“What Exactly Is the Minister Proud Of?” ITPC Statement: Responding to the Minister of Health’s comments in made in parliament re: CaRMS 2025-2026 Directive Excluding Internationally Trained Physician

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#reversethechange! #openthespots! Learn More: www.itpsofcanada.ca/carmschanges

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 28th, 2025

“What Exactly Is the Minister Proud Of?”

When the Ontario Minister of Health, Hon. Sylvia Jones, stood in the Legislature on October 21 2025 and declared she was “proud” of the new CaRMS directive that bars internationally trained physicians (ITPs) from participating in the first iteration of the residency match unless they attended an Ontario high school. She may have revealed more than she intended. 

This directive promotes classism as it divides ITPs by level of “Canadian-ness”. It serves up leftovers to immigrant ITPs by only allowing them access to leftover residency spots. It reeks of discrimination.

Therefore, we ask, sincerely: What exactly is the Minister proud of?

1st Tier and Lesser Tier Canadians/Ontarians

Is she proud that physicians who live in Ontario, pay Ontario taxes, raise families here, and serve Ontario communities are being shut out of equal access to medical training opportunities?

Is she proud that those who left everything behind to rebuild their lives in this province — the same province that invited them through skilled-immigration pathways — are now being punished for where they went to high school?

It is clear that the voices of the Ontarians who are away and would like to return to Ontario are voices that she hears clearly, while closing her ears entirely to the thousands of ITPs that live in Ontario that are asking for the very same thing: fair access to residency positions in order to practice as doctors in Ontario. 

It seems that some of us are considered 1st tier Ontarians while others are far lesser.

Immigrants get Leftovers 

There are two iterations of the national residency match. The first iteration is where the majority of positions are filled. The second iteration is effectively a “leftover round,” where the remaining seats — often few and in limited disciplines — are made available. By excluding internationally trained physicians from the first round, Ontario has systematically denied them access to nearly all viable training positions. To tell internationally trained

physicians, “You may apply later, after the first group takes everything,” is like saying, “After everyone finishes eating, you may have what’s left on the table.” If the Minister of Health truly understood this system, she would know that entry in the first iteration is not a privilege — it is the competency based pathway to residency.

Dictatorship and Blatant Disregard for Ontarian Human Rights

The Ontario Human Rights Code guarantees every person equal treatment in employment and professional access without discrimination on the basis of place of origin, citizenship, or ethnic origin. This new policy, imposed mid-cycle, violates that principle in both letter and spirit.

To implement such a rule without public consultation, without advance notice, and during an ongoing CaRMS application season is not transparent governance — it is administrative ambush.

To continue to ignore the calls of all major health system organisations and stakeholders to reconsider and reverse this change, is dictatorship.

Lies versus Reality: “Connection to Ontario”

The government wants us to believe that by instituting this directive, they are securing health workforce that will stay in the province. But this is a rationale that holds no water. Thousands of ITPs are already here, residing, working, raising families, contributing to GDP, paying taxes, and voting. Their lives are here. Granting fair access to resume their career in Canada, in Ontario, in the province in which they already reside cannot logically drive ITPs away from the province. This is a lie.

In reality, there are over 13,000 internationally trained physicians living in Ontario, according

to the Ontario Medical Association and the Canadian Institute for Health Information. Many work in clinical assistant, researcher, or volunteer roles; many more drive taxis, work in warehouses, or perform jobs far below their qualifications — all while Ontario struggles with a family doctor shortage exceeding 2.3 million unattached patients (CMA 2024, CIHI 2023). If these physicians were given equitable pathways, they could not only strengthen primary care, but also reduce specialist wait times, and relieve an overstretched system.

Instead, the government has chosen to celebrate a policy that excludes its own residents, denies fairness, and undermines public health capacity.

Do Something that Ontario Can be Proud Of

We Call on the Government of Ontario To:

• Reverse this directive immediately — open the first iteration of CaRMS to all qualified ITPs.

• Engage with ITP-led organizations like ITPC to ensure equitable representation in future decision-making.

• Publicly renounce these actions that maliciously segregate a portion of the residents of Ontario & reaffirm Ontario’s commitment to DEI — not through slogans, but through action.

#reversethechange! #openthespots! Learn More: www.itpsofcanada.ca/carmschanges