Ontario forging ahead with medical residency rule for international grads it recently rescinded

Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones speaks at a press conference at Queen’s Park in Toronto, on Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Laura Proctor

TORONTO — Ontario is embedding in legislation a policy that would give priority for medical residency positions to applicants with a connection to the province.

The health ministry made headlines last week for rescinding a nearly identical policy amid a court case over it, but they actually withdrew the policy in order to legislate it.

Health Minister Sylvia Jones says they want to give priority to Ontarians, including people from the province who may have left to study medicine abroad but want to return home to practice.

A two-round process matches medical graduates with residency positions and the now-rescinded policy would have saved first-round international graduate spots for people who attended high school in Ontario for at least two years.

The proposed new policy would ensure a dedicated first-round stream for international medical graduates who went to an Ontario high school for at least two years, or attended an Ontario university in person for at least two years, or lived in Ontario for at least 24 weeks in the year leading up to their application.

Jones says the legislation would be in line with approaches in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.

“We’ve fine tuned the program a bit ... brought it in line with three other Canadian jurisdictions, provinces,” she said in an interview.

“We strengthened the definition, made it more consistent with what other provinces have been doing for a number of years. And by putting it into legislation as opposed to policy, it’s now very clear that this is the government’s direction, as opposed to a suggestion.”

Various medical groups, including the Canadian Medical Association and College of Family Physicians of Canada, criticized the initial policy when it was put in place last fall, especially the fact that it came partway through the application process.

“These applicants are already Canadian citizens or permanent residents residing in Canada and often working in health care,” the organizations jointly wrote in October.

“At a time when every effort is being made to attract more family physicians, the abrupt policy change for IMGs will destabilize family medicine programs in Ontario.”

Jones acknowledged in the interview that there was “fair criticism” of the fact the change was coming mid-process, but said the main goal of the rule change is to give Ontarians who have left the country an opportunity to come back.

“There are many students and young people for all the right reasons, because they wanted to start their medical career, went abroad to begin their medical studies, and really the first natural place and time for them to return is when they can apply for those residency spots,” she said.

The Ontario Medical Association president has previously said the policy may end up deterring internationally educated physicians in general, at a time when the government is trying to attract them to the province.

The policy was being challenged on constitutional grounds in court, and Jones said she believes the new rules as written in the upcoming legislation are solid.

“We believe that by embedding it into legislation, by bringing it in line with other Canadian jurisdictions that have been using the same definitions for many years, we are – how do we say – less likely to go to court,” she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 17, 2026.

Allison Jones, The Canadian Press