Lay brick, block and stone on new buildings and restore old ones. A 3-year paid apprenticeship.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Journeyperson
$83,000
1st-year apprentice
$54,000
Union or restoration
$101,000
Job Bank's median for bricklayers is about $40 an hour, or $83,000 a year at full-time hours. Members of BAC (the bricklayers' union) on commercial and institutional sites earn at the top. Skilled restoration masons and stone masons can charge more again.
$22 to $28 an hour
First-year apprentice, roughly 55 to 70% of the journeyperson rate
Your rate goes up each level. Many apprentices start as a mason's labourer mixing mortar and carrying block, which is paid too.
$38 to $49 an hour
About $80,000 to $101,000 a year at full-time hours
The catch is hours: outdoor masonry slows or stops in the coldest months, so a year's total pay depends on how much winter work you find.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The apprenticeship is paid work, so most bricklayers finish with no debt. The low end is three in school levels at the cheaper provincial rate, a basic set of trowels, levels and hand tools, and the Certificate of Qualification exam. The high end is blocks in a province charging up to fifteen hundred dollars each plus a fuller tool kit. The Canada Apprentice Loan is interest free up to four thousand dollars a block and EI (Employment Insurance) is paid while you are in class. The federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant ended in 2025.
Most apprentices finish with no debt. The federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant ended in 2025, so check the Government of Canada apprenticeship page for current help.
Union pension and health plan
BAC (the bricklayers' union) locals run pension, health and dental plans on union jobs.
Overtime at premium rates
Union training centres
Free upgrading courses in restoration, stone and safety for members.
EI (Employment Insurance) in the off-season
Common for masons laid off in winter, though it pays far less than working.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
An apprenticeship: mostly on the job, with short college blocks.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Grade 12 with math and a shop class. Some provinces let you start through a high school apprenticeship program.
Find a sponsor
Weeks to months
A masonry contractor or the union hiring hall. Starting as a labourer on a masonry crew is the usual way in.
Register the apprenticeship
Days
With Skilled Trades Ontario, Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry Training, or your province's trades body.
Work and study
3 years
About 5,600 hours in Ontario: roughly 4,900 on site plus three in-school levels of about 8 weeks at a college.
Certificate of Qualification and Red Seal
After your hours
Pass the provincial exam. Add the Red Seal endorsement to work anywhere in Canada.
Math
Measuring, estimating quantities, keeping courses level and corners square.
Construction technology or shop
Any hands-on class.
Physical education
Not a joke. Fitness is the biggest filter in this trade.
History or art
Helps if you go into heritage restoration.
Bricklayer (called Brick and Stone Mason in Ontario) is not a compulsory trade in Ontario, Alberta or BC. You can work without a certificate, but union sites and public projects usually want one and it raises your rate. Quebec regulates construction work through the CCQ (Commission de la construction du Québec). The Red Seal endorsement lets you move between provinces without retesting.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Red Seal endorsement
One extra exam, recognised across Canada.
Heritage restoration
Repointing and rebuilding century-old brick and stone. Slow, skilled and well paid. Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City and Toronto have steady work.
Stone masonry
Cutting and setting natural stone. A smaller, higher-end market.
Refractory work
Firebrick in furnaces, kilns and steel plants. Industrial rates, often shift work.
Pre-apprenticeship program
A college masonry semester. Gets you sponsored faster.
Driver's licence
Sites change every few weeks.
Working at heights and WHMIS (workplace hazardous materials training)
One-day courses employers expect.
Scaffold experience
Masons work off scaffolding most of the day.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Start at 7am. Set up scaffold and mortar boards, check the line and level, then lay brick or block course after course, corners first, for most of the day. A labourer keeps you supplied. On a restoration, you cut out crumbling mortar and repoint joints on a building older than your grandparents. Clean tools, cover the work against rain or frost, done by 3:30pm.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
The Centre Block on Parliament Hill in Ottawa is in the middle of a years-long rehabilitation. Restoring its stone is some of the most demanding masonry work in the country.
A standard concrete block weighs around 15 kilograms. Lay a couple of hundred in a shift and you have lifted several tonnes before the day is out. That is why fitness matters more than in almost any other trade.
Masonry has one of the oldest workforces in construction. Contractors across Canada report trouble finding apprentices, which is good news for anyone who does sign up.
Last checked September 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students.