The short answer
Most Canadian medical schools require the MCAT. The University of Ottawa is the notable exception among the Ontario schools, and it does not use the MCAT in its process at all.
Requiring the MCAT and weighting it heavily are two different things. Several schools that require it use only part of the exam, apply section-level thresholds, or treat it as a screen rather than a ranked score.
How the use of the score differs
- Some schools apply a threshold and then stop using the score entirely
- Some apply thresholds section by section rather than to the total
- McMaster uses only part of the exam rather than the composite
- uOttawa does not use the MCAT, which shifts weight onto GPA and the written file
- Where a school does rank on the score, the rest of the file still decides interviews
What this means for when you write
If the schools you are eligible for weight the MCAT heavily, the exam deserves a protected block of preparation time and should be written early enough to allow a rewrite in the same planning window.
If your realistic list is dominated by schools that use the score as a threshold, there is little value in chasing marginal points past that threshold. That time is usually better spent on the written file and on the experiences that will be assessed.
Confirm before you plan
MCAT policies change. Schools have added, removed, and reweighted the requirement in recent cycles, and a policy you read about in a forum thread may be several years out of date.
Our school pages list the current published requirement for each school and link to the official admissions page. Confirm there before building a timeline around it.