Across Canada, the year has been marked by a hard truth: every province and territory is struggling to recruit and retain enough physicians, especially family physicians. Seniors feel this impact most acutely. Long wait times for primary care, overcrowded emergency rooms (ER), and months of delay to see diagnostics and specialists appointments are common trends across the country now. It is estimated that at least 5.9 million Canadians do not have a family doctor as of December 2025. 

But there has also been significant action in this field. From January to December 2025, every province has introduced new programs, new payment models, incentives, and/or international recruitment efforts to tackle the issue of doctor shortages. Below is a province-by-province overview of what has actually happened this year. CARP is watching closely as we continue to push for a healthcare system that can meet the needs of an aging population. 

 

The Federal Landscape

In December 2025, the federal government announced a new Express Entry Immigration Category to tackle Canada’s severe shortage of medical professionals. Provinces will be able to nominate practice-ready physicians and get an expedited work-permit in about 14 days, so doctors can start practising while their permanent residency is finalized. This will take effect in early 2026. The question now is whether provincial licensing, working conditions, and community support will actually keep these doctors in Canada. 

 

Alberta 

Alberta is rolling out a Primary Care Physician Compensation Model (PCPCM) in 2025, which essentially means that physicians can go between public and private healthcare systems. A hybrid model that the government argues has shortened wait times in Denmark and France. This is a new model for Canada, as no other province has actually attempted to implement a hybrid model where doctors have to choose whether they want to bill the government or privately charge patients for care.

Alberta’s decision to implement this model is causing mixed reactions, as some physicians believe that the model could be lucrative for some providers, while critics warn that the changes are “American-style medicine” where wait times will get longer for those who cannot afford to pay, and those with resources can buy their way to the top of the queue. Meanwhile, Alberta’s physician agreement framework includes up to $15 million annually to support recruitment/retention for physicians practicing full-time in underserved areas and up to $12 million annually to enhance the Rural Remote Northern Program. 

 

British Columbia 

In 2025, B.C leaned heavily into international, specifically U.S, recruitment where they launched a co-ordinated recruitment campaign in March aimed at doctors and nurses. In mid-July B.C reported that the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC implemented bylaw changes to benefit internationally trained doctors; the province said that since then, the college has received 29 registration applications from U.S doctors.

By June, the province had received more than 1,400 applications with more than 140 American doctors, nurses, and other professionals already accepting offers in B.C communities. The province is also streamlining licensing and simplifying registration for U.S. and other internationally trained doctors to come work in Canada.

 

Manitoba 

Manitoba is climbing out of a record physician shortage, thanks to strong recruitment efforts with a net increase of 164 doctors in 2025, mainly from international sources. The government has also invested in expanding medical school and residency seats at certain universities to train more local doctors. However, the province faces significant retention risks of family physicians as the province is projected to lose 710 physicians over the next three years due to retirements and relocations. Additionally, only 60% of their students or residents currently practicing are planning to stay in the province. 

 

New Brunswick

New Brunswick’s most concrete 2025 physician-recruitment outcome was the launch of its practice-ready assessment pathway for internationally trained family physicians. In March 2025, the province launched the Practice Ready Assessment New Brunswick (PRA-NB) program. Its first cohort of 10 internationally-trained family physicians completed their assessments and are entering practice in communities across the province. Later in the year, the province and the New Brunswick Medical Society ratified a 2025-2029 Physician Services Agreement worth $270 million, with the goal of improving access to primary care and supporting retention. 

 

Newfoundland & Labrador

Newfoundland and Labrador’s key 2025 physician initiative was expanding access to locum coverage. The province launched a Provincial Locum Recruitment Program for physicians in January 2025, offering structured locum placements (including for private community practices) and defined financial support for locum doctors working in hard-to-staff-areas. In May 2025, the province released a Health Human Resources Plan, a ten-year roadmap for stabilizing the health workforce and setting quantitative recruitment goals for key professions, including physicians. 

 

Northwest Territories 

In April 2025, the NWT Health and Social Services Authority announced increased locum physician rates effective June 1, 2025, including changes aimed at hard-to-recruit work and small communities. The notice also describes a long-term recurring physician locum incentive pilot: locums providing 75 or more clinical service days onsite within a fiscal year would become eligible for a bonus. 

 

Nova Scotia 

Nova Scotia is one of the few provinces that can provide clear positive results in the number of doctors they’ve managed to recruit into their province. Between April 2024, and March 31, 2025, the province recruited 253 new doctors (89 family physicians and 164 specialists). The Office of Healthcare reports an increase of not only physicians but also 1,471 nurses and 500+ other health professionals, supported by aggressive marketing, career fairs, and relocation support.

The province has also funded more seats in medicine programs at universities for Nova Scotians who want to study to become doctors. Meanwhile, as of June 2025, the Nova Scotia government announced a new five-year pilot program with the Lebanese American University, which will bring in a total of 10 family physicians to Nova Scotia.

