Emergency Physician

The doctor on shift when anything walks, rolls or is carried through the door. Two ways in, and shifts instead of a clinic.

Typical pay: $311,000a year
Time to qualify: 9 to 13 yearsafter high school
Demand: Good
Licence needed: Yesregulated job

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Where to study to become an emergency physician in Canada

Programs in the fields this career usually comes through. Each has its own page: what it takes to get in, the courses you need and what it costs.

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Quick answers

How much does an emergency physician make in Canada?

The median pay is about $311,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $126,000 at the lower end to about $607,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.

How long does it take to become an emergency physician in Canada?

9 to 13 years after high school, on the usual route.

What does it cost to become an emergency physician?

$74,000 to $169,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.

Do you need a licence to work as an emergency physician in Canada?

Yes. It is a regulated job, so you need a licence or registration before you can work.

What is the job outlook for an emergency physician in Canada?

Good demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.

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Emergency Physician salary in Canada

What you earn and what it costs to get there.

What emergency physicians make

Median

$311,000

Lower end

$126,000

Upper end

$607,000

Job Bank does not give emergency physicians a figure of their own. Its page for emergency physicians uses the figure for all medical specialists: a median of about $311,000 a year (low $126,000, high $607,000) for 2023 to 2024. Most doctors in Canada bill the provincial health plan, and published billing figures are gross payments before office and practice costs, not take-home pay. There is no office to pay for. Pay varies by province and by whether the department pays hourly, per patient, or a blend.

During residency

$73,000 to $99,000

A year in Ontario from July 1, 2025: postgraduate years 1 to 3 (PGY1 to PGY3) on the 3 year family medicine route, up to postgraduate year 5 (PGY5) on the 5 year specialist route

Set by the 2023 to 2026 agreement between PARO (Professional Association of Residents of Ontario) and Ontario's teaching hospitals, which ran to June 30, 2026. These are its latest published rates. Other provinces have their own agreements and pay scales.

Paid by the hour, often

Hourly or by shift

Many departments pay a shift rate plus a share of billings

Nights, weekends and holidays pay more. Rural departments that struggle to fill shifts offer premiums and sometimes travel and housing.

What it costs to get there

Undergrad degree (3 to 4 years): $7,000 to $10,000 a year
Medical school, the MD (doctor of medicine), 3 to 4 years: $15,000 to $28,000 a year
MCAT (medical school admission test), applications, interviews: $2,000 to $5,000
Licensing and certification exams: the MCCQE (national medical exam), then either the CCFP (family medicine) exam plus the CCFP-EM (family medicine emergency) exam, or the Royal College exam: $6,000 to $12,000 depending on route

Roughly, all in

$74,000 to $169,000

Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel

The low end is a three year undergraduate degree at cheaper tuition, a medical school at the low end of Canadian fees, and the shorter family medicine route into emergency work. The high end is four years of undergraduate study, four years at an expensive medical school, and the longer Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons route. Residency is paid, so the training years after medical school are income rather than cost. Many graduates finish medical school with a large debt, and the admission test, applications and interviews alone run $2,000 to $5,000.

Many graduates finish medical school with a large debt. The shorter family medicine route gets you earning sooner. In 2026 the MCCQE costs $1,500, the family medicine exam about $4,500 and the emergency add-on exam about $6,300.

Benefits

Pension only if salaried
Most emergency doctors are self-employed contractors. Ontario residents are in HOOPP (the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan) during training.
Union contract during residency
Provincial residents' associations negotiate pay, call limits and leave.
Malpractice coverage
Through the CMPA (Canadian Medical Protective Association), mostly reimbursed by the province.
No call, no charts at home
You work your shifts and leave. Time off is real time off.

How to become an emergency physician in Canada

The exact path from high school to qualified.

The path to becoming an emergency physician, step by step

Two routes end in the same emergency department.

1
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Top marks in biology, chemistry, math and English. You need a very high average for a science undergrad.
2
Bachelor's degree
3 to 4 years
Any major works. Keep a GPA (grade point average) above 3.8, volunteer, do research. Write the MCAT (medical school admission test).
3
Medical school, the MD (doctor of medicine)
3 to 4 years
Most applicants are not accepted. Classes, then clinical rotations including emergency shifts.
4
Residency, route A: Royal College emergency medicine
5 years
Matched through CaRMS (the residency matching service). Trauma, critical care, pediatrics, toxicology. Leads to FRCPC (Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada) and most academic trauma centre jobs.
5
Residency, route B: family medicine plus CCFP-EM (the family medicine emergency year)
3 years
2 years of family medicine, then 1 competitive extra year. Most community and rural emergency doctors in Canada took this route.

High school courses that help you become an emergency physician

Biology and chemistry
Required for nearly every pre-med path.
Calculus and functions
Physics
Tested on the MCAT (medical school admission test).
English
You will explain bad news clearly, fast, to strangers.

