Niagara - General Surgery

McMaster UniversityNiagara, OntarioCMG stream

Program websiteWebsite CANPREPPCANPREPP1 more link

Open on carms.ca

CaRMS program description, 2026 match, last approved 16 Sep 2025

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

Positions (approx. quota): 1 position
Length: 5 years
Stream: CMG
Discipline: General Surgery
Applications per year: 51–200
Applicants offered interviews: 26–50%
Accreditation: Accredited
CaRMS program ID: 30248

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

Summary

The Niagara General Surgery residency program is a direct entry branch of the Primary McMaster General Surgery Program. This unique program offers the opportunity to complete the majority of clinical training in a community hospital site while maintaining a strong academic connection with the larger McMaster program. Residents benefit from a close-knit environment with five residents and eight primary faculty, providing exceptional learning opportunities in the Niagara Region.

Training

Research

Residents are expected to complete a minimum of two quality research projects over five years, with support from departmental research staff and local research coordinators.

Training setting

Training occurs primarily at St. Catharines General Hospital, a modern community hospital, with additional rotations at Hamilton Health Sciences sites including McMaster Children's Hospital, Hamilton General Hospital, Juravinski Hospital, and St. Joseph's Hospital.

Teaching approach

A competency-based medical education approach focused on resident learning, progressive independence, and preparing residents for individual practice through personalized rotation schedules and comprehensive surgical exposure.

Setting types

Community hospital
Academic medical center
Trauma center

Focus areas

Community Surgery
Surgical Foundations
Trauma Surgery
Minimal Access Surgery

Patient populations

Community hospital patients
Pediatric patients
Trauma patients
Oncology patients

Highlights

Academic half-day protected from service demands
Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) course
Advanced Trauma Operative Management (ATOM) course
Research project requirements
Competency by Design (CBD) training

Strengths

High volume of surgical exposure with limited learners
Flexible rotation scheduling
Strong resident wellness focus
Comprehensive Royal College exam preparation
Personalized mentorship

Enhanced skills

Minimal Access Surgery
Trauma Management
Research Skills

By year

PGY-1

General SurgeryNiagara8 blocks
Pediatric SurgeryMcMaster Children's Hospital2 blocks
Rookie CampNiagara1 block
Internal MedicineNiagara1 block
SelectiveNiagara1 block

PGY-2

General SurgeryNiagara5 blocks
ICUNiagara3 blocks
EndoscopyNiagara3 blocks
General Surgery/TraumaHamilton General Surgery2 blocks

From the program's rotation list.

Selection

What the program looks at

CV content
Clinical elective evaluations
Volunteering experience
Leadership skills
Medical Student Performance Record (MSPR)
Personal letter
Reference documents
Research/publications
Academic transcripts

Applications per year

51–200

Applicants offered interviews

26–50%

Interviews

Dates (2026 match): 22 and 23 Jan 2026

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.

Teaching sites

St. Catharines General Hospital
Welland Hospital
Greater Niagara Hospital
Hamilton Health Sciences - Children's Hospital
Hamilton Health Sciences - General Site
Hamilton Health Sciences - Juravinski Site
St. Joseph's Hospital

Hospital facts

Hospital size and activity: Ontario 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

Niagara, 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: −3.3 °C Vineland, 12.1 km away
July average: 22.2 °C Vineland, 12.1 km away
Snowfall: 141.0 cm a year Welland-Pelham, 19.2 km away
Days below −20 °C: 0.6 days a year Vineland, 12.1 km away

People

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

Population: 136,803 people up 2.8% from 2016
Official languages: English only 92.4% · French only 0.1% · English and French 6.5% · neither 1.0% Share of residents who can conduct a conversation in each. This is not the language spoken at home.
Immigrants: 19.5% of residents arrived 2016–2021: 2.4% · non-permanent residents: 2.4%
Indigenous identity: 2.5% of residents
How people commute: car, truck or van 90.1% · public transit 3.0% · walking or cycling 4.9% · other 2.0% Average commute: 20.0 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: $72,500 before tax $65,000 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: St. Catharines - Niagara Falls, a large urban population centre (100,000 or more people) 242,460 people in 2021
Remoteness index: 0.096 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, St. Catharines-Niagara, Ontario (census metropolitan area). The share of purpose-built rentals (three units and over) vacant, not a rent.
Basic cost of living: $54,744 a year Market Basket Measure 2025, Ontario, population 100,000 to 499,999, 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: 6.7% September 2026, three-month average, seasonally adjusted, St. Catharines-Niagara, Ontario (census metropolitan area); standard error 0.8 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 CdnMD 5 Oct 2026.