How much do doctors make in Canada?

Mom with a baby in her arms working on a laptop near the window

Net income among physicians varies widely. Figures in this article are based on data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (October 2021), and represent average gross clinical income before overhead, taxes and other expenses.

Are you a medical student thinking about choosing your specialty? Maybe you’re in residency wondering where to practise. Or maybe you’re just curious about the average income of a physician in Canada.

Take me to the income tables

A map of Canada showing the average annual gross physician income in each province.

This article will list average physician earnings for family medicine and 17 medical and surgical specialties in 10 provinces. But first, let’s define some terms.

How are physicians paid?

In Canada, physicians can be paid in the following ways:

Fee for service: The physician bills their provincial ministry of health a specified amount for each type of visit or procedure.
Alternative payment plans: Under these arrangements, the province pays physicians directly using a model other than fee for service, such as salary, sessional (payment on an hourly or daily basis), capitation (payment based on the number of patients on a doctor’s roster), or block funding (in which practice groups are paid for services beyond the clinical, like teaching, research or administration).

In the tables below, we show the “gross clinical payment per full-time equivalent.”

Gross clinical payment: This is the amount that the government pays the physician, whether it is fee for service or an alternative payment plan. From this amount, the self-employed physician will need to pay their overhead expenses (e.g., rent, staff salaries, equipment, insurance) and other deductions. The remaining is the physician’s net clinical revenue, from which they will pay personal taxes and/or corporate taxes if their medical practice is incorporated.

Here is a simplified illustration, using an unincorporated physician:

Gross clinical payment	$400,000
Overhead	-$150,000
Net clinical revenue	$250,000
Personal income tax	-$100,000
Take-home pay	$150,000

Full-time equivalent: Not all physicians work full-time, and part-time earnings can distort the calculation of average income. The “full-time equivalent” metric aims to produce statistics that are comparable between full-time and part-time, across jurisdictions and across specialties.

Tables of physician income in Canada

The figures in the following tables are from the Canadian Institute for Health Information, published in October 2021 based on 2019–2020 data.¹

CIHI provides information for family medicine and a select number of medical and surgical specialties.

Note that because of the varying payment methods across Canada, there are limitations to the comparability of this physician payment information. Anesthesia data, in fact, is excluded from service counts because of concerns about the comparability of certain jurisdictions.

An asterisk (*) indicates that data were suppressed to protect confidentiality where there are four or fewer physicians; n/a indicates not applicable and/or there were no physicians for this specialty in the particular province. In general, there were not enough data for Yukon, Northwest Territories or Nunavut.

Gross annual income by province
Gross annual income by specialty
Cardiology
Dermatology
Family medicine
Gastroenterology
General surgery
Internal medicine
Neurology
Neurosurgery
Obstetrics/gynecology
Ophthalmology
Orthopedic surgery
Otolaryngology
Pediatrics
Physical medicine
Plastic surgery
Psychiatry
Thoracic/cardiovascular surgery
Urology

By province — Average physician gross annual income

Province	Annual income
Alberta	$448,098
Saskatchewan	$418,060
Manitoba	$417,413
Quebec	$415,071
New Brunswick	$403,677
British Columbia	$389,716
Prince Edward Island	$377,211
Nova Scotia	$357,318
Ontario	$356,508
Newfoundland and Labrador	$355,523
Average	$387,756

A table showing the average annual gross income of medical specialties and surgical specialties in Canada.

