Connect and service furnaces, water heaters and gas lines. A short licence ladder that many plumbers and HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) techs add on.
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.
The median pay is about $83,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $55,000 at the lower end to about $124,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
2 to 4 years after high school, on the usual route.
$4,200 to $9,400 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
Yes. It is a regulated job, so you need a licence or registration before you can work.
Moderate 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
$55,000
Upper end
$124,000
Job Bank's national median for gas fitters is $40.00 an hour, about $83,000 a year at 40 hours a week. The lower and upper ends ($26.44 and $59.62 an hour) are the bottom and top of the range for everyone in the group, not set rates for a G3, G2 or G1 holder.
$46.01 an hour
The median in Saskatchewan, about $95,700 a year, the highest in Canada
Alberta is next at $42.27. Ontario's median is $36.06, Quebec's is $34.80 and Nova Scotia's is the lowest, at $28.00. Winter no-heat calls outside regular hours can pay overtime on top.
Roughly, all in
$4,200 to $9,400
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is the gas technician course at a public college at around $3,000, the exam and certificate fees for both levels, and a basic tool kit with a gas detector. The high end is a private school program at $7,000, the same fees, and a fuller set of tools. In Ontario this is a certificate program rather than a registered apprenticeship, so you usually pay up front instead of earning while you learn. In provinces where gasfitting is a registered apprenticeship you can use the Canada Apprentice Loan, which charges no interest, and draw EI (Employment Insurance) during the classroom blocks.
In Ontario the course is usually paid up front because it is a certificate program, not a registered apprenticeship. It is still one of the cheapest trade licences to get.
Utility jobs come with pensions
Enbridge Gas and other utilities are unionized with strong benefits.
Company van, phone and uniform
Standard for service technicians.
Overtime in winter
No-heat emergencies outside regular hours can pay overtime rates.
A second ticket you can stack
Many gasfitters also hold a plumbing or HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) licence, which means more billable work.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A ladder of three TSSA (Technical Standards and Safety Authority) certificates: G3, then G2, then G1.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Grade 12 with math and science.
Gas technician course
3 months to 1 year
A college or private school program that covers the G3 and G2 material. Many colleges bundle it with plumbing or HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) programs.
G3 certificate
After the course
Pass the TSSA (Technical Standards and Safety Authority) exam. You can now work on gas appliances under the supervision of a G2 or G1 holder.
G2 certificate
About a year of work
Pass the G2 exam. You can now install and service most residential and small commercial appliances on your own.
G1 certificate
2 or more years
After 3,500 hours of work as a G2, including 500 supervised hours on large equipment, and more schooling. G1 covers large commercial and industrial equipment.
Math
Gas pressure, pipe sizing and combustion air calculations.
Chemistry
Combustion is chemistry. You need to understand what makes gas burn cleanly or badly.
Physics
Pressure, venting and airflow.
Shop or technology classes
In Ontario gas work is licensed by the TSSA (Technical Standards and Safety Authority), not by Skilled Trades Ontario, and it is not a Red Seal trade there. In Alberta, British Columbia and most other provinces gasfitter is an apprenticeship with Class B (2 years) and Class A (a third year) levels, and both classes are Red Seal trades everywhere except Ontario and Saskatchewan. It is illegal to work on gas without a certificate or licence in every province and territory. Moving between Ontario and the rest of Canada usually means writing another exam.
Quebec does not use gasfitter Class A and B. Its gas certificates are issued by the provincial employment ministry, one for each type of work.
Finish Secondary V
About 17 months
One common way in is the DEP (Diploma of Vocational Studies) in Plumbing and Heating (5333), 1,680 hours, offered in English as 5833.
Register a gas apprenticeship
Start of the job
Sign up for the government apprenticeship program for the certificate you want, then work under a certified journeyperson.
Take the gas basics course
Before or during
Required for every gas appliance certificate: the basics of how natural gas and propane behave, taught by approved trainers.
Log your hours
320 to 1,600 hours
800 hours for approved appliances up to 120 kW (kilowatts). 1,600 hours for all gas appliances. Gas piping takes 320 hours and needs a plumbing, heating or pipefitter certificate first.
Written exam
End of apprenticeship
Multiple choice, 3 hours, 60% to pass. It is in French, with English only under specific exceptions.
Renew every 4 years
Ongoing
Each gas certificate is valid for 4 years.
Hours are the minimum supervised apprenticeship. Separate certificates cover propane tanks, vehicle fuel systems and filling.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Plumber licence
The classic pairing. Water heaters, boilers and gas lines in one visit.
HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) licence
Furnaces and rooftop units need both a gas licence and refrigeration skills.
Propane and oil burner certificates
Rural and cottage country runs on propane and oil. Fewer technicians means more work.
G1 or Class A
Large boilers, industrial burners and commercial kitchens. Fewer people hold it.
Driver's licence
A gasfitter without a licence cannot do service work.
Customer service skills
You are in people's homes on the coldest day of the year, and they are stressed.
A clean record
Utilities and home service companies do background checks.
Gas utilities such as Enbridge Gas hire gas technicians to run service lines, install meters and respond to leak calls. The work is unionized, pensioned and steady. It is one of the few trades paths with a real shift schedule and a pension rather than project-to-project work.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Service season is winter. Six to eight calls a day from a van: a furnace that will not light, a water heater that needs replacing, a fireplace with a pilot problem, a new gas line for a stove or barbecue. Each stop means diagnosing, fixing, leak-testing every joint and checking the venting. Installation work is slower and cleaner: new furnaces, boilers and rooftop units on commercial jobs.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
The Hawkins Gignac Act of 2013 is named after Laurie and Richard Hawkins and their children, killed by carbon monoxide in their Woodstock home. Ontario homes with a fuel-burning appliance, fireplace or attached garage must have an alarm, and since January 1, 2026 on every storey.
The rotten-egg smell is a chemical called mercaptan that utilities add on purpose so people notice leaks. Gasfitters are trained to find leaks with detectors and soap solution, not their nose.
Gasfitter Class A is a Red Seal trade in 11 provinces and territories, but not in Ontario or Saskatchewan. Ontario runs its own G3, G2, G1 system through the TSSA (Technical Standards and Safety Authority), which is why plumbers and heating technicians there talk about their G2 the way other provinces talk about a Class B.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Plumbing, pipes and HVAC 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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