From bunions to ankle fusions, foot & ankle surgery is one of the most under-served subspecialties in the Canadian public system. This page is a practical guide for patients and caretakers exploring private foot & ankle care in Montréal: bunion correction, ankle fusion, ankle replacement, hindfoot reconstruction, and which surgeons are opted out of RAMQ.
Note: in general, Québec residents cannot pay privately for surgery within Québec (unless the surgeon is opted-out of RAMQ). For more foot & ankle options, view Calgary, AB; Edmonton, AB; Vancouver, BC; Toronto, ON.
A globally recognized expert in complex orthopedics, specializing in limb lengthening and deformity correction, with extensive experience lower extremity orthopedics & pediatrics.
It depends on the surgeon's status. For medically necessary foot & ankle surgeries—such as bunion correction, ankle fusion, ankle replacement, or hindfoot reconstruction—Québec residents cannot pay privately to a surgeon enrolled in the Régie de l'assurance maladie du Québec (RAMQ).
However, Québec permits surgeons to formally opt out of RAMQ, in which case they may bill Québec residents directly for medically necessary foot & ankle procedures within the province. Some of the surgeons listed above are opted-out—look for "Accepting patients from all provinces." Out-of-province travel is generally only needed when a specific procedure or surgeon is not available privately in Québec.
Yes and no—you can reach out to any of the private surgeons listed on Surgency without a referral. Their intake teams are happy to answer questions, explain what they treat, share pricing ranges, and walk you through next steps.
However, to book a formal consultation with the surgeon, you'll typically need a referral from your family doctor or nurse practitioner. Don't have one? Many of the clinics can help coordinate a virtual GP appointment to get the referral paperwork sorted. All surgeons listed on Surgency offer virtual initial consultations, so you don't need to travel until you and the surgeon have agreed on a plan.
Before your consultation, expect the clinic to request relevant medical records and recent diagnostic imaging (X-ray, MRI, CT, ultrasound, lab work, etc.). Having these ready speeds up the process and lets the surgeon give you specific guidance on your very first call.
This is general information, please seek professional tax guidance.
Generally, private surgeries performed in Canada are paid for out-of-pocket or via private insurance / employer benefits.
Provincial plans (like RAMQ, OHIP, MSP, or AHCIP) typically do not cover procedures at private clinics, though some exceptions exist for CNESST (Workers' Compensation) claims or specific inter-provincial programs.
Standard extended health benefits (e.g. Sun Life, Manulife, Beneva) typically do not cover the cost of the surgery itself. However, they often cover related costs such as:
If your employer provides a Health Spending Account (HSA) or "flex account," you can often use these funds to pay for the surgery. Unlike standard benefits, HSAs are usually flexible enough to cover CRA-eligible medical expenses, including private facility fees.
You may be able to get some financial relief at tax time.
Medical Expense Tax Credit (METC): You can generally claim eligible private surgery fees as a medical expense on your federal tax return. Learn more about the METC here.
Québec Tax Credit for Medical Expenses: Québec has a parallel medical expense tax credit that can further reduce your provincial tax liability. You claim eligible expenses minus 3% of your combined family net income.
Refundable Tax Credit for Medical Expenses: Québec offers a second, refundable credit for low-income workers. If your work income is low but your medical expenses are high, Québec may pay you money back even if you paid no tax.
Travel costs: Mileage, parking, and accommodation may also be claimable if you travel more than 40 km (for travel expenses) or 80 km (for accommodation and meals) to receive medical services not available near your home.
Please consult a tax professional before claiming any private surgery fees on your taxes.
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Surgeons and providers—who meet our listing criteria—pay a flat fee to list on the Surgency platform. To maintain objectivity, there are no commissions, referral fees, nor any ranking or recommending one surgeon over another.
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There's no single price. Foot & ankle surgery spans a wide range of procedures, so cost depends heavily on what you need, plus the surgeon, facility, any implant, and the specifics of your case.
As a general guide, private foot & ankle surgery in Canada commonly ranges from $4,000 for a straightforward hammertoe repair to $25,000+ for an ankle replacement.
The surgeon's fee, anaesthesia, facility fee, and (for replacements) the implant make up most of the bill. Costs tend to be lower in Québec relative to other provinces, and higher in Alberta and Ontario.
Pre-op imaging, medications, bracing, and physiotherapy may or may not be bundled in, so it's best to ask each clinic for a written, itemized quote before you decide.
This is general information, not a quote—pricing varies by clinic and case.
Private surgeons typically charge a consultation fee because a surgical consult involves clinical work before, during, and after the appointment.
Most consultation costs range between $200 - $400, however they can be up to 10% of the overall surgery costs. In many cases this fee will get rolled into the total cost of the surgery itself—ask the surgeon.
A surgical consultation isn’t a “meet and greet.” It’s a formal medical assessment where the surgeon may:
Private clinics also cover operating costs that public hospitals don’t fund in the same way, including:
The consultation fee helps support these resources and the infrastructure required to provide timely, organized care outside publicly funded hospital operations.
As a family doctor in the public system, I believe transparency is a form of care. I created Surgency to help my patients struggling on long waitlists who wanted to understand all their options for timely medical attention.
Surgency is a free resource designed to empower and educate—helping you understand private pathways and find accredited surgeons within Canada. I hope Surgency brings you clarity.
Dr. Sean Haffey
Foot and ankle surgeons are orthopedic surgeons who specialize in conditions affecting the foot, ankle, and hindfoot—including the bones, joints, tendons, and ligaments. The most common reasons people seek foot & ankle care include:
Please consult your physician for more guidance.
An estimated 424,384 surgeries are performed in Québec each year, with 75,000 to 100,000 of those being orthopedic procedures—including thousands of foot and ankle surgeries such as bunion corrections, ankle fusions and replacements, and hindfoot reconstructions. Most medically necessary foot and ankle surgeries are delivered through the publicly funded Régie de l'assurance maladie du Québec (RAMQ).
Unlike Ontario, Québec permits surgeons to "opt out" of RAMQ, allowing them to provide private foot and ankle surgery directly to Québec residents within the province. On Surgency, to find opted-out surgeons, look for "Accepting patients from all provinces."
Québec has the most established private surgical landscape in Canada, and Greater Montréal is at the centre of it. Opted-out foot and ankle surgeons and private clinics operate across the island and surrounding communities (Laval, Saint-Hubert, Joliette), offering privately funded bunion correction, ankle replacement, ankle fusion, and reconstructive procedures.
Current regulations: Québec's regulatory environment is more permissive than Ontario's. Surgeons who opt out of RAMQ may charge patients directly for services, including some medically necessary procedures. This has allowed a parallel private system to develop alongside the public one. Regulations continue to evolve, and not all foot and ankle procedures or surgeons are available privately.
What this means for you: Greater Montréal residents generally have more in-province private foot and ankle surgery options than patients in most other Canadian provinces. Depending on your procedure, you may be able to access private care without travelling out of province.