By specialty — Average physician gross annual income

Specialty	Annual income
Ophthalmology	$879,858
Thoracic/cardiovascular surgery	$670,652
Neurosurgery	$602,130
Surgical specialists	$573,586
Urology	$572,164
General surgery	$539,707
Cardiology	$531,746
Otolaryngology	$523,053
Plastic surgery	$514,086
Orthopedic surgery	$507,807
Gastroenterology	$493,060
Obstetrics/gynecology	$472,548
Internal medicine	$464,759
Dermatology	$457,191
Medical specialists	$404,328
Pediatrics	$361,623
Neurology	$356,913
Physical medicine	$341,008
Family medicine	$331,615
Psychiatry	$318,984

Cardiology — Gross annual income by province

Province	Annual income
Alberta	$643,215
British Columbia	$599,541
Saskatchewan	$576,559
Manitoba	$548,207
Quebec	$514,500
Ontario	$508,233
New Brunswick	$485,973
Newfoundland and Labrador	$478,812
Nova Scotia	$357,312
Prince Edward Island	n/a
Average	$531,746

Dermatology — Gross annual income by province

Province	Annual income
Alberta	$666,555
Manitoba	$636,129
New Brunswick	$581,224
Nova Scotia	$580,236
Newfoundland and Labrador	$515,679
British Columbia	$505,756
Saskatchewan	$463,633
Quebec	$448,877
Ontario	$361,097
Prince Edward Island	*
Average	$457,191

Family medicine — Gross annual income by province

Province	Annual income
Alberta	$393,248
Quebec	$369,185
Manitoba	$364,825
New Brunswick	$341,161
Saskatchewan	$322,026
Prince Edward Island	$317,968
Nova Scotia	$312,420
British Columbia	$308,399
Ontario	$303,656
Newfoundland and Labrador	$290,388
Average	$331,615

Gastroenterology — Gross annual income by province

Province	Annual income
Saskatchewan	$544,297
British Columbia	$542,929
Alberta	$537,539
Manitoba	$521,276
New Brunswick	$500,828
Quebec	$486,144
Ontario	$478,715
Newfoundland and Labrador	$435,780
Nova Scotia	$350,724
Prince Edward Island	n/a
Average	$493,060

General surgery — Gross annual income by province

Province	Annual income
Alberta	$637,393
Manitoba	$628,103
Quebec	$611,821
Saskatchewan	$587,697
New Brunswick	$556,302
Prince Edward Island	$552,027
British Columbia	$537,065
Nova Scotia	$511,467
Ontario	$481,451
Newfoundland and Labrador	$468,256
Average	$539,707

Internal medicine — Gross annual income by province

Province	Annual income
Alberta	$546,288
British Columbia	$507,457
Saskatchewan	$488,589
Manitoba	$482,233
Quebec	$470,028
Prince Edward Island	$447,909
Ontario	$441,783
New Brunswick	$438,960
Newfoundland and Labrador	$422,537
Nova Scotia	$365,418
Average	$464,759

The figures for internal medicine include all subspecialties of internal medicine, including cardiology and gastroenterology which are also reported as individual specialties.

Neurology — Gross annual income by province

Province	Annual income
British Columbia	$456,129
Alberta	$412,966
Newfoundland and Labrador	$379,965
Manitoba	$363,673
Prince Edward Island	$359,155
Saskatchewan	$358,399
Ontario	$342,627
Quebec	$334,388
New Brunswick	$311,167
Nova Scotia	$288,633
Average	$356,913

Neurosurgery — Gross annual income by province

Province	Annual income
Saskatchewan	$700,258
Ontario	$697,647
British Columbia	$652,253
Newfoundland and Labrador	$586,906
Manitoba	$533,423
Quebec	$529,882
New Brunswick	$443,023
Nova Scotia	$347,957
Alberta	n/a
Prince Edward Island	n/a
Average	$602,130

Obstetrics/gynecology — Gross annual income by province

Province	Annual income
British Columbia	$568,742
Alberta	$540,451
Saskatchewan	$539,522
New Brunswick	$538,434
Prince Edward Island	$520,185
Manitoba	$509,233
Quebec	$463,067
Nova Scotia	$450,795
Ontario	$436,002
Newfoundland and Labrador	$379,067
Average	$472,548

