The College of Physicians and Surgeons of [your province] is the body that licenses MDs in your province to practice medicine. For example, in Manitoba it is the
College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba.
Because these are provincial bodies, the rules for licensure can differ from province to province. Also, there are different types of licenses; the ideal is an unrestricted license (most MDs would have this). It requires the MD to have all the Canadian exams. Other types of licenses exist, such as
conditional (the link discusses conditional licensure in Manitoba). Applications for conditional licensure in Manitoba are available
here.
In Manitoba there also exists a program called the
Non-Registered Specialist Assessment Program (NRSAP) to ensure that specialists arriving to work in Manitoba could meet Canadian/Manitoba standards.
This is the place to start in terms of having your wife's medical training recognized in Canada.
Our plan is for her to finish her Phd of some sort in Canada
She's currently doing a PhD? Has she finished her pediatrics residency?
In Canada, the
MD/PhD program is done as an undergrad (e.g. 4 years for the MD plus 3 years for the PhD done BEFORE staring residency). At any rate, this is a
list of researchers & their fields in the faculty of medicine at the U of Manitoba.
Canadian residency programs ONLY accept Canadian citizens/permanent residents (which, presumably, she would achieve via you). Typically, residency programs don't accept transfers from out-of-country programs. She would need to talk to the program director of pediatrics at the U of M (see this
list).
The last group of people to talk to would be the
Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. This is the group that administers the Royal College Specialty exams (aka the board exams in your specialty). Typically passing the Royal College exams are required for practicing in Canada. By talking to them, you can find out whether your wife's training meets the requirements to permit her to sit the Royal College exam in pediatrics.
So far there are the MCEE or something that exams for all of Canada, then each province requires a specific set of items. My question is where would be the best province to try and apply in or University?
The best province would be the most desperate. Some provinces are very hard up for doctors, and will make exceptions to the rules e.g. issuing a conditional license to a specialist without passing the Royal College specialty exam (usually there's a caveat that the physician needs to pass it within a certain time frame).
Try
New Brunswick and
Newfoundland. Talk to the provincial recruiters and explain your situation; they may have suggestions. This is a list of provincial recruitment
sites. Contact each province in turn with an openness to working in rural/remote areas.
Is there anything we can do to make the process much easier, any suggestions of people or associations to contact?
Try the
Canadian IMG site - they have information on the requirements for licensure of IMGs by province, and lists of IMG support groups.
