Sault Ste. Marie - Family Medicine

NOSM UniversitySault Ste. Marie, OntarioIMG stream

Program websiteWebsite CANPREPPCANPREPP1 more link

Open on carms.ca

CaRMS program description, 2026 match, last approved 20 Oct 2025

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

Positions (approx. quota): 1 position
Length: 2 years
Stream: IMG
Discipline: Family Medicine
Applications per year: 601+
Applicants offered interviews: 0–25%
Accreditation: Accredited
CaRMS program ID: 29369

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

Summary

NOSM University's Family Medicine Residency Program offers a comprehensive, community-focused training experience across northern Ontario. The program emphasizes distributed learning, cultural competence, and preparing physicians to serve diverse rural and remote communities with a strong commitment to hands-on, patient-centered care.

Training

Research

Residents are supported in scholarly activities including research, quality improvement projects, and have opportunities to participate in Resident Research Day with expert guidance.

Training setting

Training occurs across multiple urban, rural, and remote clinical settings in northern Ontario, with a primary focus on the Sault Ste. Marie region. Residents experience diverse healthcare environments including community clinics, hospitals, and remote First Nation communities.

Teaching approach

Utilizing the Triple C competency-based curriculum and CanMEDS-FM framework, the program emphasizes comprehensive, continuous care with a strong focus on community-based learning and reflective practice.

Setting types

Community hospital
Family health teams
Rural clinics
Remote community settings

Focus areas

Rural Medicine
Indigenous Health
Community-Based Family Medicine
Distributed Medical Education
Northern Ontario Healthcare

Patient populations

Children and Adolescents
Adults
Elderly Patients
Maternal and Newborn Patients
Indigenous Communities
Rural and Remote Populations
Underserved Populations

Highlights

Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME)
Distributed training across multiple northern Ontario sites
Financial support for travel and housing
Scholarly activity opportunities
Wellness program
Simulation-based learning
Cultural competency training
Interdisciplinary healthcare team integration

Strengths

Extensive geographic training opportunities
Strong Indigenous health focus
Comprehensive rural medicine training
Flexible and adaptable curriculum
Exceptional preceptor support
Commitment to resident wellness

Enhanced skills

Care of the Elderly
Emergency Medicine
Procedural Skills
Indigenous Health

By year

PGY-1

Family MedicineSault Ste. Marie16 weeks
Family Medicine RuralNorthern Ontario8 weeks
ElectivesVarious8 weeks
Internal MedicineSault Area Hospital4 weeks
Emergency MedicineSault Ste. Marie4 weeks
Obstetrics/Women's HealthSault Ste. Marie4 weeks
Mental HealthSault Ste. Marie4 weeks
PediatricsSault Ste. Marie4 weeks

PGY-2

Family MedicineSault Ste. Marie16 weeks
Family Medicine RuralNorthern Ontario8 weeks
ElectivesVarious8 weeks
CARE SelectiveSault Ste. Marie4 weeks
Internal MedicineSault Area Hospital4 weeks
Emergency MedicineSault Ste. Marie4 weeks
Obstetrics/Women's HealthSault Ste. Marie4 weeks
Surgical SelectiveSault Ste. Marie4 weeks

From the program's rotation list.

Selection

What the program looks at

NAC examination
MCCQE Part I
FMProC assessment
Structured reference letters
Personal letter
CV/Resume
Medical school transcript

Applications per year

601+

Applicants offered interviews

0–25%

Interviews

Dates (2026 match): 16 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

Sault Area Hospital

Hospital facts

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

Unfilled positions in past years

Open after round 1 in 3 of 8 years (2019–2026); still open after round 2 in 0 of 9 years.

Positions at this site, all streams. Site as CaRMS lists it: Sault Ste. Marie.

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	0	0
2020	2 positions open after round 1 in 2020, CaRMS list (opens in a new tab)	0
2021	0	0
2022	2 positions open after round 1 in 2022, CaRMS list (opens in a new tab)	0
2023	5 positions open after round 1 in 2023, CaRMS list (opens in a new tab)	0
2024	0	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

Sault Ste. Marie, 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: −9.8 °C Sault Ste Marie, 14.6 km away
July average: 17.9 °C Sault Ste Marie, 14.6 km away
Snowfall: 324.9 cm a year Sault Ste Marie, 14.6 km away
Days below −20 °C: 20.5 days a year Sault Ste Marie, 14.6 km away

People

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

Population: 72,051 people down 1.8% from 2016
Official languages: English only 90.3% · French only 0.0% · English and French 9.3% · neither 0.4% Share of residents who can conduct a conversation in each. This is not the language spoken at home.
Immigrants: 8.5% of residents arrived 2016–2021: 0.8% · non-permanent residents: 1.3%
Indigenous identity: 11.9% of residents
How people commute: car, truck or van 90.7% · public transit 2.9% · walking or cycling 5.1% · other 1.4% Average commute: 13.2 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: $73,000 before tax $65,500 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: Sault Ste. Marie, a medium population centre (30,000 to 99,999 people) 64,923 people in 2021
Remoteness index: 0.321 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: 2.5% October 2025 survey, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario (census agglomeration). The share of purpose-built rentals (three units and over) vacant, not a rent.
Basic cost of living: $51,047 a year Market Basket Measure 2025, Ontario, population 30,000 to 99,999, 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 Northeast 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.
Adapted from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Rental Market Survey, October 2025 (vacancy rates), and Statistics Canada, Table 34-10-0131-01. 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 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.