Pediatrician

A doctor for babies, children and teens. Four years of residency after medical school, then a job that never runs short of patients.

Typical pay: $311,000a year
Time to qualify: 10 to 13 yearsafter high school
Demand: Good
Licence needed: Yesregulated job

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Quick answers

How much does a pediatrician 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 a pediatrician in Canada?

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

What does it cost to become a pediatrician?

$75,000 to $167,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.

Do you need a licence to work as a pediatrician 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 a pediatrician in Canada?

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

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Pediatrician salary in Canada

What you earn and what it costs to get there.

What pediatricians make

Median

$311,000

Lower end

$126,000

Upper end

$607,000

Job Bank does not give pediatricians a figure of their own. It pools them with 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. Office-based pediatricians pay rent and staff out of this. It varies a lot by province and by how you bill.

What the health plan pays

About $331,000

Median gross clinical payment, pediatricians, 2024 to 2025

CIHI (Canadian Institute for Health Information) counts 4,331 doctors in this group. The middle 60% were paid $167,000 to $502,000. This is billing before office, staff and other practice costs, not take-home pay. Read from CIHI's data tables, downloaded in a browser with Claude in Chrome on 6 November 2026, because cihi.ca refuses our checker.

During residency

$73,000 to $93,000

A year in Ontario from July 1, 2025, in postgraduate years 1 to 4 (PGY1 to PGY4), over the 4 years of pediatrics residency

Set by the 2023 to 2026 agreement between PARO (Professional Association of Residents of Ontario) and Ontario's teaching hospitals. Other provinces have their own agreements and pay scales.

Where pay is highest

About $344,000

The Job Bank median for medical specialists in Manitoba, the highest of any province

Quebec is almost level at about $343,000, and Nova Scotia is lowest at about $207,000. These figures pool all specialists, not pediatricians alone.

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 exam (the MCCQE, the national medical exam) and the Royal College certification exam: $1,500 for the MCCQE, plus several thousand for the Royal College exam

Roughly, all in

$75,000 to $167,000

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

The low end is three years of undergraduate study at a cheaper Canadian university and a three year medical degree at the bottom of the tuition range, plus the MCAT (Medical College Admission Test), the MCCQE (Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Examination) and the Royal College certification exam. The high end is four years of undergraduate study and four years of medical school at the most expensive faculties. The pediatrics residency that follows is paid work, so it costs you exam fees rather than tuition. Most people finish medical school owing 80,000 to 150,000 dollars and start paying it down on residency income.

Typical debt at the end of medical school is $80,000 to $150,000. Residency pay lets you start chipping away at it.

Benefits

Pension only if salaried
Most pediatricians are self-employed and build their own retirement savings. Ontario residents are in HOOPP (the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan) during training.
Union contract during residency
Residents' associations in each province negotiate pay, call limits and leave.
Malpractice coverage
Through the CMPA (Canadian Medical Protective Association). Provinces reimburse most of the fee.
Professional corporation
Most provinces let doctors incorporate, which lowers taxes on money left in the business.

How to become a pediatrician in Canada

The exact path from high school to qualified.

The path to becoming a pediatrician, step by step

One of the shorter specialist residencies, but still 10 years or more after high school.

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 with kids, do research. Write the MCAT (medical school admission test).
3
Medical school, the MD (doctor of medicine)
3 to 4 years
Admission is very competitive, and most applicants are turned down. Two years of classes, then clinical rotations including a pediatrics block.
4
Pediatrics residency
4 years
Matched through CaRMS (the residency matching service). Paid, supervised work on wards, in the emergency department and in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit).
5
Certification and licence
End of residency
Pass the Royal College exam to become FRCPC (Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada), then register with your provincial College of Physicians and Surgeons.

High school courses that help you become a pediatrician

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 spend all day explaining things to worried parents.

