Canada’s median health-care wait time hits 28.6 weeks—second longest ever recorded

By Mackenzie Moir and Nadeem Esmail of The Fraser Institute.

Waiting Your Turn: Wait Times for Health Care in Canada, 2025 Report

• In 2025, physicians across Canada reported a median wait time of 28.6 weeks between a referral from a GP and receipt of treatment; down from 30.0 weeks in 2024.
• This is 208% longer than the 9.3 week wait Canadian patients could expect in 1993.
• Wait times have decreased in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, while increasing in the other five provinces.
• Ontario reported the shortest total wait (19.2 weeks), followed by British Columbia (32.2 weeks) and Quebec (32.5 weeks).
• Patients waited longest in New Brunswick (60.9 weeks), Prince Edward Island (49.7 weeks) and Nova Scotia (49.0 weeks).
• The national 28.6 week total wait comprises two segments: 1) Referral by a GP to consultation with a specialist: 15.3 weeks, an increase over the 15.0 weeks recorded in 2024. 2) Consultation with a specialist to receipt of treatment: 13.3 weeks, a decrease from the 15.0 weeks recorded in 2024.
• Among the various specialties, patients waited the longest for Neurosurgery (49.9 weeks) and Orthopaedic Surgery (48.6 weeks)
• By contrast, patients faced shorter waits for Radiation Oncology (4.2 weeks) and Medical Oncology (4.7 weeks).
• After seeing a specialist, Canadian patients waited 4.5 weeks longer than what physicians consider to be clinically reasonable (8.8 weeks).
• Patients also suffered considerable delays for diagnostic technology: 8.8 weeks for CT scans, 18.1 weeks for MRI scans, and 5.4 weeks for Ultrasound.
• Across 10 provinces, the study estimated that patients in Canada were waiting for 1.4 million procedures in 2025.