Growing number of municipalities use scholarships to land new doctors

A growing number of municipalities in New Brunswick are offering scholarships to medical school students who want to practise in the province after graduation.

These "return-to-service" scholarships are offered through a non-profit group called the New Brunswick Medical Education Foundation. 

Alyssa Long, the executive director, says the scholarships were launched in 2010 to meet the province's growing need for doctors, especially as those in practice now get get older.

"The need is critical now," she said. "And we all see and recognize that the average doctor in New Brunswick is over 49 years old, which means over the next 10 to 15 years we are going to see a mass exodus from the labour market."

The scholarships come with agreements that, on becoming doctors, recipients return to New Brunswick — in some cases, in specific cities or towns — to practise for at least one year.

Over the years, 10 municipalities have offered scholarships, all offering $5,000 to $10,000 a year to a medical student.

So far this year, Saint John, Fredericton, Quispamsis and Oromocto councils have all committed they're offering the scholarships.

Thousands of New Brunswickers do not have family doctors.

Coun. Greg Norton, who pushed the scholarship proposal through Saint John council, says the goal is to make the city more competitive in getting and retaining doctors. 

According to Long, municipalities through the foundation, awarded $20,000 in scholarships to students in 2023. In 2025 so far, that number has more than tripled, to $77, 000, from both newly and previously committed municipalities. 

"There are hundreds of vacancies across the province right now in both family medicine and specialties, and our goal is to leverage the pipeline of talent that we have as future doctors and use that to fill those gaps," Long said. 

There are currently 120 family medicine vacancies in the province, according to the Health Department.

Medical training in New Brunswick is offered through Halifax-based Dalhousie University and Quebec-based Université de Sherbrooke. 

Benjamin Peterson and Katie Gowlett are both Saint John-based Dalhousie medical students and part of the school's medical student society. They are also scholarship recipients committed to practising medicine in the province.