Ophthalmology — Gross annual income by province

Province	Annual income
Alberta	$1,302,765
Manitoba	$1,162,421
Prince Edward Island	$1,103,068
Saskatchewan	$1,069,210
Newfoundland and Labrador	$969,021
British Columbia	$962,062
Nova Scotia	$907,615
Quebec	$806,676
New Brunswick	$805,655
Ontario	$747,346
Average	$879,858

Orthopedic surgery — Gross annual income by province

Province	Annual income
Newfoundland and Labrador	$604,053
Alberta	$595,058
Saskatchewan	$570,139
Manitoba	$567,600
Prince Edward Island	$526,246
British Columbia	$518,090
Quebec	$514,266
Ontario	$473,882
Nova Scotia	$464,793
New Brunswick	$461,365
Average	$507,807

Otolaryngology — Gross annual income by province

Province	Annual income
Alberta	$683,991
Saskatchewan	$561,689
Manitoba	$551,799
New Brunswick	$537,585
Nova Scotia	$533,296
Ontario	$518,968
British Columbia	$512,028
Newfoundland and Labrador	$490,704
Quebec	$469,263
Prince Edward Island	*
Average	$523,053

Pediatrics — Gross annual income by province

Province	Annual income
British Columbia	$420,660
Alberta	$418,964
New Brunswick	$412,370
Saskatchewan	$392,600
Quebec	$389,287
Newfoundland and Labrador	$378,609
Nova Scotia	$354,401
Manitoba	$342,411
Prince Edward Island	$337,984
Ontario	$327,477
Average	$361,623

Physical medicine — Gross annual income by province

Province	Annual income
Saskatchewan	$416,393
Manitoba	$413,298
British Columbia	$394,457
Alberta	$373,556
New Brunswick	$348,825
Quebec	$326,258
Ontario	$319,091
Nova Scotia	$234,609
Newfoundland and Labrador	*
Prince Edward Island	*
Average	$341,008

Plastic surgery — Gross annual income by province

Province	Annual income
Alberta	$678,847
Manitoba	$668,551
New Brunswick	$626,131
Saskatchewan	$592,275
Quebec	$541,786
Nova Scotia	$529,928
British Columbia	$523,778
Newfoundland and Labrador	$499,776
Ontario	$442,706
Prince Edward Island	*
Average	$514,086

Psychiatry — Gross annual income by province

Province	Annual income
New Brunswick	$380,303
Prince Edward Island	$368,343
Saskatchewan	$360,632
Quebec	$359,352
Manitoba	$345,302
Alberta	$335,040
British Columbia	$316,395
Nova Scotia	$293,706
Newfoundland and Labrador	$282,642
Ontario	$281,312
Average	$318,984

Thoracic/cardiovascular surgery — Gross annual income by province

Province	Annual income
Alberta	$889,030
Saskatchewan	$762,962
Manitoba	$754,625
Ontario	$710,681
British Columbia	$634,493
Quebec	$626,372
Newfoundland and Labrador	$583,493
Nova Scotia	$545,757
New Brunswick	$540,196
Prince Edward Island	n/a
Average	$670,652

Urology — Gross annual income by province

Province	Annual income
Manitoba	$730,839
Alberta	$701,111
New Brunswick	$670,287
Saskatchewan	$644,047
British Columbia	$615,056
Nova Scotia	$606,020
Newfoundland and Labrador	$585,763
Ontario	$537,580
Quebec	$527,298
Prince Edward Island	*
Average	$572,164

¹ To find this information, go to https://www.cihi.ca/en/physicians-in-canada. Scroll down to “National Physician Database” and download “Data tables (ZIP).” Go to the file titled “NPDB-historical-payments-data-tables-1999-2019-en-web.xlsx,” and see Table D2 (“Average payments”). Click row 3 (“Type of average payment”) and select “Average gross clinical payment per full-time-equivalent physician” from the drop-down menu.

The above information should not be construed as offering specific financial, investment, foreign or domestic taxation, legal, accounting or similar professional advice, nor is it intended to replace the advice of independent tax, accounting or legal professionals.