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Waterloo - Psychiatry

McMaster UniversityWaterloo, OntarioIMG stream

Program websiteWebsiteContacts and 4 more links
Open on carms.ca(opens in a new tab)

CaRMS program description, 2027 match, last approved 28 Aug 2026 · See the 2026 version

2027 match programs, from CaRMS as of 5 Oct 2026. Programs can still change until file review opens 26 November; we re-check every two weeks. Always confirm on CaRMS (opens in a new tab).

Positions (approx. quota)
1 position
Length
5 years
Stream
IMG
Discipline
Psychiatry
Applications per year
51–200
Applicants offered interviews
0–25%
Accreditation
Accredited
CaRMS program ID
35981

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

Summary

  • This is a 5-year McMaster psychiatry residency based at the Waterloo Regional Campus, preparing psychiatrists for community hospital and outpatient practice.
  • Emergency psychiatry call takes place at Grand River Hospital and Guelph General Hospital.
  • Residents complete a quality improvement project, a Grand Rounds presentation and a poster or peer-reviewed presentation.

Training

Setting
  • Regional community
Sites

6 teaching sites

  • Waterloo Regional Health Network (WRHN)
  • Grand River Hospital
  • Waterloo Regional Health Network's Chicopee Site
Show all 6
  • Guelph General Hospital
  • Homewood Health Centre
  • Cambridge Memorial Hospital

Distributed across a region

Rural exposure
Not stated on CaRMS page
Research
Required · scholarly or quality-improvement project · protected time
Call
In-house call · frequency “approximately 1/7”
Highlights
  • One Room Schoolhouse academic learning system unique to the Waterloo Regional Campus.
  • Residents choose their own site and supervisor for all psychiatry rotations.
  • IMG residents paired with an academic coach and peer mentors who were themselves IMGs.

By year

PGY-1
  • Emergency Psychiatryfour-week block
  • selectiveone block
  • electiveone block
  • Internal Medicine
  • Family Medicine
  • Neurology
  • Adolescent Medicine
  • Emergency Medicine
  • Addictions
PGY-2
  • General Adult Inpatient Psychiatry6 blocks
  • General Adult Outpatient Psychiatry6 blocks
  • Anchored Selective1 block
PGY-3
  • Child & Adolescent Psychiatry6 blocks
  • Geriatric Psychiatry6 blocks
PGY-4
  • Chronic Care Psychiatry6 blocks
  • Elective, which may include research4 blocks
  • Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry3 blocks

From the program's rotation list.

Other rotations

Listed by the program without a single PGY year.

  • Transition to Discipline (Transition to Discipline · two blocks)
  • Collaborative Care (Transition to Practice · 3 blocks)
  • electives (Transition to Practice · 10 blocks)

Selection

Application file components
  • CV
  • Electives
  • Examinations
  • Extra-curricular
  • Leadership skills
  • MSPRs
  • Personal letters
  • Reference documents
  • Research/Publications
  • Transcripts
  • Other file component(s)
Return of service
Required · IMGs only
IMG requirements
Not stated on CaRMS page
Applications per year
51–200
Applicants offered interviews
0–25%

Interviews

Dates (2027 match)
25 and 28 Jan 2027
Mode
Virtual
Format
  • Traditional (one on one/two on one)
  • Panel

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

Info sessions

From the program’s CaRMS page (opens in a new tab), read 1 Oct 2026. Dates and times are as the program wrote them, not converted to your time zone. Programs add and change sessions: confirm with the program.

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
LevelAnnual 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

  • Waterloo Regional Health Network (WRHN) (Waterloo)
  • Grand River Hospital (Kitchener-Waterloo)
  • Waterloo Regional Health Network's Chicopee Site
  • Guelph General Hospital (Guelph)
  • Homewood Health Centre (Guelph)
  • Cambridge Memorial Hospital (Cambridge)

Hospital facts

Hospital size and activity: Ontario 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

Grouped by the titles CaRMS lists. The program office (administrators and coordinators) usually answers questions about the program and applying; the director leads the training.

Program officeadministrators and coordinators

wcpgpsyc@mcmaster.ca

Ashley Clark · WRC Program Administrator

Program directors

Site staffdirectors and coordinators at the teaching sites

Per CaRMS. Staff change during the cycle, so check the CaRMS program page(opens in a new tab) before emailing.

More links

Location

Waterloo, Ontario

Loading amenities…

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
−6.3 °C Kitchener/Waterloo, 13.5 km away
July average
20.2 °C Kitchener/Waterloo, 13.5 km away
Snowfall
114.5 cm a year Toronto Pearson (Airport), 76.9 km away (more than 50 km, so it may differ from the city)
Days below −20 °C
6.5 days a year Kitchener/Waterloo, 13.5 km away

People

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

Population
121,436 people up 15.7% from 2016
Official languages
English only 89.6% · French only 0.0% · English and French 8.6% · neither 1.7% Share of residents who can conduct a conversation in each. This is not the language spoken at home.
Immigrants
27.5% of residents arrived 2016–2021: 5.6% · non-permanent residents: 8.7%
Indigenous identity
1.3% of residents
How people commute
car, truck or van 83.9% · public transit 6.5% · walking or cycling 6.9% · other 2.7% Average commute: 20.8 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
$94,000 before tax $82,000 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
Kitchener, a large urban population centre (100,000 or more people) 522,888 people in 2021
Remoteness index
0.083 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
4.0% October 2025 survey, Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo, Ontario (census metropolitan area). The share of purpose-built rentals (three units and over) vacant, not a rent.
Basic cost of living
$55,434 a year Market Basket Measure 2025, Ontario, population 500,000 and over, 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
7.7% September 2026, three-month average, seasonally adjusted, Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo, Ontario (census metropolitan area); standard error 0.8 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 Kitchener - Waterloo - Barrie 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 6 Oct 2026.