Time and money, at a glance

Years after high school: 10 to 13
Med school acceptance rate: Very competitive, most applicants are turned down
Residency match: Moderately competitive, most applicants match
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, and Royal College certification to call yourself a pediatrician. The Royal College credential is national, so moving provinces is mostly paperwork. Quebec requires working French.

Where residents train

Every medical school runs a pediatrics residency. The big children's hospitals include:

SickKids (the Hospital for Sick Children), Toronto
Ontario
CHEO (the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario), Ottawa, and McMaster Children's, Hamilton
Ontario
BC (British Columbia) Children's Hospital, Vancouver
British Columbia
Alberta Children's, Calgary, and Stollery Children's, Edmonton
Alberta
Sainte-Justine and the Montreal Children's
Quebec

Quebec routeIn Quebec? The route is different. 3 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
Pediatrics residency
4 years
Matched through CaRMS (the residency matching service). 4 years at Montréal, based at Sainte-Justine children's hospital, or at McGill, based at the Montreal Children's Hospital.
5
Royal College exam and CMQ (Collège des médecins du Québec) permit
End of residency
Pass the Royal College exam. The CMQ, the Quebec college of physicians, then issues your permit and specialist certificate once you show French. A Quebec high school diploma counts.
6
Get a hospital position
Before you start
Every specialist working in a Quebec hospital must hold a spot in its PEM (plan d'effectifs médicaux, the medical staffing plan). The health ministry approves how many each hospital gets.

Pediatrics residency in Quebec

At Montréal, residents heading for a subspecialty do 3 common years and then match out, while those staying in general pediatrics do a fourth year shaped to their interests. Montréal also sends residents to hospitals in Trois-Rivières, Rouyn-Noranda, Saint-Jérôme and Chicoutimi. McGill says a large share of its patients speak French first and its rural rotations need both languages, so plan on working in French and English.

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 a pediatrician

Things you don't need, but that help.

Subspecialties that change the job

Each is a 2 to 3 year fellowship after residency.

Neonatology
Premature and sick newborns in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit). Heavy call.
Pediatric emergency medicine
Shift work in a children's emergency department.
Pediatric cardiology, oncology, neurology
Mostly at big academic children's hospitals.
Developmental pediatrics
Autism, learning and behaviour. Long waits, huge demand.

Nice-to-haves before med school

Work with kids
Camp counsellor, coaching, tutoring. Shows you actually like children.
Research experience
Helps at some schools.
French
Opens Ottawa, New Brunswick and Quebec programs.
A rural background
Many schools give rural applicants a boost.

Community versus hospital

In Canada most kids see a family doctor first. Community pediatricians take referrals for the harder cases: asthma, growth, behaviour, chronic illness. Hospital pediatricians cover wards, the newborn nursery and the emergency department in shifts. Many mix the two.

What being a pediatrician is really like

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

What a pediatrician does day to day

Clinic days: 20 to 30 visits, each 15 to 30 minutes, often with a nervous parent and a toddler who will not sit still. Hospital days: morning rounds on the ward, new admissions from the emergency department, a delivery you get called to when a newborn needs help. Evenings bring charting and phone calls to families.

The honest pros and cons of being a pediatrician

The good

Kids mostly get better, which makes the work hopeful
Shorter residency than most specialties
Job security is total, every province is short
Real variety, from newborns to teenagers

The hard parts

Longer visits mean fewer patients billed in a day
Sick children and grieving parents are hard
Night and weekend call in hospital roles
A decade of school and six figures of debt

Work life

Typical hours: 45 to 55 a week, plus call
Remote work: Some virtual follow-ups
Physical demand: Low to moderate
Unionized: Residents yes, attending doctors no

Similar paths

Things nobody tells you about being a pediatrician

Things people don't tell you.

The first insulin patient was a boy

Insulin was discovered at the University of Toronto in 1921. In January 1922 a young teenager with diabetes, Leonard Thompson, became the first person ever treated with it, at Toronto General Hospital.

SickKids opened in 1875

The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto started in a rented house with 11 small rooms and six iron cots.

How a pediatrician 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 November 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.