A new report by the Fraser Institute shows that the median wait time for medical treatment in Canada was 28.6 weeks – the second-longest ever recorded.
The Fraser Institute conducted a survey of physicians across the country to gain an understanding of the amount of time it takes in each province for a patient to receive treatment after a family doctor’s referral.
Graphic by the Fraser Institute
The longest wait times were in the four Atlantic provinces, but among them, Newfoundland and Labrador had the shortest wait times.
In 1993, it took about 10 and a half (10.6) weeks for a patient in Newfoundland and Labrador to receive treatment following a doctor’s referral. In 2025 that wait time had extended to 43.5 weeks.
The longest wait times are in New Brunswick where patients can expect to wait more than a year (or 60 weeks).
The shortest waits were in Ontario at just over 19 weeks.
The Fraser Institute estimates that Canadians were waiting on 1.4 million procedures this year.
