Ottawa - Orthopedic Surgery

University of OttawaOttawa, OntarioIMG stream

Program websiteWebsite CANPREPPCANPREPP

Open on carms.ca

CaRMS program description, 2026 match, last approved 8 Oct 2025

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

Positions (approx. quota): 1 position
Length: 5 years
Stream: IMG
Discipline: Orthopedic Surgery
Applications per year: 201–400
Applicants offered interviews: 0–25%
Accreditation: Accredited
CaRMS program ID: 30226

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

Summary

The University of Ottawa Orthopedic Surgery Residency Program offers a comprehensive 5-year training experience focused on solid clinical and surgical training. The program provides competency-based orthopedic surgical training across multiple subspecialties, emphasizing research, clinical skills, and a supportive learning environment.

Training

Research

Two research projects with manuscripts required during core training, with dedicated research rotations and opportunities to pursue Masters and PhD degrees.

Training setting

Urban academic medical center with multiple hospital sites in Ottawa, including teaching hospitals, children's hospital, and community hospitals across different campuses.

Teaching approach

Competency-based medical education with progressive independence, focusing on developing comprehensive orthopedic surgeons through structured rotations, research opportunities, and mentorship.

Setting types

Academic medical center
Children's hospital
Community hospital
Tertiary care center

Focus areas

Adult Reconstructive Orthopedics
Pediatric Orthopedics
Trauma Surgery
Knee Surgery
Spine Surgery
Musculoskeletal Oncology
Shoulder and Elbow Surgery
Hand and Wrist Surgery
Foot and Ankle Surgery

Patient populations

Pediatric patients
Adult orthopedic patients
Trauma patients
Musculoskeletal oncology patients

Highlights

Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME)
Dedicated research rotations
Clinical Investigator Program
Master's degree opportunities in Clinical Science and Translational Medicine
Intensive first-year orientation
Sponsored conference and course attendance
Surgical skills labs
Monthly journal clubs
Quarterly visiting professors
Summer anatomy program

Strengths

Fully accredited by Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada
Large clinical volumes
Dedicated teaching faculty
Strong cohesive resident group
Comprehensive subspecialty exposure
Research-oriented training

Enhanced skills

Clinical Science and Translational Medicine (CTM) Master's degree
Clinical Investigator Program

By year

PGY-1

Orthopedic Surgery3 blocks

PGY-2

Adult Orthopedics11 blocks
Pediatric Orthopedics3 blocks
Community Orthopedics2 blocks
ICU2 blocks
Emergency Medicine1 block
General Surgery1 block
Vascular Surgery1 block
Plastic Surgery1 block
Research1 block

From the program's rotation list.

Selection

What the program looks at

CV
Electives
Examinations
Extra-curricular activities
Leadership skills
Medical Student Performance Records
Personal letters
Reference documents
Research/Publications
Transcripts

Applications per year

201–400

Applicants offered interviews

0–25%

Interviews

Dates (2026 match): 22 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

Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario
The Ottawa Hospital - Civic Campus
The Ottawa Hospital - General Campus
The Ottawa Hospital - Riverside Campus
Hospital Montfort
Hull Hospital

Hospital facts

Public figures for hospitals named above, each with its source and reference period. They describe the hospital, not the program, and are not a ranking. We match names to the province’s lists by name, so check each source before you rely on it.

Hull Hospital

Matched to Hôpital de Hull (Gatineau) in the province’s hospital list.

Emergency visits: 2025–2026: 14,660 · 2026–2027: 14,537 Cumulative from 1 April to the end of period 5 of 13 (about 20 weeks) of each fiscal year. Not a yearly total: compare only the same period.
Licensed beds: physical health 230 Capacity on the facility’s permit (au permis), by bed type, as of the 1 Oct 2026 extraction. Not staffed or open beds, and not added up across bed types.

For the other sites: Ontario doesn't publish this as open data.

Sources and licences

Contient de l'information fournie par le ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux du Québec et visée par CC BY 4.0. Données modifiées. (Contains information provided by the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux du Québec under CC BY 4.0. Data modified.)

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

Ottawa, 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: −9.6 °C Ottawa (City), 5.1 km away
July average: 21.3 °C Ottawa (City), 5.1 km away
Snowfall: 184.5 cm a year Ottawa (City), 5.1 km away
Days below −20 °C: 15.4 days a year Ottawa (City), 5.1 km away

People

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

Population: 1,017,449 people up 8.9% from 2016
Official languages: English only 60.6% · French only 1.4% · English and French 36.4% · neither 1.5% 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: 4.7% · non-permanent residents: 3.0%
Indigenous identity: 2.6% of residents
How people commute: car, truck or van 76.8% · public transit 11.2% · walking or cycling 8.6% · other 3.4% Average commute: 23.0 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: $102,000 before tax $88,000 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: Ottawa - Gatineau, a large urban population centre (100,000 or more people) 1,068,821 people in 2021
Remoteness index: 0.097 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: 2.9% October 2025 survey, Ottawa-Gatineau, Ontario part, Ontario/Quebec (census agglomeration). The share of purpose-built rentals (three units and over) vacant, not a rent.
Basic cost of living: $58,803 a year Market Basket Measure 2025, Ottawa-Gatineau, Ontario part, Ontario/Quebec, 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: 7.2% September 2026, three-month average, seasonally adjusted, Ottawa-Gatineau, Ontario part, Ontario/Quebec (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 Ottawa 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.