Yes, there are physician assistants (PAs) in Canada, though the profession is much smaller and less established than in the United States. As of 2024, roughly 766 PAs were practicing across the country, a number that has nearly doubled from about 432 in recent years. The profession is growing quickly as provinces look for ways to address healthcare shortages, but regulation and scope of practice vary significantly depending on where you are.
Military Roots of the PA Profession
Canada’s PA profession started in the military, not in civilian healthcare. The Canadian Forces has been training and employing medical extenders since the 1960s, originally called 6B Medical Assistants and renamed Physician Assistants in 1984. The military needed clinicians who could provide primary and emergency care in places where sending a physician wasn’t practical: remote northern outposts, aboard ships, and in small or dispersed deployments at home and abroad.
When Canada’s military hospitals closed in the mid-1990s following Cold War budget cuts, clinical training for military PAs had to be contracted out to civilian hospitals. That shift raised an awkward question: how do you certify a profession that has no civilian equivalent? The answer was to build one. The Canadian Medical Association accredited the first PA training program at the Canadian Forces Medical Services School in Borden, Ontario, in 2004. The civilian PA movement grew from there.
Which Provinces Allow PAs to Practice
PAs can currently work within the public healthcare system in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, and Saskatchewan. The profession is formally regulated by provincial colleges of physicians and surgeons in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. In those provinces, PAs must register with their respective college to practice.
British Columbia took a different path. In fall 2023, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC introduced bylaws allowing PAs to work under physician supervision specifically in emergency departments. Further amendments in February 2024 expanded the autonomy PAs have in those settings, letting them perform delegated acts more independently when a supervising physician deems it appropriate. PAs in BC are classified as “certified non-registrants” rather than full registrants.
Quebec is in the earliest stages. A pilot project has placed PAs in Northern Quebec through the Cree Board of Health and Social Services of James Bay in Region 18, but province-wide integration hasn’t happened yet. Prince Edward Island passed legislation in June 2023 creating a new registration category for PAs and is actively developing job descriptions and supervisory agreements.
What Canadian PAs Can Do
All PAs in Canada work under physician supervision. Their scope of practice isn’t fixed by a single national standard. Instead, it’s determined through a process of observation and negotiated roles between the PA and their supervising physician. In general, PAs can take patient histories, order diagnostic tests, make clinical assessments, and prescribe appropriate treatments. Many also assist in surgery and provide care in emergency departments, primary care clinics, and hospital wards.
The supervisory relationship is central to the model. A supervising physician must be personally satisfied that the PA is competent to perform specific clinical activities. In practice, experienced PAs often work with considerable independence on routine cases while consulting their supervising physician on more complex situations.
Education and Certification
Canada currently has four accredited PA programs:
- McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario) offers a 24-month program awarding a Bachelor of Health Sciences in Physician Assistant studies.
- University of Toronto offers a Bachelor of Science PA program that requires a CASPer assessment as part of admission.
- University of Manitoba offers a graduate-level program conferring a Master in Physician Assistant Studies (MPAS).
- University of Calgary offers a two-year, full-time Master of Physician Assistant Studies (MPAS).
Admission requirements vary by program. McMaster, for example, requires Canadian citizenship or permanent residency, at least two years of undergraduate study, and a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.
After graduating from an accredited program, PAs must pass the Physician Assistant Entry-to-Practice Certification Examination, administered by the Physician Assistant Certification Council of Canada (PACCC). Passing this exam earns the Canadian Certified Physician Assistant (CCPA) designation. To maintain certification, PAs must complete 400 hours of continuing professional development over each five-year cycle, with a minimum of 40 hours per year. These credits are tracked through the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada’s online portfolio system, and PAs must maintain active membership with the Canadian Association of Physician Assistants (CAPA).
Salary Expectations by Province
PA compensation in Canada varies by province and region. Based on 2024 Job Bank wage data, the national median hourly wage sits at $46.81, with a range from about $24.09 at the low end to $60.26 at the high end. That translates to a median annual salary of roughly $97,000 for full-time work, though actual earnings depend heavily on location, setting, and experience.
Manitoba tends to pay the highest wages, with a median of $49.43 per hour (about $103,000 annually). The Winnipeg region specifically reports a median of $48.56 per hour. Ontario falls in the middle, with a provincial median of $43.93 per hour. Within Ontario, Kingston-Pembroke and Windsor-Sarnia regions trend slightly higher, while Toronto sits near $42.84. Alberta’s median is lower at $38.28 per hour, with Calgary at $37.94 and Edmonton at $42.16.
How Canada’s PA Profession Compares to the U.S.
The most important thing to understand is scale. The United States has well over 150,000 practicing PAs. Canada has fewer than 800. The profession is decades behind its American counterpart in terms of regulatory infrastructure, public awareness, and integration into the healthcare system. Many Canadian patients have never encountered a PA.
That gap is closing. The number of practicing PAs in Canada nearly doubled from 432 to 766 in recent years, and provinces continue to expand where and how PAs can work. The Canadian Institute for Health Information notes that the true count may be understated because the profession’s varying regulatory status across provinces makes tracking difficult. As more provinces formalize regulation and more training programs graduate clinicians, the PA workforce is expected to keep growing, particularly in emergency departments and primary care settings facing physician shortages.