New Brunswick’s three highest-paid doctors each received more than $2 million during the last fiscal year.
The province has released its unaudited list of payments made to medical practitioners in 2023-24.
Dieppe ophthalmologist Dr. Julien Saad topped the list. He was paid between $2.05 million and $2.09 million.
Saad was also among the top doctors during the previous two fiscal years. In both years, he billed between $1.9 and $1.99 million.
The top three also included Moncton diagnostic radiologist Dr. Martin Finnegan and Dieppe family physician Dr. Marie-Claude Bourdages, who both earned between $2 million and $2.04 million.
Finnegan was also in the top three during the previous fiscal year, earning between $1.8 million and $1.84 million.
Miramichi diagnostic radiologist Dr. Stewart MacMillan, the highest-paid physician last year, earned between $1.95 and $1.99 million this year, making him fourth on the list.
In total, 58 of the 1,838 physicians included in the most recent list — around 3.1 per cent — billed for at least $1 million.
The overwhelming majority, nearly 1,300 physicians, were paid less than $500,000 in the 2023-24 fiscal year.
As the New Brunswick Medical Society has pointed out in the past, the payments do not represent a physician’s personal income.
Most physicians are responsible for operating costs such as office rent, staff salaries and benefits, medical equipment, and insurance.
The society said they also face some of the highest income tax rates in the country, and early-career physicians often start out with significant student debt from years of training.
You can see the full list of payments online.
