Rural Fort St. John - Family Medicine

University of British ColumbiaRural Fort St. John, British ColumbiaIMG stream

Program websiteWebsite CANPREPPCANPREPP1 more link

Open on carms.ca

CaRMS program description, 2026 match, last approved 11 Sep 2025

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

Positions (approx. quota): 2 positions
Length: 2 years
Stream: IMG
Discipline: Family Medicine
Applications per year: 201–400
Applicants offered interviews: 51–75%
Accreditation: Accredited
CaRMS program ID: 29489

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

Summary

The Rural Fort St. John Family Practice Residency Site offers high-quality medical education in a rural community providing a broad spectrum of general and specialist medical care. The two-year program is designed to train physicians interested in practicing in rural Canada, with a curriculum focused on comprehensive, continuous, and patient-centered family medicine.

Training

Research

Residents must complete a scholar project and present their work at the local Scholarship Day.

Training setting

Based in Fort St. John, with potential travel to other communities in Northeast British Columbia. Serves a population of approximately 70,000 across multiple small communities.

Teaching approach

Learning environment focused on family practice problem-solving skills, based on principles of effective adult education, with an emphasis on collaboration and team-based care.

Setting types

Rural community hospital
Community medical center

Focus areas

Rural Family Medicine
Generalist Medical Practice
Community-Based Medical Education

Patient populations

Rural community patients
Diverse age groups
Emergency medicine patients
Obstetric patients
Pediatric patients
Palliative care patients

Highlights

Mandatory 2-month rural rotation
Integrated 24-month competency-based curriculum
Weekly half-day academic curriculum
Scholarship Day in June
Quality improvement project in first year
One month of interprovincial or international electives
Funding for resident activities and educational support

Strengths

Comprehensive rural medical training
Broad-based generalist medical experience
Strong community integration
Diverse clinical exposure
Supportive learning environment

Enhanced skills

Emergency Medicine
Care of the Elderly
Anesthesia
Palliative Medicine
Sports and Exercise Medicine
Clinician Scholars program

By year

PGY-1

Family PracticeFort St. John3 blocks
OB/GYNFort St. John2 blocks
Emergency MedicineFort St. John2 blocks
Internal MedicineOut of town2 blocks
General Surgery/AnesthesiaFort St. John2 blocks
Palliative CareOut of town1 block
Outpatient PsychiatryFort St. John1 block

PGY-2

ElectivesVarious6 blocks
Transition to PracticeFort St. John4 months
Pediatric EmergencyBC Children's Hospital1 block

From the program's rotation list.

Selection

What the program looks at

File review (50%)
MMI interview (45%)
FMProC score (5%)

Applications per year

201–400

Applicants offered interviews

51–75%

Interviews

Dates (2026 match): 17, 17–27, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27 and 28 Jan 2026; 8 Feb 2026

Programs can change interview dates. Confirm on carms.ca.

Pay

Provincial scale, last updated 2 Sep 2026 · check the current agreement(opens in a new tab)

Salaries from April 2027.

Annual salary by PGY level, British Columbia
Level	Annual salary
PGY-1	$71,390 / year
PGY-2	$79,571 / year

One provincial scale for British Columbia, set by the resident agreement, so every program there pays the same. Showing the 2 levels this program covers.

Benefits

Benefits as listed by CaRMS in 2022–2024; check the current agreement(opens in a new tab)

Annual vacation: 4 weeks
CMPA dues paid: Yes. Mandatory
Dental plan: 100% Premiums Paid
Educational leave: Yes
Extended health insurance: 100% Premiums Paid
Frequency of calls: 1 in 4 onsite/1 in 3 offsite
Life insurance: 100% Premium Paid
Long-term disability insurance: Yes 100% Premiums Paid
Maternity leave: 17 weeks, plus up to 78 weeks Parental Leave
Meal allowance: No
Provincial dues (% of salary): 1.5%
Provincial health insurance: 100% Premiums Paid
Sick leave: Yes
Statutory holidays: 2 x pay plus extra day with pay

Call

Call (provincial max): 1 in 4 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.

RDBC agreement, 1 Apr 2025 to 31 Mar 2029.

Teaching sites

Fort St. John Community Hospital
Dawson Creek Community Hospital
Chetwynd Community Hospital

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

Rural Fort St. John, British Columbia

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: −12.7 °C Fort St. John, 6.2 km away
July average: 16.3 °C Fort St. John, 6.2 km away
Snowfall: 205.9 cm a year Fort St. John, 6.2 km away
Days below −20 °C: 37.3 days a year Fort St. John, 6.2 km away

People

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

Population: 21,465 people up 5.9% from 2016
Official languages: English only 94.8% · French only 0.0% · English and French 4.7% · neither 0.4% Share of residents who can conduct a conversation in each. This is not the language spoken at home.
Immigrants: 12.4% of residents arrived 2016–2021: 4.1% · non-permanent residents: 3.4%
Indigenous identity: 13.1% of residents
How people commute: car, truck or van 93.2% · public transit 0.6% · walking or cycling 5.1% · other 1.1% Average commute: 16.2 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 $89,000 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: Fort St. John, a small population centre (1,000 to 29,999 people) 21,123 people in 2021
Remoteness index: 0.391 0 is least remote, 1 is most remote. Statistics Canada calls this index experimental.
BC rural designation: RSA community designation A · 31.00 total points Official page(opens in a new tab)BC Ministry of Health, Rural Retention Program (RRP) 2026/27, effective 2026-04-01; checked 9 Oct 2026
Student loan forgiveness: Family medicine here may qualify for up to $60,000 of Canada Student Loan forgiveness. Eligibility depends on the postal code of where you work: check the official postal-code lookup. Postal-code lookup(opens in a new tab)

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: 2.4% October 2025 survey, Fort St. John, British Columbia (census agglomeration). The share of purpose-built rentals (three units and over) vacant, not a rent.
Basic cost of living: $54,687 a year Market Basket Measure 2025, British Columbia, population under 30,000, 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.

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: Undetermined An employment outlook has not been assigned to this occupation in this region due to low levels of employment.
Canada-wide, to 2033: Strong risk of Shortage ESDC’s projection for general practitioners and family physicians, 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 34-10-0132-01. 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.
Source: Employment and Social Development Canada, Canada Student Loan Forgiveness (Canada.ca), page dated 2026-06-03.
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.
Source: BC Ministry of Health, Rural Practice Subsidiary Agreement Community Designation & Rural Retention Program Point List, 2026/27 (effective April 1, 2026).
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.