 

Nunavut 

While Nunavut did not issue a high-profile 2025 physician recruitment program announcement like many provinces, the territory continues to advertise physician positions with locus and permanent contract opportunities and sustains its training pipelines for future doctors.

 

Ontario 

Ontario’s 2025 focus was primarily structural: expanding team-based primary care and supplementing workforce supply through practice-ready and rural recruitment programs. In January 2025, Ontario announced its Primary Care Action Plan, promising over $1.8-$2.1 billion to connect every person in Ontario to a family doctor or primary-care team by 2029, including the creation or expansion of more than 305 primary care teams.

Ontario also continued scaling Practice Ready Ontario (PRO), where it is expected to add up to 100 new family physicians by the end of 2025, with a three-year return-of-service in rural/high-need communities. Ontario Health reports that 73 internationally-trained physicians have already been placed through PRO in high-need rural and northern communities as of 2025. However, Ontario has also introduced new restrictions for international medical graduates (IMGs) in 2025, limiting first-round residency applications to IMGs who completed at least two years of high school in Ontario. This change, announced mid-application cycle, has been widely criticized as unfair and potentially harmful to the physician pipeline. 

 

Prince Edward Island 

The province offers family physicians up to $115,000 in return-of-service grants (amount varies by location), plus targeted incentives like a $100,000 return-of-service grant for some hospital-based roles, and a $25,000 overhead stipend for eligible fee-for-service physicians. In a July 2025 update, the province reported that from January to July 2025, it had signed agreements with 25 new physicians: 9 already practising, 10 expected to start in the second half of 2025, and 6 planned for 2026.

PEI also continued using financial levers to recruit physicians, including return-in-service grants for family physicians up to $115,000. Starting April 2025, the Medical Society of PEI describes a new $25,000 overhead stipend for eligible fee-for-service physicians as a benefit under the Physician Services Agreement. 

 

Quebec 

The most dramatic physician workforce law we have seen in 2025 is Quebec’s Bill 2, now known as Law 2. This law imposes a contract on physicians and ties their compensation to the number of patients they see for care. And if the province’s physicians as a collective fail to hit certain targets such as ensuring every Quebecker having a family doctor by Summer 2026, the government will claw back as much as 15% of their pay. Medical organizations have argued that this law risks destabilizing Quebec’s physician workforce, particularly in rural and specialized care. We are already seeing signs of an exodus, as within a few days of the law’s passage, more than 100 Quebec doctors applied for licenses in other provinces. Quebec has since announced an agreement in principle with family doctors that would delay and amend parts of Bill 2. 

 

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan’s 2025 strategy combined incentives with branding and targeted U.S.outreach. The province launched an American physician recruitment campaign in April 2025, highlighting opportunities and promoting Saskatchewan’s stability and security. The province then launched a broader physician recruitment advertising campaign, “Saskatchewan is Calling” in May 2025, in partnership with the Saskatchewan Health Authority and Saskatchewan Healthcare Recruitment Agency. The province is investing $156.1 million in 2025-26 specifically for its Health Human Resources Action Plan, including about $13 million for incentive programs like the Rural and Remote Recruitment Incentive (RRI) and the Rural Physician Incentive Program, which offers significant bonuses to doctors working in remote communities. 

 

Yukon

In April 2025, the Yukon Legislative Assembly passed Bill 310, the Act Respecting the Yukon Medical Association. The law gives the Yukon Medical Association (YMA) formal representational and bargaining rights for all Yukon doctors, something physicians have been requesting for years as a way to improve working conditions and retention. During 2025, the Government of Yukon and YMA signed a new three-year Memorandum of Agreement, aimed at strengthening access to care, ensuring fair compensation, and advancing representational rights. Under that framework, new funds like the CCFP/RCPSC Recruitment Fund and an Overhead Support Fund have been created to help recruit physicians to rural communities and offset clinic overhead for those who stay. 

 

What This All Means for Canadian Seniors 

For older adults, physician recruitment is not only about a workforce issue; it directly determines whether you can find a family doctor, how long you wait for specialist care, and whether chronic conditions are managed early or escalate into emergencies. The 2025 action taken by provinces shows that governments have recognized the severity of the doctor shortage across the country, but the outcomes of the healthcare system remain unclear for now. 

 

For CARP members, the key issue going forward is accountability. Recruitment dollars, incentive programs, and legislative changes must be judged not by press releases or big number, but rather by the outcomes that matter to seniors: how many net doctors are added to the system while others are leaving/retiring, how many seniors are without family physicians, how long waits are reduced, and whether primary care becomes stable over time. 

 

CARP will continue to:

• Demand transparent, province-by-province reporting on doctor recruitment that shows real net gains or losses in physicians and how many patients are attached to family physicians as a result. 
• Push governments to align immigration, licensing, and working-conditions policies so that Canada is not just good at bringing in doctors, but also keeping them in Canada to work.