Across Canada, people are struggling to find family doctors. The shortage of medical professionals extends to emergency room wait times and wait times to see specialists as well. In Ottawa, there are an estimated 150,000 people without access to a family doctor.

In an attempt to fix this problem, some municipal and provincial governments in Canada offer incentives to physicians to work in their communities.

The most common incentive is some kind of financial or monetary bonus, which is tied to remaining and practicing in the community in question for a certain number of years. In some cases, extra bonuses can be earned for setting up a new practice in a community, as well as for meeting certain criteria such as being a specialist or working in a rural community. Further financial assistance can be offered in the form of student loan forgiveness and reimbursement of relocation expenses.

Every province except Quebec and Manitoba currently has some sort of financial incentive program to attract physicians, and Manitoba has one planned for the near future. While most provinces administer their programs at the provincial level, Alberta and Ontario delegate the responsibility to municipalities.

In Ontario, some municipalities offer financial incentives to new physicians, with the average maximum amount a physician can earn being $77,500. Among these municipalities are small towns such as Dryden and Haliburton as well as larger cities such as Kingston. Ottawa has no such incentives.

Huntsville, Ontario, offers an $80,000 signing bonus to family physicians who agree to stay and practice there for five years. Since being launched in May 2024, the program has attracted six new physicians, three of whom are still considered tentative as they are still in negotiations. https://doppleronline.ca/huntsville/huntsville-physician-incentive-program-proving-successful/

Kingston, Ontario, offers an incentive of $100 000 to any family doctor who agrees to start a full-time practice and stays for five years. Since 2022, Kingston’s program has brought 25 doctors to the city. 17 of these replaced doctors who were about to retire. The program has been so successful that this year the city approved another $600 000.  https://www.thewhig.com/news/kingston-looks-to-build-on-doctor-recruitment-success

The Timmins and District Hospital, in Timmins, Ontario, has a mandate to hire 10 new doctors per year, offering $20 000 to new physicians. In 2022, they recruited six doctors, and in 2023 they recruited nine.

These programs, even the ones with less money, are working.

Despite lacking family doctors, Ottawa does not have a recruitment and retainment strategy at all. Without some kind of strategy to attract new physicians and ensure they continue to practice in Ottawa, our family doctor shortage will only get worse.

This is why I proposed a motion to City Council on April 16^th to enable the municipal government to examine the measures in place in other municipalities and report back with short- and long-term recommendations for a recruitment and retainment strategy. You can read the motion here.

My hope with this motion is to take the first steps towards meaningful action and a resolution to this issue, by encouraging the City to research the best solution for Ottawa.

You can watch my speech at Council here. 

Have you heard about a creative solution for recruiting family doctors? Please share it with us in the form below.

Share your experience trying to find a doctor in the form below.

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