at one hospital.
    Show the quote

    in close collaboration with inpatient recovery and psychiatric treatment providers (Homewood Health Centre, Guelph), community addictions medicine providers in Waterloo region (e.g., RAAM, OAT)

Not a ranking.

What training looks like

Setting
  • Urban community
  • Academic / tertiary hospital
Rural exposure
Not stated on CaRMS page
Focus areas
  • family_practice_continuity
Research
Protected time

By year

Not stated on CaRMS page

Other rotations

Listed by the program without a single year.

  • Medical Detox (inpatient)
  • Rapid Access Addiction Medicine Clinic (outpatient)
  • Hospital Consult Service (inpatient)
  • Opioid Agonist Clinic (outpatient)
  • Residential Treatment, including Concurrent Mood/Anxiety/Trauma Disorders (inpatient)
  • Street Outreach- Addictions & Primary Care (outpatient)
  • Acute Psychiatry, including substance-induced psychosis (inpatient)
  • Pain Management (inpatient & outpatient)
  • Selective block with relevance for addictions medicine, e.g., infectious disease, public health, psychiatry, psychotherapy, hepatology, perinatal addiction medicine, pediatric/youth addiction medicine
  • Scholarship/advocacy/policy block

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

Where you train

Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario: 4 teaching sites.

  • McMaster’s Waterloo Regional Campus (Waterloo)
  • Homewood Health Centre (Guelph)
  • Grand River Hospital (Kitchener)
  • St. Joseph’s Hospital (Hamilton)

Distributed across a region

Record systems at the listed sites: Oracle Health (Cerner) at 2 of 4; no published record for 2.

Hospital facts

2 sites · clinical record systems where an official source states them

What official sources say for hospitals named above, each with its source and the date we read it. They describe the hospital, not the program. We match names to the sources by name, so check each source before you rely on it.

Grand River Hospital

Clinical record
Cerner, system named (how far it goes is not stated) As of 31 Oct 2026

St. Joseph’s Hospital

Clinical record
Cerner (OneChart), system named (how far it goes is not stated) As of 31 Oct 2026

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

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

This location covers more than one place, so its figures are on each place’s own page.

Sites as the program’s CaRMS page lists them.

How they choose

Application file components
  • CV
  • Electives
  • Examinations
  • Extra-curricular
  • Leadership skills
  • MSPRs
  • Personal letters
  • Reference documents
  • Research/Publications
  • Transcripts
Return of service
Required · IMGs only

Application file components as the program describes them.

Interviews and info sessions

Interview dates (FM/ES 2027 match)
5, 7 and 8 Nov 2026
Format
Virtual
  • Panel

Interview dates and format are as the program wrote them.

Pay and call

Provincial scale, last updated 6 Jan 2025 · check the current agreement(opens in a new tab). Contract expired, may change. One provincial scale for Ontario, set by the resident agreement, so every program there pays the same. Showing PGY-3, the level FM/ES residents usually start at. Yours depends on your training so far.

Annual salary by PGY level, Ontario
LevelAnnual salary
PGY-3
$85,564 / year

How provincial pay and rent compare

Call

Call (provincial max)
7 nights in 28 in-house
Post-call rule (provincial)
No new patient responsibilities after 24 hours in-hospital, except what clinical handover needs
Max continuous duty (provincial)
24 hours in-hospital, then relieved after handover (up to 2 hours)

The union agreement’s limits and rules for all residents in the province; your program’s actual call schedule may be lighter. PARO agreement, 1 Jul 2023 to 30 Jun 2026. The term has ended; its terms continue until a new agreement is signed. Read as of 1 Oct 2026.

Contacts and links

Program director

  • Dr. Joel Schmidt

CaRMS lists no email for the director.

Per CaRMS. Staff change during the cycle, so check the CaRMS program page(opens in a new tab) before emailing. Site staff and other contacts are listed there too.

McMaster Enhanced Skills - Addiction Medicine(opens in a new tab)This program on CaRMS(opens in a new tab)

Family Medicine - Addiction Medicine elsewhere

Nearest to Kitchener-Waterloo

Source

The program’s CaRMS page (opens in a new tab) · FM/ES 2027 match · last approved 28 Jul 2026.

Accredited · CaRMS program ID 34634 · How these pages are made ›

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 8 Oct 2026.

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