Incentives

The Ontario Learn and Stay Grant – Medical Education provides funding to eligible family medicine residents who graduated from an Ontario medical school and are completing their residency in Ontario. The grant amount is approximately equivalent to the direct costs of undergraduate medical education, including tuition, compulsory fees, books, supplies and equipment.

Recipients must commit to practising comprehensive primary care as a family physician in Ontario for five full years after completing residency.

This can be in any funded model in Northern Ontario including:

• Family Health Organization
• Family Health Network
• Family Health Group
• Comprehensive Care Model
• Rural and Northern Physician Group Agreement
• Blended Salary Model as part of a Family Health Team
• Community Health Centre
• Indigenous Primary Health Care Organization
• Weeneebayko Area Health Authority
• Rural Generalist Model
• Sioux Lookout Regional Physicians Services Inc
• Group Health Centre

For details about eligibility, funding, applications and the service commitment, please review the webpage here, and the program information below.

• Program Fact Sheet
• Frequently Asked Questions

Applications can be submitted through an existing or new Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) account. You do not have to have OSAP loans to apply.  The OLSG is not a loan repayment program. OSAP is simply the system being used to track application and reimbursement.

Family medicine residents working in an under-served, rural, or remote community in Canada may be eligible for the Government of Canada’s Canada Student Loan Forgiveness for Family Doctors and Nurses program.

• As a resident or family doctor, if you complete at least 400 hours total of in-person service over a 12 month period, you may be eligible for up to $8,000 in loan forgiveness for that year. You could receive up to $60,000 in Canada Student Loan forgiveness over a maximum of five years ($8,000 in year 1, $10,000 in year 2, $12,000 in year 3, $14,000 in year 4 and $16,000 in year 5).
• Your five years of service do not have to be consecutive. If you have a Canada Student Loan balance at the end of each year of service in an eligible community, you can qualify for loan forgiveness for five years.
• For more information about the program, eligibility criteria and application details please view the Government of Canada’s website. To determine if a community qualifies under this program, use the Postal Code Lookup Tool. Find a postal code on the Canada Post website.

Recruitment and retention to Northern and Rural sites:
• The Northern and Rural Recruitment and Retention Initiative (NRRRI): The objective of the NRRRI is to attract physicians to establish a full-time practice in eligible underserviced communities.
• The NRRRI offers taxable financial recruitment incentives to each eligible physician who establishes a full-time practice in an eligible community of the province. The grants range between $84,718 and $124,730 paid over a four-year period. The financial recruitment incentives will be awarded based on eligibility criteria and considerations related to total NRRRI budget allocations.
• Retention beyond 4 years: The Northern Physician Retention Initiative (NPRI) was established as an initiative under the 2000 Ontario Medical Association (OMA) Framework Agreement to enable eligible physicians in northern Ontario to receive the equivalent of a $7,460.95 retention incentive paid at the end of each fiscal year in which they continue to practice full-time in northern Ontario
• The Community Assessment Visit Program promotes the relocation/recruitment of health care professionals to eligible rural and Northern Ontario communities and provide reimbursement for travel and accommodation expenses incurred by health care professionals and their spouse within Ontario for purposes of assessing practice opportunities in an eligible community of the province.