The 2023 fee is $3,597, representing a 10 per cent increase from past years. In 2020, the College of Family Physicians of Canada’s (CFPC) Board of Directors approved the 2021 Certificate of Added Competence in Emergency Medicine examination fee to be unchanged from 2019 at $3,270 and, in recognition of the hardships imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic on members, the Board of Directors decided not to change that fee for 2022. During the 2021 Annual Members Meeting (AMM), it was indicated the 2023 examination fee would, after many years of staying stable, likely be increased by 10 per cent to $3,597.

Fees for the Examination of Added Competence in Emergency Medicine
2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
$3,110	$3,270	$1,635 SAMP only (½ $3,270)	$,3270	$3,270	$3,597
Single component
N/A	N/A	Only option in 2020	N/A	N/A	N/A

The Emergency Medicine examination subsidy from the College is larger, percentagewise, than the Certification Examination in Family Medicine examination. Yet the Certificate of Added Competence in Emergency Medicine, while important, is not as fundamental to becoming registered to practice medicine.

The Emergency Medicine examination subsidy is the difference between the amount from member dues the College contributes and the costs not covered by the examination fee.

In 2021, The CFPC Board of Directors decided to phase out the CFPC’s Emergency Medicine examination subsidy over a five-year period, with any single year increase being capped at 10 per cent.

The current examination fees strategy was adopted when inflation was very low; inflation is now a significant factor in costs. The CFPC is in the process of determining a fee strategy for 2024 and onward. This will be reviewed by the Board of Directors and shared at the 2023 AMM.

At that time, the CFPC will have a better understanding of the true cost of running the annual examination—especially the structured oral component   — given the changes brought on by making it as pandemic-resistant as possible.

There are no plans to return to in-person structured oral testing and a multi-year contract with the vendor (Fry-IT) is in place to use our chosen delivery platform (Practique). Virtual structured orals have advantages in terms of greater candidate and examiner convenience, fewer travel costs, and a lower carbon footprint.

For the last two years we have contracted the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada to deliver the structured orals component on our behalf.  In 2023, the CFPC will deliver the structured orals component of this examination similar to the virtual simulated office oral (SOO) of the Certification Examination in Family Medicine: both structured oral candidates and examiners will participate in the examination from locations of their choice (as opposed to having to travel to a test-centre hotel).