Halifax - Neurosurgery

Dalhousie UniversityHalifax, Nova ScotiaCMG stream

Program websiteWebsite CANPREPPCANPREPPContacts

CaRMS program description, 2027 match, last approved 11 Sep 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: 6 years
Stream: CMG
Discipline: Neurosurgery
Applications per year: 0–50
Applicants offered interviews: 76–100%
Accreditation: Accredited
CaRMS program ID: 36402

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

Summary

Dalhousie Neurosurgery is a 6-year program based in Halifax, with adult care at the QEII Health Sciences Centre and pediatric care at the IWK Health Centre.
Core years include a 3-block community neurosurgery rotation in Saint John, Moncton or St. John's, plus 3 blocks of neuropathology.
Most residents complete a research year, typically in PGY-4.

Training

Setting

Academic / tertiary hospital
Regional community

Sites

5 teaching sites

Halifax Infirmary, QE II Health Sciences Centre
IWK Health Centre
Saint John Regional Hospital

Show all 5

The Moncton Hospital
Health Sciences Centre - Eastern Health

Rural exposure

Not stated on CaRMS page

Research

Offered · research project · protected time

Call

In-house and home call · frequency “maximum 1 in 4”

Highlights

Required three-month community neurosurgery rotation at another Atlantic Canadian neurosurgical unit.
Resident-to-faculty ratio of one to one.

By year

PGY-1

Neurosurgical Servicesix blocks
Emergency Medicine
Anesthesia
Vascular Surgery
Plastic Surgery
Otolaryngology
Radiation Oncology

PGY-2

Neurosurgery7 blocks
Critical Care2 blocks
Neuroradiology2 blocks
Orthopedic Surgery1 block
Neurology1 block

From the program's rotation list.

Other rotations

Listed by the program without a single PGY year.

community neurosurgery (PGY-3 to 6 (Core of Discipline) · 3 block · Saint John and Moncton, NB; St. John's, NL.)
neuropathology (PGY-3 to 6 (Core of Discipline) · 3 blocks)
academic enrichment (PGY-3 to 6 (Core of Discipline) · One year)

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

Not stated on CaRMS page. Check the provincial return-of-service rules.

Applications per year

0–50

Applicants offered interviews

76–100%

Interviews

Dates (2027 match)

22 Jan 2027

Format

Traditional (one on one/two on one)
MMI or rotating station

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

Pay

Provincial scale, last updated 24 Jul 2026 · check the current agreement(opens in a new tab)

Annual salary by PGY level, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island
Level	Annual salary
PGY-1	$78,578 / year
PGY-2	$83,904 / year
PGY-3	$89,462 / year
PGY-4	$95,485 / year
PGY-5	$101,926 / year
PGY-6	$108,066 / year

One provincial scale for Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, set by the resident agreement, so every program there pays the same. Showing the 6 levels this program covers.

Benefits

Benefits as listed by CaRMS in 2022–2024; check the current agreement(opens in a new tab)

Annual vacation: 4 weeks
Call stipend: Yes
CMPA dues paid: Yes
Dental coverage: Yes
Educational leave: Yes
Extended health insurance: Yes
Frequency of call: l in 4 in-hospital and for homecall
Life insurance: $100,000 of insurance
Long-term disabilityinsurance: 66.7% of salary
Maternity leave top up after one year’s service: eligible for up to a maximum of 17 weeks top-up allowance for maternity/pregnancy leave
Provincial dues (% of salary): 1.30%
Provincial health insurance: Yes
Sick leave: Yes
Statutory and floating holidays: paid

Call

Call (provincial max): 1 night in 4 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.

MarDocs agreement, 1 Jul 2024 to 30 Jun 2027.

Teaching sites

Halifax Infirmary, QE II Health Sciences Centre (Halifax)
IWK Health Centre (Halifax)
Saint John Regional Hospital (Saint John · rural or distributed site)
The Moncton Hospital (Moncton · rural or distributed site)
Health Sciences Centre - Eastern Health (St. John's · rural or distributed site)

Hospital facts

Public figures for hospitals named above, each with its source and reference period. They describe the hospital, not the program, and are not a ranking. We match names to the province’s lists by name, so check each source before you rely on it.

Halifax Infirmary, QE II Health Sciences Centre

Matched to QEII - Halifax Infirmary Site (Halifax) in the province’s hospital list.

Hospital type: Tertiary As the province lists it. The list has no volumes or beds.

IWK Health Centre

Matched to IWK Health Centre (Halifax) in the province’s hospital list.

Hospital type: Tertiary As the province lists it. The list has no volumes or beds.

Saint John Regional Hospital

Matched to Saint John Regional Hospital / Hôpital Régional de Saint John (Saint John) in the province’s hospital list.

Inpatient beds: 445 As listed in the province’s dataset, whose rows were last updated 24 Apr 2019; the count may be older.

Show facts for 1 more sites

The Moncton Hospital

Matched to The Moncton Hospital / L’Hôpital de Moncton (Moncton) in the province’s hospital list.

Inpatient beds: 381 As listed in the province’s dataset, whose rows were last updated 24 Apr 2019; the count may be older.

Sources and licences

Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – New Brunswick.
Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Nova Scotia.

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

katharine.anderson@nshealth.ca

Katharine Anderson · Residency Training Program Administrator

902-473-8919

Program director

Dr. Gwynedd Pickett
Program Director
gepickett@dal.ca
902-473-1667

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

Location

Halifax, Nova Scotia

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: −4.1 °C Shearwater, 11.0 km away
July average: 18.5 °C Shearwater, 11.0 km away
Snowfall: 215.2 cm a year Halifax Stanfield (Airport), 20.9 km away
Days below −20 °C: 0.9 days a year Shearwater, 11.0 km away

People

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

Population: 439,819 people up 9.1% from 2016
Official languages: English only 87.1% · French only 0.1% · English and French 12.2% · neither 0.6% Share of residents who can conduct a conversation in each. This is not the language spoken at home.
Immigrants: 11.6% of residents arrived 2016–2021: 4.1% · non-permanent residents: 3.9%
Indigenous identity: 3.8% of residents
How people commute: car, truck or van 81.5% · public transit 8.1% · walking or cycling 8.0% · other 2.4% Average commute: 21.4 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: $81,000 before tax $69,500 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: Halifax, a large urban population centre (100,000 or more people) 348,634 people in 2021
Remoteness index: 0.199 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: 2.6% October 2025 survey, Halifax, Nova Scotia (census metropolitan area). The share of purpose-built rentals (three units and over) vacant, not a rent.
Basic cost of living: $54,855 a year Market Basket Measure 2025, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 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: 5.8% September 2026, three-month average, seasonally adjusted, Halifax, Nova Scotia (census metropolitan area); standard error 0.5 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: Very good The employment outlook will be Very good for specialists in surgery (NOC 31101) in the Halifax region for the 2025-2027 period.
Canada-wide, to 2033: Strong risk of Shortage ESDC’s projection for specialists in surgery, 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.