Vancouver - Psychiatry

University of British ColumbiaVancouver, British ColumbiaIMG stream

Program websiteWebsite CANPREPPCANPREPP

Open on carms.ca

CaRMS program description, 2026 match, last approved 25 Aug 2025

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

Positions (approx. quota): 2 positions
Length: 5 years
Stream: IMG
Discipline: Psychiatry
Applications per year: 51–200
Applicants offered interviews: 51–75%
Accreditation: Accredited
CaRMS program ID: 29825

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

Summary

The UBC Psychiatry Residency Program offers a comprehensive, distributed training model across British Columbia, with a focus on diverse clinical experiences and academic excellence. Located in Vancouver, the program provides residents with extensive training opportunities across multiple hospitals and specialized psychiatric settings, emphasizing both clinical skills and research.

Training

Research

Emphasis on research throughout the program, with protected research time, annual research day, and opportunities for scholarly activities from the onset of training.

Training setting

Urban academic medical centers in Vancouver and across British Columbia, including multiple teaching hospitals, community mental health centers, and specialized psychiatric units.

Teaching approach

Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME) with a focus on developing well-rounded psychiatrists through progressive independence, diverse clinical experiences, and comprehensive skill development across the CanMEDS roles.

Setting types

Academic Medical Center
Community Hospital
Tertiary Care Center
Specialized Psychiatric Units

Focus areas

General Psychiatry
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Geriatric Psychiatry
Forensic Psychiatry
Addiction Psychiatry
Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry
Mood and Anxiety Disorders
Neuropsychiatry

Patient populations

Adult Psychiatric Patients
Child and Adolescent Patients
Geriatric Patients
Patients with Addiction Disorders
Forensic Patients
Patients with Mood and Anxiety Disorders
Inner City Populations
Multicultural Patient Populations

Highlights

Distributed Model of Training
Research Track with Protected Research Time
Annual Research Day
Competency By Design Curriculum
Comprehensive Psychotherapy Training
Interprovincial and International Elective Opportunities
Subspecialty Fellowship Options

Strengths

Comprehensive Training Across Multiple Psychiatric Subspecialties
Diverse Clinical Placement Opportunities
Strong Research Infrastructure
Multicultural Training Environment
Extensive Psychotherapy Training
Flexible Elective and Selective Rotations

Enhanced skills

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship
Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship
Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship
Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship
Neuropsychiatry Fellowship

By year

PGY-1

Selectives2 blocks
Additional Psychiatry2 blocks
Transition to DisciplinePsychiatry Setting1 month
Internal Medicine1 block
Family Medicine1 block
Pediatrics1 block
Neurology1 block
Emergency Medicine1 block
Addictions1 block
Emergency Psychiatry1 block
Elective1 block

PGY-2

Adult Inpatient Psychiatry6 months
Adult Outpatient Psychiatry6 months

PGY-3

Child & Adolescent PsychiatryBC Children's Hospital6 months
Geriatric Psychiatry6 months

PGY-4

Chronic Care Psychiatry6 months
Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry3 months
Addiction Psychiatry6 weeks
Emergency Psychiatry6 weeks
Elective1 block

PGY-5

Selectives6 months
Electives6 months

From the program's rotation list.

Selection

What the program looks at

Diversity of Experience
Academic Track Record
Motivation to Become a Psychiatrist
Interpersonal Skills
Professional Attributes
Research Experience

Applications per year

51–200

Applicants offered interviews

51–75%

Interviews

Dates (2026 match): 20, 27 and 28 Jan 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
PGY-3	$86,655 / year
PGY-4	$93,230 / year
PGY-5	$100,215 / year

One provincial scale for British Columbia, set by the resident agreement, so every program there pays the same. Showing the 5 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.

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.

Vancouver General Hospital

Matched to Vancouver General Hospital in the province’s hospital list.

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26: 13,790 All procedure groups, for the fiscal year (1 April to 31 March). Scheduled surgery only: emergency surgery is not in the file.
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1: 3,855 One quarter (April to June), interim figures, all procedure groups. Scheduled surgery only.

St. Paul's Hospital

Matched to St. Paul's Hospital (Vancouver) in the province’s hospital list.

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26: 8,691 All procedure groups, for the fiscal year (1 April to 31 March). Scheduled surgery only: emergency surgery is not in the file.
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1: 2,240 One quarter (April to June), interim figures, all procedure groups. Scheduled surgery only.

