Resident loan interest relief program

[wintersnight]

I've heard mixed reviews about this. Aside from committing to practicing in Ontario for 5 years after residency, and potential interference with fellowship opportunities, what other cons do people see?

[NLengr]

On 8/11/2019 at 8:01 PM, wintersnight said:

I've heard mixed reviews about this. Aside from committing to practicing in Ontario for 5 years after residency, and potential interference with fellowship opportunities, what other cons do people see?

It's very very little money for what they are asking for.

[wintersnight]

14 hours ago, NLengr said:

It's very very little money for what they are asking for.

True, but if a person has no trouble with staying Ontario it seems like free money, and even though it's not tons it's still in the realm of thousands. If you were going to stay in Ontario anyway would you see drawbacks?

[NLengr]

Not really if you already have employment lined up for Ontario. 

[rmorelan]

2 hours ago, wintersnight said:

True, but if a person has no trouble with staying Ontario it seems like free money, and even though it's not tons it's still in the realm of thousands. If you were going to stay in Ontario anyway would you see drawbacks?

that is the big IF there ha - IF you stay in Ontario which is something that is very hard to 100% know in advance for many fields. The loss of flexibility drives a lot of people away from the program

[BigM]

The penalty isn't enormous if you break it, you need to pay the interest that they covered, the interest on the interest and they MAY charge you up to a $4,000 admin fee. I didn't directly ask if they would charge the admin fee if I didn't complete the return of service but the tone of e-mails made me feel it was probably less likely. The interest is at a higher rate than what you'll pay through your LOC but its not ridiculous.  If you have a sizable amount of government student loan and think that it's probably that you'll be in Ontario then its a reasonable consideration.  The return of service is also pro-rated, if you serve 4 of the 5 years before leaving you only pay back 20% of the interest the government paid.