Quebec medical professionals getting bonuses to bridge pay gap with Ontario

Health-care workers examine CT scan images in a clinic. Photo taken in Toronto on 7 May 2025. (Laura Proctor/The Canadian Press)

Medical imaging technologists working in Quebec’s Outaouais region are set to receive bonuses of up to $22,000 to compensate for the pay gap compared to their colleagues in Ontario.

The lump sum will range from $18,000 to $22,000, depending on the hospital in the region, whether it is in a rural or urban area.

In addition to these lump sums, a sum equivalent to 10 per cent of the salary will be paid for the summer period, which runs from June 15 to Sept. 15.

It’s a renewal of measures, as previous ones needed to be introduced to attract and retain staff in the Outaouais region. This time, the bonuses have also been extended to nuclear medicine.

These temporary staff retention measures apply to a few job titles, mainly medical imaging technologists and nuclear medicine technologists, according to the union group the Alliance du personnel professionnel et technique de la santé et des services sociaux (APTS), which negotiated them.

These measures, in force until March 30, 2028, don’t fully bridge the pay gap between these technologists in the Outaouais region of Quebec and their colleagues in Ontario. The gap, at the top of the pay scale, reaches $30,000, reported Stéphanie Léger-Roussel, the APTS’s national representative in the Outaouais region, in an interview on Thursday.

The union would like to see the underlying problem—namely, the difficulty in recruiting and retaining staff in the Outaouais—resolved, rather than having to negotiate one-off bonuses each time.

“What we would like is for the government to be responsive and attentive to the Outaouais region, which has its own specific characteristics, and for the bonuses to cease being temporary and instead become permanent. Ideally, this would be part of the salary. I think the important thing is that the Outaouais stops being underfunded, not only because of its location but also because of its proximity to Ontario,” said Léger-Roussel.

“Securing the renewal and extension of these bonuses is a source of pride for the APTS, as they help retain expertise in the Outaouais, even though the significantly more favourable pay conditions in Ontario are putting enormous pressure on our public health system,” said Robert Comeau, president of the APTS.

Nuclear medicine and medical imaging technologists are not the only health-care professionals that are difficult to attract and retain in the Outaouais region, argues the health and social services union.

“We have seen an extension of bonuses in radiation oncology, and now in imaging. But in the laboratory sector too, they are in arrears. We would also like to be able to negotiate something with them,” added Léger-Roussel.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on May 21, 2026.