Richmond Hospital

Matched to Richmond Hospital (Richmond) in the province’s hospital list.

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26: 6,446 All procedure groups, for the fiscal year (1 April to 31 March). Scheduled surgery only: emergency surgery is not in the file.
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1: 1,680 One quarter (April to June), interim figures, all procedure groups. Scheduled surgery only.

Show facts for 4 more sites

BC Children's Hospital

Matched to BC Children's Hospital (Vancouver) in the province’s hospital list.

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26: 7,396 All procedure groups, for the fiscal year (1 April to 31 March). Scheduled surgery only: emergency surgery is not in the file.
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1: 1,910 One quarter (April to June), interim figures, all procedure groups. Scheduled surgery only.

Lion's Gate Hospital

Matched to Lions Gate Hospital (North Vancouver) in the province’s hospital list.

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26: 10,660 All procedure groups, for the fiscal year (1 April to 31 March). Scheduled surgery only: emergency surgery is not in the file.
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1: 2,762 One quarter (April to June), interim figures, all procedure groups. Scheduled surgery only.

Mount St. Joseph's Hospital

Matched to Mount Saint Joseph Hospital (Vancouver) in the province’s hospital list.

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26: 15,711 All procedure groups, for the fiscal year (1 April to 31 March). Scheduled surgery only: emergency surgery is not in the file.
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1: 4,233 One quarter (April to June), interim figures, all procedure groups. Scheduled surgery only.

Royal Columbian Hospital

Matched to Royal Columbian Hospital (New Westminster) in the province’s hospital list.

Elective surgeries completed, 2025/26: 4,798 All procedure groups, for the fiscal year (1 April to 31 March). Scheduled surgery only: emergency surgery is not in the file.
Elective surgeries completed, 2026/27 Q1: 1,447 One quarter (April to June), interim figures, all procedure groups. Scheduled surgery only.

Sources and licences

Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – British Columbia.

Unfilled positions in past years

Open after round 1 in 5 of 8 years (2019–2026); still open after round 2 in 1 of 9 years.

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

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	1 position open after round 2 in 2018, CaRMS list (opens in a new tab)
2019	1 position open after round 1 in 2019, CaRMS list (opens in a new tab)	0
2020	0	0
2021	0	0
2022	2 positions open after round 1 in 2022, CaRMS list (opens in a new tab)	0
2023	3 positions open after round 1 in 2023, CaRMS list (opens in a new tab)	0
2024	1 position open after round 1 in 2024, CaRMS list (opens in a new tab)	0
2025	0	0
2026	1 position 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

Vancouver, 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: 5.3 °C Vancouver (Harbour), 5.7 km away
July average: 19.0 °C Vancouver (Harbour), 5.7 km away
Snowfall: 36.6 cm a year Vancouver International (Airport), 7.6 km away
Days below −20 °C: 0.0 days a year Vancouver (Harbour), 5.7 km away

People

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

Population: 662,248 people up 4.9% from 2016
Official languages: English only 84.8% · French only 0.1% · English and French 9.3% · neither 5.8% Share of residents who can conduct a conversation in each. This is not the language spoken at home.
Immigrants: 42.2% of residents arrived 2016–2021: 6.4% · non-permanent residents: 6.6%
Indigenous identity: 2.3% of residents
How people commute: car, truck or van 56.2% · public transit 22.9% · walking or cycling 18.4% · other 2.6% Average commute: 25.3 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: $82,000 before tax $72,000 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: Vancouver, a large urban population centre (100,000 or more people) 2,426,160 people in 2021
Remoteness index: 0.062 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: 3.7% October 2025 survey, Vancouver, British Columbia (census metropolitan area). The share of purpose-built rentals (three units and over) vacant, not a rent.
Basic cost of living: $64,351 a year Market Basket Measure 2025, Vancouver, British Columbia, 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: 6.5% September 2026, three-month average, seasonally adjusted, Vancouver, British Columbia (census metropolitan area); standard error 0.4 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: Moderate The employment outlook will be Moderate for specialists in clinical and laboratory medicine (NOC 31100) in the Lower Mainland - Southwest region for the 2025-2027 period.
Canada-wide, to 2033: Strong risk of Shortage ESDC’s projection for specialists in clinical and laboratory medicine, 2024–2033. Recent conditions, 2021–2023: Strong signs of Shortage.