Calgary - Cardiac Surgery

University of CalgaryCalgary, AlbertaCMG stream

Program websiteWebsite

Open on carms.ca

CaRMS program description, 2026 match, last approved 22 Sep 2025

From the 2026 match (R-1 2026). See the 2027 version

Positions (approx. quota): 1 position
Length: 6 years
Stream: CMG
Discipline: Cardiac Surgery
Applications per year: 0–50
Applicants offered interviews: 26–50%
Accreditation: Accredited
CaRMS program ID: 29339

Bands are 5-year averages the program reports to CaRMS. They describe past cycles, not your odds.

Summary

The University of Calgary offers a comprehensive 6-year Cardiac Surgery Residency Program with an academic enrichment year. The program provides extensive surgical exposure, with over 1700 adult cardiac operations per year and training in specialized procedures like minimally invasive cardiac surgery, TAVI, and complex aortic surgery.

Training

Research

Academic enrichment year can be spent in basic science research, administration, education, innovation programs, or focused clinical areas, with potential for pursuing Masters or PhD.

Training setting

Training occurs at multiple sites in Calgary and Edmonton, including Foothills Hospital, Peter Lougheed Hospital, and University of Alberta, providing diverse clinical experiences across urban medical centers.

Teaching approach

Follows Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME) with progressive professional responsibility, emphasizing graded learning, comprehensive skill development, and Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada competency objectives.

Setting types

Academic medical center
Urban hospital
Tertiary care center

Focus areas

Adult Cardiac Surgery
Vascular Surgery
Pediatric Cardiac Surgery
Cardiac Transplantation
Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery
TAVI
TEVAR
Mechanical Circulatory Support
Complex Aortic Surgery

Patient populations

Adult cardiac patients
Vascular surgery patients
Pediatric cardiac patients
Cardiac transplant patients
Heart failure patients

Highlights

Academic enrichment year
Flexible academic year timing and content
Inter-University Affiliation Agreement
Weekly cardiac surgery rounds
Journal clubs
Seminar series
Didactic teaching sessions
Wet and dry labs
Transplant simulation lab

Strengths

High surgical volume
Comprehensive surgical training
Strong administrative support
Cohesive learning environment
Extensive academic curriculum
Flexible academic enrichment year

Enhanced skills

Care of the Elderly
Transplant Medicine
Minimally Invasive Surgery

By year

PGY-1

Various surgical disciplinesMultiple sitesFull year
Surgical FoundationsHome programVaries

PGY-2

Cardiac SurgeryFoothills HospitalVaries
Vascular SurgeryPeter Lougheed HospitalVaries
Critical CareMultiple sitesVaries

PGY-3

Cardiac SurgeryFoothills Hospital18 blocks
Pediatric Cardiac SurgeryUniversity of Alberta3 blocks

PGY-4

Academic Enrichment YearFlexibleFull year

PGY-5

Senior Cardiac Surgery RotationsMultiple sitesVaries

From the program's rotation list.

Selection

What the program looks at

Academic standing
Technical skills potential
Cardiac surgery interest
Elective performance
Reference letters
Personal characteristics

Applications per year

0–50

Applicants offered interviews

26–50%

Interviews

Dates (2026 match): 18 Jan 2026

Programs can change interview dates. Confirm on carms.ca.

Pay

Provincial scale, last updated 22 Jul 2026 · check the current agreement(opens in a new tab)

Annual salary by PGY level, Alberta
Level	Annual salary
PGY-1	$67,440 / year
PGY-2	$74,153 / year
PGY-3	$80,058 / year
PGY-4	$86,281 / year
PGY-5	$92,698 / year
PGY-6	$98,414 / year

One provincial scale for Alberta, set by the resident agreement, so every program there pays the same. Showing the 6 levels this program covers.

Benefits

Benefits as listed by CaRMS in 2022–2024; check the current agreement(opens in a new tab)

Annual vacation: 4 weeks/yr
Call Stipends: weekday in-house – $118.02weekend in-house / holiday – $178.72weekday home call – $59.01weekend home call / holiday – $89.35
CMPA dues paid: $1,500
Dental plan: 75% premium paid
Educational leave: 14 days paid leave
Extended health insurance: 75% premium paid$1000 per year Flexible Spending Account*
Frequency of calls: In-house call: 7/28. 2/4 weekend call.Home call: 9/28. 2/4 weekend call**A Resident scheduled on Home call but who is required to work more than four hours in hospital during the call period, of which more than one full hour is past 12:00 a.m. and before 6:00 a.m., or more than six (6) hours in hospital during the call period, shall be remunerated at the rate for In-House call.$100 per day for each scheduled weekend day of patient rounds when not on-call
Life insurance: 100% towards $150,000 coverage
Life Support Course Costs (Program Approved: 100% paid
Long-term disability insurance: 100% paid for 75% gross income
Maternity Leave: 18 weeks total (17 weeks paid to match 90% of salary when combined with EI)
Parental Leave: 2 weeks leave with full pay and benefits;52 weeks (inclusive of Maternity/Paternity/Adoption Leaves) – unpaid leave
Practice Stipend: $1,500
Provincial dues (% of salary): .95%
Sick leave: Up to 3 months or to end contract paid leave, whichever occurs first
Statutory holidays: Paid days. Additional days off are given if resident works the day before and part of a named holiday.

Call

Call (provincial max): 1 in 4 in-house

The union agreement’s cap for all residents in the province; your program’s actual call schedule may be lighter. Check with the program.

PARA agreement, 1 Jul 2024 to 30 Jun 2028.

