ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — Doctors in Newfoundland and Labrador have ratified a new four-year contract with the province that calls for almost $88 million in raises.

Lynn Barter, a spokeswoman for the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association, said more than 90 per cent of the membership voted in favour of the deal Tuesday night.

The deal also provides a one-time $12-million retention bonus for doctors who are still in the province at the end of the four years.

The province's fee-for-service physicians and salaried general practitioners will also now be paid on par with their Atlantic counterparts.

About 1,200 doctors in the province had been without a contract for more than a year.

The new agreement covers the period from Oct. 1, 2009, to Sept. 30, 2013.

Under the agreement, salaried specialists would get the same pay raises that were given to oncologists and pathologists in the province in 2008 -- a major sticking point that prolonged talks.

A 42 per cent wage gap existed among those specialists when the last contract expired.

The increases were awarded as the province tried to rebuild after hundreds of patients received botched breast cancer tests.

Thirteen specialists who had threatened to quit en masse as of Feb. 4 have rescinded their resignations as a condition of the new deal.