Canadians Face Long Waits for Health Care, Manitoba Shows Improvement

Canadians are grappling with significant delays for medically necessary health care, with patients now waiting an average of more than six months from a family doctor referral to treatment. According to the Fraser Institute’s report titled Waiting Your Turn: Wait Times for Health Care in Canada, 2025, patients faced a median wait of 28.6 weeks from a general practitioner referral to treatment. Although this marks a slight improvement from 30.0 weeks in 2024, it remains the second-longest wait time recorded in the study’s 34-year history.

“Remarkably long wait times for medically necessary care have become the defining characteristic of the Canadian health-care experience,” stated Nadeem Esmail, director of health policy studies at the Fraser Institute and co-author of the report. The annual survey, which incorporates responses from physicians across ten provinces and twelve medical specialties, reveals that wait times are now 208% longer than in 1993, when the median wait was just 9.3 weeks.

Manitoba’s Position in the Health Care Landscape

While Manitoba is not among the provinces with the shortest overall wait times, it has performed relatively well in the second stage of care—the time between seeing a specialist and receiving treatment. The province reported a median wait of 15.7 weeks for specialist-to-treatment, ranking it among the shorter waits nationally. Only Ontario (8.5 weeks) and British Columbia (12.4 weeks) reported faster access during this phase.

However, like most provinces, Manitobans still encounter delays earlier in the process. The time from referral by a family doctor to consultation with a specialist slightly increased to 15.3 weeks in 2025, continuing a long-term upward trend.

Provincial Disparities and Specialties

The report underscores considerable disparities across Canada. Ontario recorded the shortest overall median wait at 19.2 weeks, while New Brunswick faced the longest at 60.9 weeks. Other provinces such as Prince Edward Island (49.7 weeks) and Nova Scotia (49.0 weeks) also experienced extended wait times, with patients waiting close to a full year for care. Nationwide, approximately 1.4 million patients were waiting for medically necessary procedures in 2025.

Wait times also varied significantly depending on the specialty. Patients faced the longest waits for neurosurgery (49.9 weeks) and orthopaedic surgery (48.6 weeks), which are often associated with chronic pain and reduced mobility. Conversely, wait times for radiation oncology and medical oncology were considerably shorter, at 4.2 weeks and 4.7 weeks, respectively. Even after seeing a specialist, Canadians waited an average of 4.5 weeks longer than what physicians deem clinically reasonable.

“Long wait times can result in increased suffering for patients, lost productivity at work, decreased quality of life, and in the worst cases, disability or death,” remarked Mackenzie Moir, senior policy analyst at the Fraser Institute and co-author of the study.

The report also points out persistent delays in diagnostic imaging, a crucial step in diagnosis and treatment planning. In 2025, the median wait times were 8.8 weeks for CT scans, 18.1 weeks for MRI scans, and 5.4 weeks for ultrasounds. MRI waits have been particularly lengthy, with some provinces reporting delays that stretch for several months.

As Canadians navigate this ongoing health care challenge, the report serves as a stark reminder of the systemic issues that continue to affect timely access to medical care across the nation.