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Niagara - Family Medicine - Emergency Medicine

McMaster UniversityNiagara, 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
51–200
Offered interviews
0–25%

Competitive stream · open to Canadian and international medical graduates

Return of service: Required · IMGs only

Interviews

2 dates, 15–16 Nov 2026virtual

Niagara, 10 teaching sites

CaRMS program page(opens in a new tab)

What stands out about this program

  • Niagara EM residents are one of only two senior learners in the St. Catharines department.

    From “Training sites” on the CaRMS page

  • Clinical skills sessions include cadaver-based anatomy labs, airway management and central line workshops.

    From “Program highlights” on the CaRMS page

  • This one-year McMaster CCFP-EM program prepares residents for the CFPC examination of added competence in emergency medicine.
  • Niagara residents train mainly at the St. Catharines Site and complete part of their training in Hamilton.
  • The year includes four emergency medicine blocks, a POCUS block culminating in CPOCUS certification, and a required research project.

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

    McMaster offers CCFP-EM training based out of three sites:

Not a ranking.

What training looks like

Setting
  • Mixed settings
  • Academic / tertiary hospital
  • Regional community
Rural exposure
Not stated on CaRMS page
Focus areas
  • POCUS curriculum
Research
Required · research or quality-improvement project

By year

Not stated on CaRMS page

Other rotations

Listed by the program without a single year.

  • Emergency Medicine (4 blocks)
  • Emergency Paediatrics (1 block · McMaster Children's Hospital)
  • Point of Care Ultrasound (1 block)
  • Trauma/Acute Care Surgery (1 block)
  • ICU (2 blocks)
  • CCU (1 block)
  • Emergency Medicine Community Selective (1 block)
  • Anesthesia (1 block)
  • Plastics/Orthopaedics (1 block)

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

Where you train

Niagara, Ontario: 10 teaching sites.

  • St. Catharines Site (St. Catharines)
  • Greater Niagara General Site (Niagara Falls · rural or distributed site)
  • Hamilton General Hospital (Hamilton)
  • Juravinski Hospital (Hamilton)
  • St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton (Hamilton)
  • McMaster Children’s Hospital (Hamilton)
  • WRHN at Midtown (Kitchener · rural or distributed site)
  • WRHN at Queen's Boulevard (Kitchener · rural or distributed site)
  • Guelph General Hospital (Guelph · rural or distributed site)
  • Brantford General Hospital (Brantford · rural or distributed site)

Distributed across a region

Record systems at the listed sites: Epic at 4 of 10, MEDITECH at 2; no published record for 4.

Hospital facts

6 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.

Clinical record
Epic, fully electronic record since Jun 2022 As of 31 Oct 2026. At Hamilton General Hospital, Juravinski Hospital, McMaster Children’s Hospital.

St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton

Clinical record
Epic (Dovetale), fully electronic record since Dec 2017 As of 31 Oct 2026

Guelph General Hospital

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

Brantford General Hospital

Clinical record
MEDITECH (cloud-based EHR), 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.

About St. Catharines

  • People

    136,803residents, 2021 Census

    Municipality of St. Catharines

  • Housing

    3.8%rental vacancy rate

    October 2025 survey, St

  • Winter and summer

    −3.3 °CJanuary mean22.2 °CJuly mean

    1991–2020 normals, Vineland, 12.1 km away

  • Job outlook

    not published for this specialty

More about St. Catharines (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
Required · IMGs only

Application file components as the program describes them.

Interviews and info sessions

Interview dates (FM/ES 2027 match)
15 and 16 Nov 2026
Format
Virtual
  • Traditional (one on one/two on one)
  • Panel
  • MMI or rotating station

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. Alexandra Mitcham

CaRMS lists no email for the director.

Program office

Program Administrator

Write to the officefmemerg@mcmaster.ca

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

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

Family Medicine - Emergency Medicine elsewhere

Nearest to Niagara

Source

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

Accredited · CaRMS program ID 34581 · 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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