Teaching sites

Foothills Hospital
Peter Lougheed Hospital
University of Alberta Hospital

Hospital facts

Hospital size and activity: Alberta doesn't publish this as open data.

Unfilled positions in past years

No repeated vacancies in CaRMS’s lists of open positions, 2019–2026.

Positions at this site, all streams.

A position can go unfilled because of where the site is, because it is open to IMGs only or to another restricted stream, or because the quota changed late. It says nothing about the quality of the training. Verify with the CaRMS lists. Source: CaRMS’s lists of positions open after round 1 and after round 2, as read in October 2026 (latest: 2026 round 1 (CaRMS PDF, opens in a new tab), 2026 round 2 (CaRMS PDF, opens in a new tab)). A site’s numbers are shown when it had positions open after round 1 in at least 2 of 8 years or at least 3 in one year.

Contacts

Contacts weren't collected for the 2026 match.

The current program director and contacts are on the 2027 version of this program and on the CaRMS program page(opens in a new tab).

Location

Calgary, Alberta

About the city

Public statistics for the place named by this program’s location label, each with its source and reference period. They describe the place, not the program, and are not a ranking. Check each source before you rely on it.

Climate

Canadian Climate Normals, 1991–2020. Each value comes from the nearest weather station that reports it, not from the city itself.

January average: −7.6 °C Calgary (Airport), 9.0 km away
July average: 16.9 °C Calgary (Airport), 9.0 km away
Snowfall: 138.7 cm a year Calgary (Airport), 9.0 km away
Days below −20 °C: 21.6 days a year Calgary (Airport), 9.0 km away

People

2021 Census. Figures are for the municipality of Calgary, not the metropolitan area. Statistics Canada rounds counts, so small places are approximate.

Population: 1,306,784 people up 5.5% from 2016
Official languages: English only 90.8% · French only 0.1% · English and French 6.6% · neither 2.5% Share of residents who can conduct a conversation in each. This is not the language spoken at home.
Immigrants: 33.3% of residents arrived 2016–2021: 6.3% · non-permanent residents: 2.1%
Indigenous identity: 3.2% of residents
How people commute: car, truck or van 83.2% · public transit 8.8% · walking or cycling 5.1% · other 2.9% Average commute: 23.9 minutes. Shares are of people who commute.The way Canadians commute was altered in 2021 by the pandemic, with lockdowns to slow the spread of COVID-19 and changes in how and where Canadians worked leading to 2.8 million fewer commuters, compared with five years earlier. Statistics Canada, The Daily, 30 Nov 2022(opens in a new tab)
Median household income: $98,000 before tax $85,000 after tax · income year 2020, in 2020 dollars

Rural and remote

This describes the place named by the program’s location label. Programs can train in several towns, so it is not every site.

Population centre: Calgary, a large urban population centre (100,000 or more people) 1,305,550 people in 2021
Remoteness index: 0.106 0 is least remote, 1 is most remote. Statistics Canada calls this index experimental.

Housing, cost and work

Each figure names the area it covers. A missing line means the source publishes nothing for this area.

Rental vacancy rate: 4.9% October 2025 survey, Calgary, Alberta (census metropolitan area). The share of purpose-built rentals (three units and over) vacant, not a rent.
Basic cost of living: $59,153 a year Market Basket Measure 2025, Calgary, Alberta, for two adults with two children. A modest, basic basket (the poverty line), not a resident’s budget. A size-class region is not the town itself.
Unemployment rate: 6.3% September 2026, three-month average, seasonally adjusted, Calgary, Alberta (census metropolitan area); standard error 0.5 points. A survey estimate.

Job outlook

Employment and Social Development Canada’s rating for the occupation in the economic region. It is not a count of jobs, and says nothing about CaRMS positions or your match.

Outlook, 2025–2027: Very good The employment outlook will be Very good for specialists in surgery (NOC 31101) in the Calgary region for the 2025-2027 period.
Canada-wide, to 2033: Strong risk of Shortage ESDC’s projection for specialists in surgery, 2024–2033. Recent conditions, 2021–2023: Strong signs of Shortage.

Sources and licences

Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence - Canada. Adapted from Statistics Canada, 2021 Census Cartographic Boundary Files.
Adapted from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Rental Market Survey, October 2025 (vacancy rates), and Statistics Canada, Table 34-10-0130-01. This does not constitute an endorsement by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation or Statistics Canada of this product.
Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence - Canada (Employment and Social Development Canada, Canadian Occupational Projection System (COPS), 2024 to 2033 projections).
Data Source: Environment and Climate Change Canada (Canadian Climate Normals 1991-2020).
Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence - Canada (Employment and Social Development Canada, 3-Year Employment Outlooks).
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Index of Remoteness (17-26-0001), 2021. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 14-10-0459-01 Labour force characteristics by census metropolitan area, three-month moving average, seasonally adjusted, reference month 2026-09. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 11-10-0066-01 Market Basket Measure (MBM) thresholds for the reference family by Market Basket Measure region, component and base year, 2025. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0011-01 Population and dwelling counts: Canada and population centres, 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0002-01 Population and dwelling counts: Canada and census subdivisions (municipalities), 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0057-01 Household income statistics by household type: Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions, 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0173-01 Mother tongue by knowledge of official languages: Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions, 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0266-01 Indigenous identity by Registered or Treaty Indian status: Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions, 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0307-01 Immigrant status and period of immigration by place of birth: Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions, 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0458-01 Main mode of commuting by commuting duration, time leaving for work, age and gender: Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions, 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.

Independent. Not affiliated with CaRMS or the program. Programs edit their descriptions during the match; confirm on carms.ca (opens in a new tab) before you apply. Data last updated on CdnMD 5 Oct 2026.