Lift steel, concrete and machinery on construction sites. A licensed trade with high pay and enormous responsibility.
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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 5,520 hours on the job, even at the minimum wage you would earn at least $99,084 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)
You are paid from your first day. Over the 760 hours on the job, even at the minimum wage you would earn at least $13,642 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)
You are paid from your first day. Over the 2,640 hours on the job, even at the minimum wage you would earn at least $47,388 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)
Programs in the fields this career usually comes through. Each has its own page: what it takes to get in, the courses you need and what it costs.
The median pay is about $89,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $55,000 at the lower end to about $109,000 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.
$1,000 to $18,200 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 Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan and Yukon. 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
$89,000
Lower end
$55,000
Upper end
$109,000
Job Bank's figures for crane operators across Canada (2023 to 2024) are $26.50 an hour at the low end, $42.77 median and $52.19 at the high end, about $55,000, $89,000 and $109,000 a year at 40 hours a week. Overtime comes on top of these figures.
$45 an hour
The median in Alberta, the highest of any province
Saskatchewan follows at $44.31 and Quebec at $43.01. New Brunswick's median is the lowest, at $35. Apprentices start as an oiler or rigger on the ground. The first year is mostly rigging loads and maintaining the machine, not sitting in the seat.
Roughly, all in
$1,000 to $18,200
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is the union apprenticeship. The work is paid, and the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 793 in Ontario, delivers the in school training through its own institute, so what is left for you is a DZ (truck and air brake) driver's licence. Your first Certificate of Qualification exam try is free in Ontario once your apprenticeship is complete. The high end is paying a private crane school if you cannot get an apprenticeship spot, at $5,000 to $15,000, plus the same exam and licence. A Canada Apprentice Loan of up to $4,000 per school block charges no interest, and EI (Employment Insurance) can cover classroom time. The federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant closed in March 2025, so check what is currently open before you budget.
IUOE Local 793 (the Ontario operating engineers' union) runs its own training institute, OETIO (Operating Engineers Training Institute of Ontario), with campuses in Oakville and Morrisburg. It delivers the in-school training for the mobile crane, tower crane and heavy equipment apprenticeships. The federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant closed in March 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
IUOE (the operating engineers' union) locals run pension and health plans for members.
Overtime at time and a half or double time
Travel and living-out allowances
On industrial and northern jobs.
Union hiring hall
The hall dispatches you to the next crane when a project wraps.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A licensed apprenticeship. In Ontario you cannot operate a crane without it.
High school diploma and a driver's licence
Grade 12
Grade 12 with math and physics. Mobile cranes drive on the road, so you will need a DZ (truck and air brake) licence in Ontario or the equivalent elsewhere.
Get on a crew
Months to a year
Start as a rigger, oiler or swamper with a crane rental company, a builder or through the union hall. This is where sponsors find you.
Register the apprenticeship
Days
In Ontario, with Skilled Trades Ontario under the Hoisting Engineer trade. In Alberta, with Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry Training. In BC (British Columbia), through SkilledTradesBC and BC Crane Safety.
Work and study
1 to 3 years
Mobile Crane Operator 1 in Ontario is 6,000 hours: 5,520 on the job plus 480 in class. Tower Crane Operator is 3,000 hours and Mobile Crane Operator 2 is 1,000.
Certificate of Qualification and Red Seal
After your hours
Pass the provincial exam. Mobile Crane Operator and Tower Crane Operator are both Red Seal trades.
Math
Load charts, boom angles and radius calculations. Get one wrong and the crane tips.
Physics
Leverage, centre of gravity and wind loads are the job.
Shop or technology classes
Comfort with heavy machinery and rigging.
English
Lift plans, safety paperwork and clear radio communication.
In Ontario, Hoisting Engineer is a compulsory trade under Skilled Trades Ontario. You must be a registered apprentice or hold a Certificate of Qualification to operate a crane. There are three separate licences: Mobile Crane Operator 1 (cranes rated over 16,000 pounds, with no upper limit), Mobile Crane Operator 2 (cranes rated over 16,000 and up to 30,000 pounds), and Tower Crane Operator. Every other province and Yukon also require certified operators, except Prince Edward Island; the Northwest Territories and Nunavut do not make it compulsory either. The Red Seal endorsement lets you work across provinces.
In Quebec crane operator (grutier) is a construction trade with a vocational diploma and an apprenticeship, run by the CCQ (Commission de la construction du Québec, the Quebec construction commission).
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 Crane Operation (Conduite de grues, 5248)
About 8 months
870 hours. In French only, at the Centre national de conduite d'engins de chantier in Lévis and at the Les Cèdres training centre in Montérégie.
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 2,695 hours
Two periods of 2,000 hours, 4,000 in all. The DEP counts for its hours plus a 50% bonus, about 1,305, which leaves about 2,695 hours of paid 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 2,073 crane operators active on Quebec sites and admitted 93 new apprentices.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Tower Crane Operator licence
The high-rise seat. Steady, months-long jobs in Toronto and Vancouver.
Mobile Crane Operator 1
Unlimited capacity. Opens up the biggest lifts and the industrial work.
Rigging certification
Knowing how to rig safely makes you the operator crews trust.
Boom truck and concrete pump
Related machines that operating engineers often run between crane jobs.
Calm under pressure
A tower crane operator makes hundreds of judgment calls a day with people underneath.
Clean driving record
Crane rental companies check it before they let you drive a $2 million machine.
Working at heights ticket
Climbing a tower crane ladder is part of the morning.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
On a high-rise, you climb the tower before 7 and do a full inspection of the crane. Then it is a shift of radio calls: the rigger hooks a bundle of rebar, a form or a concrete bucket, you swing it up and set it down within centimetres, over and over, while watching wind, radius and load weight. Lunch happens in the cab. On a mobile crane, the day starts with driving to site and setting the outriggers, then a lift plan and a few big, careful picks.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
IUOE Local 793 (the Ontario operating engineers' union) trains apprentices on real cranes and machines at OETIO (Operating Engineers Training Institute of Ontario), its own institute with campuses in Oakville and Morrisburg, Ontario.
Tower cranes have a wind limit. When gusts pass it, the operator shuts down and the whole site waits, no matter what the schedule says. The operator, not the boss, makes that call.
Mobile Crane Operator and Tower Crane Operator are separate Red Seal trades, so a licensed operator can move between provinces without re-testing.
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.
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