In Thunder Bay, physicians are eligible for $80,000 over four years via the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care’s Northern and Rural Recruitment & Retention Initiative. Other Northwestern Ontario communities qualify for the same grant, and it can be as high as $117,600 for the most northern/rural communities. They have to apply through the Ministry website and submit documentation.

The City of Thunder Bay offers a one-time $7,000 grant to family physicians setting up practice in Thunder Bay. A one-year Return of Service agreement is required.

Good morning Paula, Apologies for my delay in responding. In NB, incentives are provincially based and are allocated to us through the Department of Health. All incoming Family Physicians are eligible for the $20,000 provincial incentive with a two-year Return of Service and the fee for service FP are also eligible for an extra $15,000 Business grant adding an extra year to their Return of Service.

As for specialties, every year there are 5 specialties on the provincial incentive list (hardest to recruit) and they would be eligible for $20,000 with also a two-year Return of Service.

In both scenarios, the incentive either comes are a Bursary (while a resident) or a Location Grant (after residency completion).

Above these amounts, the Regional Health Authority also provides up to $8,000 for moving expenses which has a two-year Return of Service. This could run concurrently with the provincial incentive should the candidate accept the provincial incentive.

Hope this helps,
Denise

Hi Paula. We have community incentives tied to relocation, office set-up, office rent, professional fees, and CME. A family physician needs to sign a 4 years Return of Service agreement with us in order to access these funds. The amount of the funds is tied to the number of patients that the family physician is willing to roster.

Good morning Paula, we offer what we call a recruitment award for the first three years of the doc’s appointment. However, we also have a points systems which pays our docs based on their productivity in the previous year. Through this system the individual can earn more than their recruitment award but the doc cannot receive both. They can waive the recruitment award in favour of the productivity award or the doc can continue to receive the recruitment award. There is no return of service for the recruitment award. We generally only have return of service agreements if we pay for or pay a portion of a Master’s degree.