Lay brick, block and stone on new buildings and restore old ones. A 3-year paid apprenticeship.
Click through it
Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
An apprenticeship: you are hired by a sponsor, paid while you learn on the job, and go to class for a few weeks at a time. Every fact here is from Skilled Trades Ontario (STO) and the Ontario government. See every Ontario trade side by side
You are paid from your first day. Over the 4,880 hours on the job, even at the minimum wage you would earn at least $87,596 before tax while you train, and most sponsors pay more as your skills grow.
The trade on Skilled Trades Ontario's site(opens in a new tab)
Still in high school? In Grade 11 or 12, with at least 14 credits and age 15 or older, you can start an apprenticeship through co-op placements and earn credits at the same time. Ask your school's OYAP recruiter, guidance counsellor or co-op teacher. Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program (OYAP)(opens in a new tab)
Not ready to find a sponsor? Free pre-apprenticeship programs (up to a year at a college or community agency, tools and books covered, with a work placement) get you ready and in front of employers. Employment Ontario helps you apply. Pre-apprenticeship training(opens in a new tab)
Ontario sets no percentage of full pay for apprentices. Your sponsor agrees your wage with you, and it can never be below the minimum wage: $17.95 an hour from 1 October 2026. Source (opens in a new tab)
The median pay is about $83,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $54,000 at the lower end to about $101,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
3 to 4 years, on the usual route, and you are paid while you train from the first day.
$1,300 to $6,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
It depends where you work. You need a licence, certificate or registration in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Quebec. Elsewhere there is none to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Limited demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$83,000
Lower end
$54,000
Upper end
$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.
A share of the journeyperson rate
Paid from your first day on site, rising each level of the apprenticeship
Your rate goes up each level. Many apprentices start as a mason's labourer mixing mortar and carrying block, which is paid too. In Ontario no share is set in law: your sponsor agrees your rate, often in a union or company agreement, and it can never be below the minimum wage.
$41.85 an hour
The median in Alberta, the highest in Canada
Quebec ($40.89) is next, Ontario is at $38.00 and Nova Scotia lowest at $31.00. The catch is hours: outdoor masonry slows in the coldest months, so a year's pay depends on how much winter work you find.
Roughly, all in
$1,300 to $6,000
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 Ontario, where Level 1 class is free for classes from January 2026 and the first Certificate of Qualification exam try is free once your apprenticeship is complete, so you pay for two levels at the cheaper rate and a basic set of trowels, levels and hand tools. The high end is blocks in a province charging up to fifteen hundred dollars each plus a fuller tool kit. The Canada Apprentice Loan charges no interest on up to four thousand dollars a block and EI (Employment Insurance) is paid while you are in class. The federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant closed on March 31, 2025.
Most apprentices finish with no debt. The federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant closed on March 31, 2025. The new federal Red Seal Completion Bonus pays $5,000 if you finish your apprenticeship and get certified in a Red Seal trade on or after April 1, 2025. Applications open November 16, 2026.
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
Upgrading courses at no charge 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
5,600 hours in Ontario: 4,880 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 a compulsory trade in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and on Quebec construction sites you need a competency certificate from the CCQ (Commission de la construction du Québec). Elsewhere, including Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, you can work without a certificate, but union sites and public projects usually want one and it raises your rate. The Red Seal endorsement lets you move between provinces without retesting.
In Quebec the trade is called bricklayer-mason (briqueteur-maçon), you take a vocational diploma first, and the CCQ (Commission de la construction du Québec, the Quebec construction commission) decides who can work on a site.
Secondary III courses
From age 16
The DEP (Diploma of Vocational Studies) does not need a high school diploma. At 16 you need Secondary III language, second language and math. From 18, the general development test is another way in.
DEP in Masonry: Bricklaying (5303, or 5803 in English)
900 hours
900 hours. Offered in French in nine regions. In English at a Riverside School Board centre in Montérégie, on the South Shore of Montreal.
Apprentice competency certificate
Weeks
Issued by the CCQ. You need the DEP, an employer registered with the CCQ who guarantees at least 150 hours of work within 3 months, the 30 hour site safety course and a $100 fee.
Work as an apprentice
About 4,650 hours
Three periods of 2,000 hours, 6,000 in all. The DEP counts for its hours plus a 50% bonus, about 1,350, which leaves about 4,650 hours of paid site work.
Qualification exam
Near the end
The provincial exam, set by the CCQ. You can sit it once 85% of your apprenticeship hours are done. Pass and you become a journeyperson (compagnon).
The CCQ (Commission de la construction du Québec, the Quebec construction commission) sometimes opens a labour pool when a region runs short of workers. Then you can get an apprentice certificate without the DEP (Diploma of Vocational Studies), as long as an employer guarantees you 150 hours of work. If you already have work and training that add up to 35% of the apprenticeship, you can apply on that basis instead. In 2025 the CCQ counted 5,228 bricklayer-masons on Quebec sites and admitted 394 new apprentices.
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 and skilled. 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.
Job Bank counts about 10,700 bricklayers in Canada in 2023 and projects a moderate risk of a labour shortage through 2033, which is good news for anyone who signs up.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Construction first, then the rest of the field. See every career in skilled trades.
Last checked October 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. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
Tell us about this page. A person reads every message.
No email app on this device? Use Gmail instead: report a mistake in Gmail or say what you like in Gmail.