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HRSDC SDE0094 (2013-10-002) E
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Application for Canada Student Loan
Forgiveness for Family Doctors and Nurses
You must apply after the end of each 12-month loan forgiveness period.
Make sure you complete the entire application.
Your completed application must be received no later than 90 days after your 12 month loan
forgiveness period ends.
(A) About loan forgiveness
Many rural and remote communities in Canada lack the primary health care they need. That is why, since April 2013, the Government of Canada has
been offering Canada Student Loan forgiveness to eligible family doctors, residents in family medicine, nurse practitioners and nurses who work in
designated rural or remote communities*. This change will help more Canadians get the health care they deserve.
This benefit is intended to encourage family doctors, residents in family medicine, nurse practitioners and nurses to practice in under-served rural or
remote communities by forgiving a portion of Canada Student Loans.
Family doctors and family medicine residents may be eligible for forgiveness of $8,000 per year to a maximum of $40,000 over five years. Nurses and
nurse practitioners may be eligible for forgiveness of $4,000 per year to a maximum of $20,000 over five years.
*See Designated communities for definition.
(B) ELIGIBILITY
(C) Licensing requirements
You must have a valid licence from a province or territory to practice one of the following professions:
Nurses or Nurse Practitioners: Family Doctors
Nurse
Nurse Practitioner
Licensed Practical Nurse
Registered nurse
Registered practical nurse
Registered psychiatric nurse
Family doctor
Family physician
Family Medicine Resident (exempt from Licensing – although will be
verified with Province)
(D) Designated communities
(E) Loan forgiveness period
You select 12 consecutive months as your loan forgiveness period, during which you were employed or in practice in a designated rural or remote
community and you provided in person services for a minimum of 400 hours (or 50 days).
Note: You must complete a full 12-month loan forgiveness period before you can apply for this benefit. The next loan forgiveness period you wish to apply
for can begin after your previous loan forgiveness period has ended.
If you worked in more than one designated rural or remote community during your loan forgiveness period to accumulate a minimum of 400 hours (or 50
days) of in-person services, use Section 7 (and Section 2) to list the additional employment in chronological order. List your employment history during the
loan forgiveness period, starting with your most current employment situation and working back. The number of months that you identify for each
employment period in Section 2 and Section 7 must total 12 months to reflect a 12-month loan forgiveness period.
A designated community is a municipality (as determined by Statistics Canada) that is located outside of:
• census metropolitan areas;
• census agglomerations (geographic units) with an urban core population of 50 000 or more; and
• provincial capitals.
You are eligible to apply if you:
• are practicing in Canada as a family doctor, resident in family medicine, registered nurse, registered psychiatric nurse, registered practical
nurse, licensed practical nurse or nurse practitioner and meet the licensing requirements (see Licensing requirements);
• started your current employment in the designated community on or after July 1, 2011;
• have been employed (full-time, part-time or casually) for a full year (12 months) in a designated community and provided in-person services
for a minimum of 400 hours (or 50 days) in that community. The 12-month period you select is your loan forgiveness period (see Loan
forgiveness period);
• are in repayment and up-to-date on your Canada Student Loan payments (e.g. you cannot be enrolled in full-time studies); and
• have outstanding student loans from the Canadian federal government (lines of credit from financial institutions are not eligible).
You can verify if your place of work is in a designated rural or remote community by using the postal code lookup on the CanLearn.ca website (
http://
tools.canlearn.ca/cslgs-scpse/cln-cln/lfnd-erpm/1-eng.do). The name of your designated community is required to complete Section 2 – Employment
information and Section 7 – Additional employment information of the application and must match the postal code exactly to be accepted.
Note: The 12 months of your loan forgiveness period are considered consecutive when you do not have a break in service of more than one month. (See
Section 6 – Employment Insurance for the exceptions to this rule.)
In total, you can receive five periods of Canada Student Loan forgiveness. These periods do not need to be consecutive; however, they cannot overlap.