A doctor for babies, children and teens. Four years of residency after medical school, then a job that never runs short of patients.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Typical net
$250,000
Part-time or new
$180,000
Busy or hospital-based
$350,000
CIHI (Canadian Institute for Health Information) reports average gross payments of about $325,000 a year for pediatrics (2023 to 2024), with a median near $300,000. Office overhead takes 20% to 35%, so most pediatricians net $200,000 to $300,000. It varies a lot by province and by how you bill.
$65,000 to $85,000
Salary in the 4 years of pediatrics residency, rising each year
Residents are paid employees with benefits. Quebec pays the least, Alberta and Ontario the most. You are also carrying medical school debt at this point.
Below most other specialists
Pediatrics pays less than adult specialties doing similar work
Visits with kids take longer and bill less. Subspecialists in neonatal or intensive care, and pediatricians in the North, earn well above the typical range.
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.
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.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
One of the shorter specialist residencies, but still 10 years or more after high school.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Top marks in biology, chemistry, math and English. You need a very high average for a science undergrad.
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).
Medical school, the MD (doctor of medicine)
3 to 4 years
Acceptance rates are 5% to 15%. Two years of classes, then clinical rotations including a pediatrics block.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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 Children's Hospital, Vancouver
British Columbia
Alberta Children's, Calgary, and Stollery Children's, Edmonton
Alberta
Sainte-Justine and the Montreal Children's
Quebec
Things you don't need, but that help.
Each is a 2 to 3 year fellowship after residency.
Neonatology
Premature and sick newborns in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit). Higher pay, 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.
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.
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.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
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 good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Insulin was discovered at the University of Toronto in 1921. The first person ever treated with it, in January 1922, was a 14-year-old boy named Leonard Thompson.
The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto started in an 11-room rented house. It is now one of the largest children's hospitals in the world.
Canadian neonatal units now save babies born 4 months early and weighing about 500 grams. A generation ago that was impossible.
Unlike in the US, most children in Canada get routine care from a family doctor. Pediatricians mostly see referrals and hospital patients, so the caseload is heavier on hard problems.
Last checked September 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.