Phil Martin, CEO of Canadian recruiting firm Physicians For You, has seen a flood of inquiries from U.S doctors about working north of the border. Mr. Martin is pictured at the Silver Star Mountain Resort near Vernon, B.C., on Sept. 15, 2025.Aaron Hemens/The Globe and Mail
The passing thought of moving to Canada from the United States because of its political climate became an active idea for physician Libby Fleming when, in 2022, the constitutional right to abortion was overturned south of the border.
She had a planned trip to Costa Rica later that summer but cancelled it, booking a plane ticket to Nova Scotia instead. The Atlantic province was a bucket-list destination for her. It was also actively recruiting foreign physicians to address a country-wide shortage of doctors.
“I was kind of hoping that I wouldn’t like it because it was a crazy idea to move. But from the moment I landed, I loved it. It felt like home,” said Dr. Fleming, who, at the time, ran a solo practice near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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By the end of the week, she had made up her mind: “I need to figure out how to move here.”
It took time and paperwork – lots of paperwork – but two years later, Dr. Fleming and her four children packed into her Mini Cooper and travelled more than 2,100 kilometres to their new home in Sydney on Cape Breton Island.
There, Dr. Fleming accepted a job at an addictions recovery support centre. She said American colleagues who initially questioned her decision to take professional refuge across the northern border are now wishing they had done the same.
Since returning to office, U.S. President Donald Trump has taken a hatchet to health and science agencies with mass layoffs and funding cuts. Just last month, he removed the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and terminated nearly US$500-million in contracts for mRNA vaccine development.
For Canada, Mr. Trump’s war on health and science, on the backdrop of growing political unrest, has presented an opportunity for provinces and territories to attract workers who no longer feel valued or safe in their own country. British Columbia, for example, launched a $5-million recruitment campaign in June targeting health care workers in the Pacific U.S.
But while interest from U.S. physicians, nurses and allied health care professionals has indeed spiked, the reality is it’s still a hard sell.
Most provinces, including Nova Scotia, have simplified pathways for physicians to come to Canada. For example, some recognize medical licences from U.S.-trained and board-certified physicians, allowing them to begin independent practice without additional exams or certifications.
But frustrations remain over immigration and licensing, and there are other barriers, such as lower salaries and a higher cost of living, that deter interested applicants.
Phil Martin, the chief executive of Physicians For You, a Canadian physician recruitment agency, said his team has been “literally drowning” in inquiries from U.S. doctors since Mr. Trump was elected last November. So much so that his agency had to change its processes to weed out less serious candidates.
“A lot of people want to have Canada as an option,” said Mr. Martin. “But, in terms of actually committing, of accepting a job, coming over and starting work, it’s a much smaller amount than the volume that have actually applied.”
Mr. Martin’s agency had to change its processes to weed out less serious candidates from the deluge of inquiries about working in Canada.Aaron Hemens/The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail reached out to every province and territory for data on U.S. physician recruitment since the beginning of the year. However, data collection is inconsistent across the country, making it difficult to provide an accurate national estimate of how many American physicians have made the shift.
Still, figures from some jurisdictions reveal more U.S. physicians have made the jump north than in previous years.
Nova Scotia, for example, licensed 19 U.S. doctors between Jan. 1 to Aug. 12 to practice in the province. This is an increase of 72 per cent as compared to last year, according to its College of Physicians and Surgeons.
In Alberta, the province’s regulatory college said it has received about 75 applications this year from U.S.-trained physicians. There were 40 applications during the same time period last year.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta streamlined its licensing requirements for newly-graduated doctors from a list of countries, including the U.S., in June.
“Given this change just happened, we most likely won’t see the impact or have a true sense of registration numbers until 2026,” said Andrea Garland, a spokesperson for the CPSA. “Moving physicians from one country to another, regardless of the rapidity of the registration process, often takes months.”
U.S. physicians are not usually expected to disclose their reason for wanting to relocate to Canada to practice medicine. But colleges across the country said they are hearing anecdotally that political tensions are a key driver.
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Dr. Fleming said she initially second-guessed her decision to move, but is now certain it was the right choice.
She said she was tired of her children having to do active shooter drills in school, her two biracial sons being exposed to growing racism, and her daughter “growing up in a country where she might die because she was pregnant.”
Dr. Fleming said she was also suffering “moral injury” in treating low-income patients, spending days fighting with American insurance companies to get care covered. Working within Canada’s public health care system, she said, has alleviated these stressors.
In 2023, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia became the first licensing body in the country to offer full licensure to U.S.-certified physicians without having to write Canadian exams.
Katrina Philopoulos, director of physician recruitment at Nova Scotia Health, said having a presence in the U.S. market for years has helped make Nova Scotia the “province of choice” for physicians wanting to make the cross-border jump.
She said that while compensation is an important factor for physicians interested in moving, applicants have been more focused on flexibility in their practice and what life would look like in Nova Scotia.
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Ms. Philopoulos said this is where the “shining star” of the recruitment program comes into play: a site visit. This is where physicians, on the province’s dime, visit the location where they would potentially practice.
In July, 2023, Dr. Fleming flew to Sydney for her site visit. She spent a day at the hospital meeting her potential colleagues, visited local schools, historic sites and restaurants. In her hotel room was a gift basket filled with locally made goodies, including a sketch of Cape Breton with a stitched heart, which now sits on her desk.
This visit sealed the deal for Dr. Fleming, who signed an offer shortly after.
Other provinces that have attracted U.S. physicians and other health care workers this year include Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island. Additionally, the Collège des médecins du Québec said it has noticed a “slight increase” in U.S. physicians applying for a licence.
In Ontario, the regulatory college said that between Jan. 1 and Aug. 7, 357 U.S.-trained physicians were licensed and another 337 applications are pending.
Ontario tweaked its rules in June to allow qualified U.S.-licensed physicians and nurses to begin working in the province without prior registration, allowing them to work for up to six months while transferring their qualifications.
Since March, when the B.C. Health Ministry focused its efforts on recruiting American physicians, 780 U.S. health care providers submitted applications for licensure out of 2,250 who expressed interest. The ministry declined to comment on how many recruits, if any, are now practising in the province.
The Northwest Territories, Yukon and Saskatchewan governments were unable to provide an estimate. Nunavut said no U.S. physicians have moved to the territory this year.
