Thunder Bay - Psychiatry

NOSM UniversityThunder Bay, OntarioCMG stream

Program websiteWebsite CANPREPPCANPREPP

Open on carms.ca

CaRMS program description, 2026 match, last approved 5 Nov 2025

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

Positions (approx. quota): 1 position
Length: 5 years
Stream: CMG
Discipline: Psychiatry
Applications per year: 51–200
Applicants offered interviews: 0–25%
Accreditation: Accredited
CaRMS program ID: 30188

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

Summary

NOSM University's Psychiatry Program is a single, integrated program distributed across four primary sites: North Bay, Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, and Thunder Bay. The program is dedicated to training future psychiatrists who are well-prepared to serve in underserved, rural, and remote communities, with learners gaining valuable experience working with vulnerable populations facing acute and complex mental health and addiction needs.

Training

Research

Residents are expected to complete a research project, with support from a dedicated Research Coordinator and opportunities to present at the annual Resident Research Day.

Training setting

A distributed training environment across four northern Ontario sites: Thunder Bay, North Bay, Sudbury, and Sault Ste. Marie, with opportunities to train in urban, rural, and remote clinical settings.

Teaching approach

Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME) with a focus on workplace-based assessment, frequent authentic feedback, and competency-based progression through stages of training.

Setting types

Academic medical center
Community hospital
Rural clinic
Remote health center

Focus areas

Rural Psychiatry
Remote Community Mental Health
Addiction Psychiatry
Community-Based Psychiatry
Northern Ontario Mental Health

Patient populations

Vulnerable populations
Rural community patients
Remote community patients
Patients with mental health and addiction needs
Francophone communities
Indigenous communities

Highlights

Distributed training model across four sites
Competency-Based Design (CBD) curriculum
Longitudinal research curriculum
Psychotherapy training in multiple modalities
Financial support for resident travel
Housing support for core rotations
Research project requirement
Academic half-days and full academic days
Resident Research Day

Strengths

Strong social accountability focus
Comprehensive cultural and geographic understanding
Unparalleled preceptor support
Flexible, learner-centered training
Extensive exposure to diverse clinical settings

Enhanced skills

Psychotherapy training
Addiction medicine
Consultation-liaison psychiatry
Collaborative care
Rural and remote psychiatry

By year

PGY-1

Selectives/Elective4 blocks
Psychiatry Inpatient/Outpatient3 blocks
Addictions1 block
Emergency Medicine1 block
Internal Medicine1 block
Neurology1 block
Family Medicine1 block
Emergency Psychiatry1 block

PGY-2

Inpatient Psychiatry6 blocks
Outpatient Psychiatry6 blocks
Personalized Learning in Psychiatry1 block

PGY-3

Geriatric Psychiatry6 blocks
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry6 blocks
SPMI Training6 blocks
Consultation Liaison Psychiatry3-4 blocks
Addictions Medicine2-3 blocks
Collaborative/Shared Care2 blocks
Longitudinal Psychotherapyongoing

PGY-4

Geriatric Psychiatry6 blocks
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry6 blocks
SPMI Training6 blocks
Consultation Liaison Psychiatry3-4 blocks
Addictions Medicine2-3 blocks
Collaborative/Shared Care2 blocks
Longitudinal Psychotherapyongoing

PGY-5

Personalized Learning Yearfull year

From the program's rotation list.

Selection

What the program looks at

CV review
Medical Student Performance Record (MSPR)
Personal letter
Reference letters
Interview performance
Academic history
Elective experiences

Applications per year

51–200

Applicants offered interviews

0–25%

Interviews

Dates (2026 match): 3 and 4 Feb 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
PGY-3	$85,564 / year
PGY-4	$92,701 / year
PGY-5	$98,567 / year

One provincial scale for Ontario, set by the resident agreement, so every program there pays the same. Showing the 5 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

Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre
North Bay Regional Health Centre
Health Sciences North (Sudbury)
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: Thunder Bay.

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	0	0
2021	0	0
2022	0	0
2023	1 position open after round 1 in 2023, CaRMS list (opens in a new tab)	0
2024	1 position open after round 1 in 2024, CaRMS list (opens in a new tab)	0
2025	1 position open after round 1 in 2025, CaRMS list (opens in a new tab)	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

Thunder Bay, 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: −13.4 °C Thunder Bay, 6.3 km away
July average: 18.0 °C Thunder Bay, 6.3 km away
Snowfall: not reported No weather station within 100 km reports it
Days below −20 °C: 42.2 days a year Thunder Bay, 6.3 km away

People

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

Population: 108,843 people up 0.9% from 2016
Official languages: English only 91.5% · French only 0.1% · English and French 8.0% · neither 0.5% Share of residents who can conduct a conversation in each. This is not the language spoken at home.
Immigrants: 8.6% of residents arrived 2016–2021: 1.0% · non-permanent residents: 2.5%
Indigenous identity: 14.1% of residents
How people commute: car, truck or van 88.5% · public transit 3.8% · walking or cycling 5.9% · other 1.8% Average commute: 15.6 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: $77,500 before tax $69,000 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: Thunder Bay, a medium population centre (30,000 to 99,999 people) 95,266 people in 2021
Remoteness index: 0.295 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: 3.9% October 2025 survey, Thunder Bay, Ontario (census metropolitan area). The share of purpose-built rentals (three units and over) vacant, not a rent.
Basic cost of living: $54,744 a year Market Basket Measure 2025, Ontario, population 100,000 to 499,999, 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.
Unemployment rate: 4.3% September 2026, three-month average, seasonally adjusted, Thunder Bay, Ontario (census metropolitan area); standard error 0.6 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: Good The employment outlook will be Good for specialists in clinical and laboratory medicine (NOC 31100) in the Northwest region for the 2025-2027 period.
Canada-wide, to 2033: Strong risk of Shortage ESDC’s projection for specialists in clinical and laboratory medicine, 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.