Canadians lost more than an estimated $4.2 billion in wages, productivity in 2025: Fraser Institute

The entrance to the emergency department at Peter Lougheed hospital is pictured in, Calgary, Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Wait times for medical attention cost Canadians more than $4.2 billion in lost wages and productivity in 2025, a new study by the Fraser Institute suggests.

The study conducted by the right-wing thinktank suggested that around 1.4 million people waited for medical treatment across the country in 2025, and each faced a loss of an estimated average of $3,043.

Nadeem Esmail, director of health policy studies at the Fraser Institute, called long waits for medical treatment a “hallmark of the Canadian health-care system,” adding that the wait times“ increased pain and suffering — and potentially worse medical outcomes.”

In a news release Tuesday, Esmail said, “These long waits also cost Canadians valuable time during which they are unable to work effectively, enjoy time with family, or participate fully in their own lives.”

The Fraser Institute said the total lost wages it believes were incurred due to medical wait times is likely a “conservative estimate,” since it does not account for the 15.3-week waiting period, on average, based on the survey, between getting a referral from a general practitioner to seeing a specialist. It also doesn’t include waiting time involved in getting diagnostic tests, like MRIs or CT scans.

The total average wait time for medical treatment in Canada based on the survey amounted to 28.6 weeks in 2025 – the “second-longest in the survey’s history,” the Fraser Institute said.

“As long as lengthy wait times define Canada’s health-care system, patients will continue to pay a price in lost time and reduced quality of life,” Mackenzie Moir, Fraser Institute senior policy analyst, said in the press release.

In a Statistics Canada survey titled Health-care Access and Experiences – Primary and Specialist Care that was released in July 2025, 36 per cent of respondents reported waiting for three months or more to see a specialist.

Around 35 per cent reported waiting for less than one month and 30 per cent said they waited for a period between one and three months.

The Fraser Institute study also found variation in wait times and average incomes by province, changing the cost of health-care wait times.

New Brunswick residents topped the list, with the per-patient cost of waiting amounting to a whopping $4,864. Quebec ranked second at $3,912 per patient, and Alberta third, with an average of $3,724 per patient, the survey suggested.

The cross-sectional StatCan survey from the previous year found that the majority of Quebec residents waited less than three months to see a specialist in 2024, and many were seen in less than a month.

Meanwhile, 66 per cent of self-referred individuals across Canada were able to see a specialist within a month, which was more than double the number of individuals who were referred by a health-care professional, the survey based on data from January to November 2024 said.

According to the national statistics agency, longer wait times for specialist care can have a negative effect on the patients’ health outcomes, due to delays in diagnosis and necessary intervention.

“Patients may also experience increased anxiety, stress, pain, and worsening of their condition while waiting for care,” StatCan said in a news release, following its patient survey.

Sixty-four per cent of respondents reported that their lives were affected by wait times, two-thirds of whom said they experienced worry, anxiety and stress.

Additionally, approximately 36 per cent also reported feeling pain or difficulties in daily tasks, while 22 per cent said their health condition deteriorated.

Methodology

Data used in the Fraser Institute’s analysis was collected between January and May, 2025, through questionnaires sent to practitioners in 12 medical specialties, the Fraser Institute says. Responses from 1,277 people were then weighted based on provincial medians.