Help families understand inherited disease, genetic tests and what the results mean. A science degree, a hard-to-get 2-year master's, and good or moderate job prospects.
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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.
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 $97,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $50,000 at the lower end to about $125,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
6 to 7 years after high school, on the usual route.
$45,100 to $71,900 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
No. There is no licence to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
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
$97,000
Lower end
$50,000
Upper end
$125,000
Job Bank's national median for genetic counsellors is $46.81 an hour, about $97,000 a year at 40 hours a week. The lower and upper ends ($24.09 and $60.26 an hour) are the bottom and top of the range for everyone in the group. Most jobs are in hospitals on a professional pay scale.
$31.51 an hour
About $57,000 a year at 35 hours a week, the first step in a Quebec public hospital
The Quebec public health network scale from April 2026 has 18 steps and tops out at $57.81 an hour. Other provinces set their own hospital scales.
$49.43 an hour
The median in Manitoba, about $103,000 a year, the highest of the provinces Job Bank reports
New Brunswick is close at $49.34. Ontario's median is $43.93, Quebec's is $43.98 and Alberta's is the lowest, at $38.28. Testing companies also hire counsellors, often in remote roles.
Roughly, all in
$45,100 to $71,900
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is a four year science degree at $7,000 a year followed by a two year master's in genetic counselling at $8,000 a year, plus the certification exam and a year of association membership. The high end is the same six years at the top of the tuition range, which lands near $70,000. The certification exam is often billed in United States dollars, so the exchange rate moves that piece. Some master's programs fund students through paid research or teaching work, which can knock several thousand dollars off the total.
Roughly $44,000 to $70,000 in tuition over 6 years. Some programs offer funding or paid research work during the master's.
Defined-benefit pension
HOOPP (the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan) in Ontario hospitals. Similar plans elsewhere.
Extended health and dental
Weekday hours
Clinics run business hours. No nights, no on-call.
Remote options
Lab and industry roles are often fully remote. Some clinics run virtual appointments.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A science degree, then a master's program with only a handful of seats in each class.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Biology, chemistry, math and English. You need marks for a science degree.
Bachelor's degree
4 years
Usually genetics, biology or molecular biology, with a psychology course. Manitoba wants a GPA (grade point average) of 3.7 in your last two years. Volunteer in crisis counselling, hospice or disability support, because programs want to see counselling experience, not just marks.
Master's in genetic counselling
2 years
Five programs in Canada: UBC (University of British Columbia), Manitoba, Toronto, McGill and Université de Montréal in French. Classes, clinical rotations and a research project. Manitoba takes three students a year.
Certification exam
After graduation
The CBGC (Canadian Board of Genetic Counselling) exam earns the CCGC (Certified Canadian Genetic Counsellor) credential. Many also write the American board exam. Manitoba reports that all its first-time test takers passed over the last three years.
Biology
Genetics starts here.
Chemistry
Required for a science degree.
Math and data
Risk is expressed as probabilities, and you explain them to families.
English and psychology
Half the job is listening and explaining hard news clearly.
No province licenses genetic counsellors, so the title is not legally protected. What matters instead is certification: the CCGC (Certified Canadian Genetic Counsellor) credential from the CBGC (Canadian Board of Genetic Counselling), or the American equivalent. Hospitals require one of them. The CAGC (Canadian Association of Genetic Counsellors) published a national position statement in 2025 pushing for regulation, and a working group is taking it to the provinces. Expect this to change during your career.
Quebec has two of Canada's programs, one in English and one in French, and no professional order for the job.
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
With Secondary V math (Technical and Scientific, or Science option), chemistry and physics. These are the entry courses for the CEGEP (public college) science program.
Science DEC (Diploma of College Studies)
2 years
A 2 year CEGEP (public college) program (200.B1), offered in English at Dawson and the other English colleges.
Bachelor's in science
3 years
Many Quebec bachelor's degrees take 3 years after CEGEP. Cover biology, biochemistry, genetics and statistics. McGill also wants 2 psychology courses and one-on-one crisis counselling volunteer work.
Master's in genetic counselling
2 years
McGill's MSc (Master of Science) is 2 years, full time, in English. Université de Montréal's master's is 45 credits over 5 terms, in French, with clinical placements.
Certification exam
After graduating
Write the CBGC (Canadian Board of Genetic Counselling) exam, as in the rest of Canada. Quebec has no professional order for genetic counsellors, so there is no provincial permit.
Hospital job
Months
In Quebec's public health network the genetic counsellor job title requires a master's in genetic counselling.
The provincial scale for the conseiller ou conseillère en génétique (genetic counsellor) job title. The scale has 18 steps, and you move up it with experience.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Hereditary cancer
Families with inherited breast, ovarian or colon cancer risk. The biggest area.
Prenatal and reproductive
Screening in pregnancy, fertility clinics and carrier testing. Emotionally intense.
Pediatric and rare disease
Children with developmental differences, often after whole-genome sequencing.
Laboratory and industry
Interpreting test results and supporting the doctors who order them. Often remote.
Crisis line or peer support volunteering
Programs want proof you can sit with someone in distress.
Research experience
A lab or clinical research job during undergrad makes an application stand out.
Shadowing a genetic counsellor
Hard to arrange but very persuasive on an application.
French
Opens Montréal programs and bilingual clinics.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Four to eight appointments of 30 to 90 minutes. Before each you review the referral, draw the family tree and calculate risk. In the room you explain what a test can and cannot tell them, what a result would mean for their children and siblings, and help them decide whether to test at all. Afterward you write a detailed letter to the patient and their doctor. Between appointments you interpret lab reports, present cases at team rounds with geneticists and oncologists, and answer calls from worried relatives.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
The CAGC (Canadian Association of Genetic Counsellors) says there are over 600 genetic counsellors working across Canadian health care (2026). A small profession for a country of 40 million.
The University of Manitoba's master's program admits three students each fall and wants a GPA (grade point average) of at least 3.7. All five Canadian programs are small, so only a small number of new counsellors graduate each year.
The Human Genome Project took about 13 years and cost about $2.7 billion US. By late 2015, sequencing one person's whole genome cost under $1,500 US. Cheap tests mean more results for counsellors to explain.
The core rule of genetic counselling is non-directive: the counsellor explains the risks and options, and the patient decides whether to test, what to do with a result and whom to tell. Sitting with that uncertainty is the skill.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Diagnostics and lab first, then the rest of the field. See every career in health.
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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