Respirologist

The lung doctor. Asthma, smokers' lungs, sleep apnea and the intensive care unit, five years of residency after medical school.

Typical pay: $311,000a year
Time to qualify: 11 to 13 yearsafter high school
Demand: Good
Licence needed: Yesregulated job

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Quick answers

How much does a respirologist 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 respirologist in Canada?

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

What does it cost to become a respirologist?

$79,000 to $175,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.

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

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

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Respirologist salary in Canada

What you earn and what it costs to get there.

What respirologists make

Median

$311,000

Lower end

$126,000

Upper end

$607,000

Job Bank does not give respirologists a figure of their own. Its page for respirologists 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. Respirology is hospital-based with low practice costs, and bronchoscopy, sleep studies and intensive care shifts add to clinic billing. It varies by province and by how you bill.

What the health plan pays

About $429,000

Median gross clinical payment, internal medicine, which CIHI groups with its subspecialties such as respirology, 2024 to 2025

CIHI (Canadian Institute for Health Information) counts 14,004 doctors in this group. The middle 60% were paid $219,000 to $726,000. 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 $99,000

A year in Ontario from July 1, 2025, in postgraduate years 1 to 5 (PGY1 to PGY5): 3 years of internal medicine, then 2 of respirology

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. Many programs offer an optional third year for research or extra intensive care training.

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. Intensive care, sleep studies and breathing tests are billed too, so the mix of work you take on shapes your income.

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 two Royal College exams (internal medicine, then respirology): $1,500 for the MCCQE, plus two Royal College exam fees of several thousand dollars each

Roughly, all in

$79,000 to $175,000

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

Eleven to thirteen years, and these numbers cover only the part you pay for. The low end is a three year undergraduate degree, a three year medical school and the exam fees. The high end is a four year degree plus a four year medical school at Ontario rates near 28,000 dollars a year, plus the MCAT (Medical College Admission Test), applications and interviews. The MCCQE (Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Examination) and the two Royal College exams, internal medicine first and then respirology, add several thousand dollars each. Residency is five paid years, and most graduates leave medical school owing 80,000 to 150,000 dollars.

Typical debt at the end of medical school is $80,000 to $150,000. Five paid residency years help you pay it down.

Benefits

Pension only if salaried
Some hospital and academic contracts include one. 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.
Professional corporation
Most provinces let doctors incorporate, which lowers taxes on money left in the business.

How to become a respirologist in Canada

The exact path from high school to qualified.

The path to becoming a respirologist, step by step

You become an internal medicine doctor first, then a lung specialist.

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
Very competitive: most applicants are turned down. Classes, then clinical rotations.
4
Internal medicine residency
3 years
Matched through CaRMS (the residency matching service). Hospital wards, the ICU (intensive care unit) and clinics. In year 3 you apply to the subspecialty match.
5
Respirology residency, then certification
2 years
Lung clinics, bronchoscopy, breathing tests, sleep medicine and months in intensive care. Pass the Royal College exams to become FRCPC (Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada) and register with your provincial College of Physicians and Surgeons.

High school courses that help you become a respirologist

Biology and chemistry
Gas exchange is chemistry. Required for nearly every pre-med path.
Physics
Lungs are pressure, volume and flow. Breathing tests and ventilators are applied physics. Also on the MCAT (medical school admission test).
Calculus and functions
English
You will explain a lifelong disease to a smoker who does not want to hear it, over and over.

Time and money, at a glance

Years after high school: 11 to 13
Getting into medical school: Very competitive, most applicants are turned down
Subspecialty match: Moderately competitive
Total tuition: $66,000 to $152,000
Paid while training?: Only during residency, 5 years of it

Heavily regulated

You need a licence from your provincial College of Physicians and Surgeons to practise, and Royal College certification in both internal medicine and respirology. Both are national credentials, so moving provinces is mostly paperwork. Quebec requires working French. Lung surgery is done by thoracic surgeons; respirologists diagnose, scope and treat with medicine and machines.

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
Internal medicine, then respirology
5 years
3 years of internal medicine, matched through CaRMS (the residency matching service). In your third year you apply for respirology, which takes 2 more years. McGill offers an optional third year of research.
5
Royal College exam and CMQ (Collège des médecins du Québec) permit
End of residency
Pass the Royal College exams. 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.

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.

Respirology residency in Quebec

McGill trains at the Montreal Chest Institute at the Royal Victoria, the Montreal General and the Jewish General. Montréal trains at the CHUM (the Université de Montréal hospital centre), Maisonneuve-Rosemont and Sacré-Cœur, including lung transplant and sleep medicine, and says good French is essential. Laval is based at the Quebec heart and lung institute in Quebec City.

What helps you get ahead as a respirologist

Things you don't need, but that help.

Fellowships that change the job

Optional 1 to 2 year add-ons after residency.

Critical care medicine
Running the ICU (intensive care unit) full time. Ventilators and the sickest patients in the building.
Sleep medicine
Sleep apnea and other sleep disorders. Reading overnight studies, daytime hours, steady income.
Interventional pulmonology
Advanced scopes: biopsying lung tumours, placing stents in airways, draining fluid.
Lung transplant
Only at a few centres. Managing the sickest lungs before and after a new pair.

Nice-to-haves before med school

Research experience
Respirology programs notice publications.
Comfort with machines
Ventilators, breathing test rigs and sleep lab equipment are part of the job.
French
Opens Ottawa, New Brunswick and Quebec programs.
Calm in emergencies
A blocked airway gives you minutes. Intensive care is not for everyone.

What being a respirologist is really like

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

What a respirologist does day to day

Morning clinic: asthma that will not settle, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) in a lifelong smoker, a strange shadow on a chest X-ray, a truck driver who falls asleep at red lights. You read breathing tests and CT (computed tomography) scans and adjust inhalers. Midday: two or three bronchoscopies, threading a camera into the lungs to biopsy a spot. Afternoon consults on the wards. Some weeks you are the ICU (intensive care unit) doctor instead, managing ventilators around the clock.

The honest pros and cons of being a respirologist

The good

Job Bank's median for all medical specialists is about $311,000 a year
A mix of clinic, procedures and critical care, so it never gets dull
Lung disease is common everywhere, so jobs are everywhere
You can choose the pace: sleep clinic calm or intensive care intensity

The hard parts

Thirteen years of training
Intensive care weeks are brutal: nights, deaths and family meetings
Many patients have smoking-related disease that will not improve
Lung cancer is often found too late, and you are the one who finds it

Work life

Typical hours: 50 to 60 a week including call
Remote work: Some, reading sleep studies and virtual follow-ups
Physical demand: Moderate, long days on your feet
Unionized: Residents yes, attending doctors no

Similar paths

Things nobody tells you about being a respirologist

Things people don't tell you.

Millions of Canadian lungs

Millions of Canadians live with asthma or COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). Both are long-term lung diseases, and respirologists see them every week.

The ventilator doctor

In many Canadian hospitals, the doctor running the intensive care unit is a respirologist. Ventilators are lung machines, and respirologists spend months of residency learning to run them. That is why they were front and centre in the pandemic.

Sleep apnea is a lung specialty

Sleep medicine in Canada is mostly run by respirologists. A sleep study measures breathing overnight, and the standard treatment, a mask that gently pushes air into the airway, is a breathing machine. Many respirologists spend a day a week reading sleep studies.

How a respirologist 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.