Time and money, at a glance

Years after high school: 9 to 13, depending on route
Med school admission: Very competitive: most applicants are turned down
Residency match: Both routes are competitive
Total tuition: $66,000 to $152,000
Paid while training?: Only during residency

Heavily regulated

You need a licence from your provincial College of Physicians and Surgeons to practise. Emergency doctors hold either Royal College certification or CCFP-EM (the family medicine emergency certificate). Both are national credentials, so moving provinces is mostly paperwork. Family doctors without either can still staff small rural emergency departments, and many do.

Quebec routeIn Quebec? The route is different. 2 more cards.

The path in Quebec

In Quebec you apply to medical school straight from CEGEP (public college), with no bachelor's degree first.

1
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
With Secondary V math (Technical and Scientific, or Science option), chemistry and physics. These are the entry courses for the CEGEP (public college) science program.
2
Science DEC (Diploma of College Studies)
2 years
A 2 year CEGEP (public college) program (200.B1), offered in English at Dawson and the other English colleges. Take the biology and chemistry courses medical schools ask for.
3
Medical school, straight from CEGEP
4 to 5 years
No bachelor's degree needed. McGill and Montréal start with a 1 year preparatory year, Laval and Sherbrooke do not. You need a top R-score (the CEGEP ranking score), the Casper test and interviews.
4
Residency, route A: specialist emergency medicine
5 years
Matched through CaRMS (the residency matching service). At Université de Montréal it runs 5 years in French across the city's hospitals, with trauma at Sacré-Cœur and children at Sainte-Justine.
5
Residency, route B: family medicine plus 1 year
3 years
2 years of family medicine, then a 1 year added competence program in emergency care, for example at Université de Montréal. You need your family medicine certificate to start it.
6
Exams and CMQ (Collège des médecins du Québec) permit
End of residency
Route A: the Royal College exams. Route B: the family medicine exam, then the CCFP(EM) (family medicine emergency certificate) exam. The CMQ, the Quebec college of physicians, issues your permit once you show French.

Medical schools in Quebec

Université de Montréal: 1 preparatory year plus 4 years, in French, in Montreal or Trois-Rivières
McGill University: Med-P preparatory year plus 4 years, in English in Montreal or in French in Gatineau
Université Laval: 4 years (or 4.5 to 5 at your own pace in Quebec City), in French, in Quebec City, Lévis or Rimouski
Université de Sherbrooke: 4 years, in French, in Sherbrooke, Longueuil or Chicoutimi

Montréal and Laval set a minimum R-score (the CEGEP ranking score) of 33 for CEGEP applicants in 2026. McGill's Med-P year is only for recent CEGEP graduates.

What helps you get ahead as an emergency physician

Things you don't need, but that help.

Extra training that changes the job

Trauma or critical care
Run the resuscitation bay at a trauma centre, or split time with the ICU (intensive care unit).
Pediatric emergency medicine
Shifts at a children's hospital emergency department.
Transport medicine
Air ambulance and critical care transport, common in the North.
Point-of-care ultrasound
Scan at the bedside to find bleeding or heart problems in minutes.

Nice-to-haves before med school

First response experience
Lifeguard, ski patrol, first aid volunteer. Shows you can act under stress.
Research experience
Helps at some schools.
French
Opens Ottawa, New Brunswick and Quebec programs.
A rural background
Rural emergency departments are the ones most desperate for doctors.

What being an emergency physician is really like

Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.

A typical shift

Eight to ten hours. You pick up the next chart: chest pain, a broken wrist, a toddler with a fever, an overdose, a car crash, all in the same hour. Order tests, sew cuts, reset bones, decide who goes home and who gets admitted. Twenty to forty patients a shift in a busy department. Handover to the next doctor, then home, sometimes at 3 a.m.

The honest pros and cons of being an emergency physician

The good

No clinic, no overhead, no pager when you are off
Never boring, every shift is different
You save lives on the worst day of someone's life
Shift work means weekday freedom

The hard parts

Nights and weekends for your whole career
Overcrowded departments and long waits make patients angry at you
Burnout is a real risk in a crowded, high-pressure department
A decade of school and, for many, a large debt

Work life

Typical hours: 12 to 16 shifts a month, 8 to 10 hours each
Remote work: None
Physical demand: Moderate, on your feet all shift
Unionized: Residents yes, attending doctors no

Similar paths

Things nobody tells you about being an emergency physician

Things people don't tell you.

Many emergency doctors are family doctors

Outside the big city trauma centres, much of the emergency care in Canada is delivered by family physicians, many with the extra CCFP-EM (family medicine emergency) year.

Rural emergency rooms are closing

Since 2022, small hospitals across Canada have had to close their emergency departments overnight or for whole weekends because no doctor was available. Rural departments compete hard for trained emergency doctors.

A strong risk of a shortage

Job Bank counted about 34,000 medical specialists in Canada in 2023, the group emergency physicians belong to, and expects a strong risk of a shortage through 2033. It rates prospects very good in five provinces and good in the other five.

How an emergency physician compares

Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.

More health careers in Canada

Doctors first, then the rest of the field. See every career in health.

Where these numbers come from

Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.