OMA worried residency policy change could deter international physicians

Sylvia Jones arrives for a cabinet swearing-in-ceremony in Toronto on Wednesday, March 19, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

TORONTO — The Ontario Medical Association is concerned that a new provincial government policy meant to give priority for residency positions to Ontarians could lead to fewer doctors in the system.

The government recently changed rules for international medical school graduates looking to do their residency in Ontario.

There are multiple rounds in which would-be doctors get matched with residency spots and the province will now be saving first-round international graduate spots for people who attended high school in Ontario for at least two years.

Health Minister Sylvia Jones’s office said the change supports Ontario-educated residents who have earned medical degrees elsewhere.

“Our government is not only ensuring local postgraduate training opportunities, we are also continuing to build our health-care workforce to connect people in every corner of the province to convenient care,” spokesperson Ema Popovic wrote in a statement.

The move follows a policy announced last year by Premier Doug Ford that the province’s medical school seats would be mostly reserved for Ontario residents.

Ontario Medical Association president Dr. Zainab Abdurrahman said though the rule change is designed to better accommodate students from Ontario who went abroad for medical school, it may end up deterring internationally educated physicians in general.

“We’re worried that this push to bring back Ontario students to practice might…have unintended consequences,” she said.

The policy doesn’t seem to fit with all of the other moves the government is making to try to attract internationally educated physicians to the province, and may cause them to instead practise in other provinces with fewer barriers, Abdurrahman said.

“We just don’t want anything that’s going to drive people away from practising in Ontario,” she said.

It is also causing some uncertainty because the change happened as applications were opening, Abdurrahman said.

“I think there’s still opportunity for the government to change their minds,” she said. “We hope they reconsider.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 14, 2025.

Allison Jones, The Canadian Press