Northern Ontario - General Surgery

NOSM UniversityNorthern Ontario, OntarioCMG stream

Program websiteWebsite CANPREPPCANPREPP

Open on carms.ca

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

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

Positions (approx. quota): 3 positions
Length: 5 years
Stream: CMG
Discipline: General Surgery
Applications per year: 51–200
Applicants offered interviews: 51–75%
Accreditation: Accredited
CaRMS program ID: 30078

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

Summary

The NOSM University General Surgery Residency Program offers a comprehensive 5-year training experience focused on producing exceptional surgeons prepared to serve Northern Ontario's unique healthcare needs. Through intensive exposure to diverse surgical cases, personalized mentorship, and a distributed training model, the program aims to develop well-rounded, practice-ready surgeons who can adapt to complex medical environments.

Training

Research

Residents are expected to complete and present a minimum of two research projects over the five-year program, with research electives available to support individual research goals.

Training setting

Distributed training across Northern Ontario, with primary bases in Thunder Bay and Sudbury, and rotations in multiple communities including North Bay, Parry Sound, Sault Ste Marie, Huntsville, and Ottawa.

Teaching approach

Competency-based medical education with progressive independence, emphasizing early integration into healthcare teams, professionalism, and high-quality patient care.

Setting types

Academic medical center
Community hospital
Rural clinic
Tertiary care center

Focus areas

General Surgery
Rural Medicine
Northern Healthcare
Community-Oriented Surgical Practice

Patient populations

Urban patients
Rural patients
Remote community patients
Francophone community patients
Indigenous community patients

Highlights

Early surgical skill training
24-hour in-hospital access to full body cadavers
Individualized educational goals
Research project requirements
Distributed training across multiple sites
Funding for research and professional development
Travel support for mandatory educational activities

Strengths

Unparalleled preceptor support
Diverse clinical exposure
Strong community-oriented training
Comprehensive research opportunities
Flexible training model

Enhanced skills

Surgical Foundations Program
Research training
Community medicine

By year

PGY-1

General Surgery6 blocks
Community General Surgery3 blocks
Endoscopy2 blocks
Emergency Medicine1 block
MCTU1 block

PGY-2

General Surgery6 blocks
ICU2 blocks
PediatricsOttawa2 blocks
TraumaOttawa1 block
Thoracic/Vascular Surgery1 block
Research1 block

PGY-3

General Surgery10 blocks
Electives2 blocks
Vascular/Thoracic Surgery1 block

PGY-4

General Surgery8 blocks
Community General Surgery3 blocks
Electives2 blocks

PGY-5

General Surgery13 blocks

From the program's rotation list.

Selection

What the program looks at

Academic record
Reference letters
Personal letter
Interview performance
Rotation competencies
Research portfolio

Applications per year

51–200

Applicants offered interviews

51–75%

Interviews

Dates (2026 match): 19 Jan 2025; 19 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

Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre
Health Sciences North (Sudbury)
Ottawa Hospital

Hospital facts

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

Unfilled positions in past years

Open after round 1 in 2 of 8 years (2019–2026); still open after round 2 in 0 of 9 years.

Positions at this site, all streams. Site as CaRMS lists it: Northern Ontario.

Positions at this site, all streams, still open after round 1 and after round 2, by year. Each count above zero links to the CaRMS list page it comes from.
Year	Open after round 1	Open after round 2
2018	not available	0
2019	0	0
2020	0	0
2021	0	0
2022	0	0
2023	0	0
2024	2 positions open after round 1 in 2024, CaRMS list (opens in a new tab)	0
2025	0	0
2026	2 positions open after round 1 in 2026, CaRMS list (opens in a new tab)	0

CaRMS’s first-round list for 2018 was not found, so round 1 is counted over 8 years and round 2 over 9.

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

Northern Ontario, Ontario

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.