Rural Mount Forest - Family Medicine

McMaster UniversityRural Mount Forest, OntarioCMG stream

Program websiteWebsite CANPREPPCANPREPP1 more link

Open on carms.ca

CaRMS program description, 2026 match, last approved 9 Sep 2025

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

Positions (approx. quota): 1 position
Length: 2 years
Stream: CMG
Discipline: Family Medicine
Applications per year: 601+
Applicants offered interviews: 76–100%
Accreditation: Accredited
CaRMS program ID: 29885

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

Summary

McMaster University's Rural Mount Forest Family Medicine program offers comprehensive training in a small-town setting, preparing residents for diverse medical contexts. Located in a charming community with a strong sense of community, the program provides unique learning opportunities with supportive preceptors and a focus on rural family medicine.

Training

Research

Opportunities for scholarship integrated into academic programming, including quality improvement and evidence-based medicine components.

Training setting

Small rural town of Mount Forest (population 5,000), with training across nearby communities including Owen Sound, Collingwood, and Orangeville. Primary training occurs at Louise Marshall Hospital and local family medicine clinics.

Teaching approach

Competency-based medical education focused on comprehensive, flexible training that meets individual resident needs and prepares graduates for diverse family medicine practice settings.

Setting types

Rural community hospital
Family medicine clinics
Academic medical center

Focus areas

Rural Family Medicine
Rural Emergency Medicine
Comprehensive Family Practice
Rural Oncology Care

Patient populations

Rural community residents
Mennonite community members
Diverse age groups
Comprehensive primary care patients

Highlights

Longitudinal Primary Preceptor relationship
Mental Health and Behavioural Science continuity learning
Robust orientation series
Leadership opportunities
Resident Well-being Strategy

Strengths

Highly supportive preceptor environment
Advanced procedural skills training
Comprehensive rural medical experience
Strong focus on community-based care

Enhanced skills

Rural Emergency Medicine
Oncology Care
Procedural Skills

By year

PGY-1

Family MedicineMount Forest4 blocks
Care of the Hospitalized AdultLouise Marshall Hospital2 blocks
Emergency MedicineLouise Marshall Hospital2 blocks
Women's Health and ObstetricsVarious2 blocks
Care of ChildrenVarious2 blocks
Family Medicine/Academic ProgrammingOwen Sound Medical Centre1 block
Continuity Family Medicine homebase clinicsMount ForestOngoing

PGY-2

Family MedicineMount Forest4 blocks
ElectiveVarious3 blocks
Rural Family MedicineVarious rural sites2 blocks
Core Medicine/Surgery SelectiveSite-based options2 blocks
Care of the ElderlyVarious1 block
Family Medicine/Academic ProgrammingOwen Sound Medical Centre1 block
Continuity Family Medicine homebase clinicsMount ForestOngoing

From the program's rotation list.

Selection

What the program looks at

CV/Life experience
Electives
Extra-curricular activities
Leadership skills
Medical Student Performance Record
Personal letters
Reference documents
FMProC Situational Judgement Test

Applications per year

601+

Applicants offered interviews

76–100%

Interviews

Dates (2026 match): 16 Dec 2025; 17, 19, 21 and 27 Jan 2026

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

Pay

Provincial scale, last updated 6 Jan 2025 · check the current agreement(opens in a new tab)

Contract expired, may change.

Annual salary by PGY level, Ontario
Level	Annual salary
PGY-1	$73,367 / year
PGY-2	$79,670 / year

One provincial scale for Ontario, set by the resident agreement, so every program there pays the same. Showing the 2 levels this program covers.

Call

Call (provincial max): 7 nights in 28 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.

PARO agreement, 1 Jul 2023 to 30 Jun 2026. The term has ended; its terms continue until a new agreement is signed.

Teaching sites

Louise Marshall Hospital
Owen Sound Medical Centre

Hospital facts

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

Unfilled positions in past years

Open after round 1 in 4 of 8 years (2019–2026); still open after round 2 in 1 of 9 years.

Positions at this site, all streams. Site as CaRMS lists it: Rural Mount Forest.

Positions at this site, all streams, still open after round 1 and after round 2, by year. Each count above zero links to the CaRMS list page it comes from.
Year	Open after round 1	Open after round 2
2018	not available	0
2019	1 position open after round 1 in 2019, CaRMS list (opens in a new tab)	0
2020	0	0
2021	2 positions open after round 1 in 2021, CaRMS list (opens in a new tab)	1 position open after round 2 in 2021, CaRMS list (opens in a new tab)
2022	0	0
2023	2 positions open after round 1 in 2023, CaRMS list (opens in a new tab)	0
2024	2 positions open after round 1 in 2024, CaRMS list (opens in a new tab)	0
2025	0	0
2026	0	0

CaRMS’s first-round list for 2018 was not found, so round 1 is counted over 8 years and round 2 over 9.

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

Rural Mount Forest, Ontario

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: −7.1 °C Mount Forest, 1.2 km away
July average: 19.4 °C Mount Forest, 1.2 km away
Snowfall: 174.1 cm a year Egbert, 81.1 km away (more than 50 km, so it may differ from the city)
Days below −20 °C: 8.2 days a year Mount Forest, 1.2 km away

People

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

Population: 12,431 people up 4.3% from 2016
Official languages: English only 96.6% · French only 0.0% · English and French 2.5% · neither 0.9% Share of residents who can conduct a conversation in each. This is not the language spoken at home.
Immigrants: 6.0% of residents arrived 2016–2021: 0.3% · non-permanent residents: 0.7%
Indigenous identity: 1.8% of residents
How people commute: car, truck or van 90.6% · public transit 0.2% · walking or cycling 8.2% · other 1.1% Average commute: 25.1 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: $78,000 before tax $69,500 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: Mount Forest, a small population centre (1,000 to 29,999 people) 5,040 people in 2021
Remoteness index: 0.115 0 is least remote, 1 is most remote. Statistics Canada calls this index experimental.
Rurality Index for Ontario: RIO2008 score 42 Official page(opens in a new tab)Ontario Ministry of Health, RIO2008 scores; page updated 2025-01-10; checked 9 Oct 2026
Student loan forgiveness: Family medicine here may qualify for up to $60,000 of Canada Student Loan forgiveness. Eligibility depends on the postal code of where you work: check the official postal-code lookup. Postal-code lookup(opens in a new tab)

Housing, cost and work

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

Basic cost of living: $52,873 a year Market Basket Measure 2025, Ontario, population under 30,000, 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.

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 general practitioners and family physicians (NOC 31102) in the Kitchener - Waterloo - Barrie region for the 2025-2027 period.
Canada-wide, to 2033: Strong risk of Shortage ESDC’s projection for general practitioners and family physicians, 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.
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.
Source: Employment and Social Development Canada, Canada Student Loan Forgiveness (Canada.ca), page dated 2026-06-03.
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.
Source: Ontario Ministry of Health, Rurality Index for Ontario (RIO2008) score, page updated 2025-01-10.
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.