Quick answer
Shortest waits overall: Ontario. It treated 84% of hip and 82% of knee replacement patients within the 26-week benchmark in 2025, the best in Canada, and its ERs had the shortest stays for urgent patients sent home.
Longest waits: Prince Edward Island and Manitoba for hip and knee replacement. Half of PEI's knee patients waited more than 424 days.
Fast everywhere: cancer radiation therapy (95% start within 4 weeks) and hip fracture surgery. The long waits are for planned procedures like joint replacements, cataracts and non-urgent scans.
Planned surgery: hip, knee and cataract
Days from when you and the surgeon agree to operate until the surgery. "Median" means half of patients waited less. Benchmarks are the national targets: 26 weeks (182 days) for hips and knees, 16 weeks (112 days) for cataracts. Sorted by hip replacement results.
| Province | Hip: median days | Hip: within 26 weeks | Knee: median days | Knee: within 26 weeks | Cataract: median days | Cataract: within 16 weeks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ontario | 76 | 84% | 81 | 82% | 68 | 67% |
| Nova Scotia | 103 | 77% | 129 | 69% | 63 | 77% |
| British Columbia | 131 | 64% | 152 | 57% | 35 | 85% |
| Alberta | 134 | 63% | 172 | 53% | 72 | 66% |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | 159 | 55% | 298 | 37% | 54 | 71% |
| Quebec | 169 | 54% | 217 | 42% | 81 | 65% |
| Saskatchewan | 176 | 52% | 210 | 43% | 63 | 71% |
| New Brunswick | 179 | 51% | 186 | 49% | 103 | 52% |
| Manitoba | 193 | 47% | 286 | 31% | 99 | 55% |
| Prince Edward Island | 273 | 31% | 424 | 12% | 94 | 57% |
| Canada | 120 | 69% | 146 | 63% | 66 | 70% |
Surgeries done April 1 to September 30, 2025. Source: CIHI, Wait Times for Priority Procedures in Canada, data tables 2008 to 2025 (June 2026).
Waits are still longer than before the pandemic: nationally, 75% of hip patients were treated within 26 weeks in 2019, against 69% in 2025. For knees it fell from 70% to 63%. Cataract results are back at 2019 levels (70%).
MRI and CT scans
Days from when the order reached the imaging department until the scan was done. The "1 in 10 waited" column shows how long the slowest 10% of patients waited. These include non-urgent scans; urgent ones are done much faster.
| Province | MRI: median days | MRI: 1 in 10 waited | CT: median days | CT: 1 in 10 waited |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ontario | 47 | 187+ | 6 | 116+ |
| Saskatchewan | 51 | 178+ | 21 | 82+ |
| Nova Scotia | 68 | 294+ | 45 | 248+ |
| Alberta | 72 | 220+ | 32 | 143+ |
| British Columbia | 89 | 240+ | 28 | 243+ |
| Manitoba | 151 | 360+ | 60 | 236+ |
| Prince Edward Island | 42 | 528+ | 12 | 88+ |
| Quebec, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador | Not reported to CIHI for 2025 | |||
| Canada (reporting provinces) | 59 | 207+ | 15 | 144+ |
Scans done April 1 to September 30, 2025. Source: CIHI, Wait Times for Priority Procedures in Canada (June 2026). PEI's short median but very long 1-in-10 wait means most scans are quick but a backlog of non-urgent ones waits more than a year.
Emergency room time
Total hours spent in the emergency department, from arrival until you leave or are moved to a hospital bed. This is not the wait to see a doctor; it includes tests and treatment.
| Province | Urgent, sent home: median | Urgent, sent home: 9 in 10 done within | Less urgent, sent home: 9 in 10 done within | Admitted to hospital: 9 in 10 done within |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ontario | 3.7 h | 8.2 h | 5.7 h | 38.3 h |
| British Columbia* | 4.3 h | 8.8 h | 6.3 h | 67.7 h |
| Saskatchewan | 4.1 h | 9.7 h | 6.4 h | 36.8 h |
| Alberta | 4.1 h | 10.2 h | 6.3 h | 42.3 h |
| Prince Edward Island* | 5.1 h | 11.1 h | 10.3 h | 91 h |
| Quebec | 5.9 h | 17.9 h | 10.5 h | 48.8 h |
| Manitoba* | 6.6 h | 18.4 h | 12.2 h | 53.6 h |
| Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador | Not reported to CIHI for 2025–2026 | |||
| All reporting provinces | 4.1 h | 10.2 h | 7.8 h | 46.5 h |
ER visits April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026. "Urgent" means triage levels 1 to 3 (resuscitation, emergent, urgent). *Only some hospitals report: about 75% of ER visits in B.C. and Manitoba and 72% in PEI, so compare these with caution. Source: CIHI, NACRS Emergency Department Visits and Lengths of Stay, 2025–2026 (September 2026).
The longest stays are for people being admitted: the ER has finished treating them, but there is no ward bed free. That is where the "48 hours in the ER" stories come from.
What this means if you're moving
- Emergencies, cancer and fractures are fast. In 2025, 95% of Canadians started radiation therapy within 4 weeks, and 84% of hip fracture patients had surgery within 48 hours. If your main worry is a heart attack or a cancer diagnosis, wait times are not the big risk.
- Planned procedures are where the waits are. If you or a family member will likely need a hip, knee or cataract operation soon, the province matters: a median knee wait of 81 days in Ontario against 286 in Manitoba.
- The numbers start late. CIHI counts from when the surgeon agrees to operate. The wait for a referral to that surgeon comes first and is not included.
- Your own wait also depends on your hospital and surgeon. Ontario and B.C. publish waits by hospital and by surgeon, so you can ask your family doctor to refer you to someone with a shorter list: Ontario Health wait times, B.C. surgical wait times.
- The first wait is for coverage itself. Newcomers from abroad have no provincial coverage for up to three months in B.C., Quebec and Saskatchewan. See health coverage by province for each province's rule.
Frequently asked questions
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