Gender-affirming surgery wait times in Quebec have surged due to reduced provincial funding, leaving local transgender patients facing multi-year delays.
Fraser Place, a 26-year-old from Montreal, described the emotional toll: "It’s quite jarring… this is probably going to stretch out for the rest of my ’20s and maybe even my early ’30s."
GrS Montreal, the only clinic in Quebec offering fully subsidized gender-affirming surgeries, announced that a funding cut from the Health Department will limit the number of operations available to Quebec residents. Meanwhile, wait times for out-of-province patients remain stable-or shorten.
Michel Gagner, GrS owner and medical director, said the province caps its budget for the clinic, which forces long delays once that allocation is exhausted. In contrast, patients from other provinces continue receiving care under their regional health plans.
For instance, the wait for a mastectomy in Quebec rose from 18 months in 2024-25 to two years; meanwhile, out-of-province waits dropped from 13 months to six. Vaginoplasty delays jumped from 20 months to 34 months for Quebecers-but fell to 18 months for others.
"These two, three years waiting times are really devastating," said Jacob Franklin of the Trans Patient Union. "We’ve had people reach out in crisis."
More than 1,200 Quebec patients awaited surgery at the end of 2025. Without increased funding, Gagner warns, wait times could extend further-up to four years for some procedures.
Quebec officials deny cutting GrS’s budget, stating that $9 million in 2024-25 was an exceptional one-time boost. The allocation has since dropped to $7.3 million for 2025-26. Provincial support has more than tripled since 2018-19, but demand continues to rise.
Gagner recommends doubling provincial funding to between $14 million and $15 million annually to reduce delays.
Out-of-pocket costs for such surgeries can exceed $100,000-a prohibitive expense for many young adults. “You’re not saving for a house or getting married,” Franklin noted.
Until 2028, GrS holds exclusive rights to perform publicly funded gender-affirming surgeries in Quebec through agreements with provincial authorities and the Université de Montréal’s hospital center.