Keep excavators, haul trucks and loaders running at mines and job sites. One of the best-paid trades.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Journeyperson
$80,000
1st-year apprentice
$55,000
Field tech at a mine or oil sands site
$110,000
Job Bank puts most heavy-duty technicians between $24 and $55 an hour. Northern mines, the Alberta oil sands and field service jobs pay the most, often with camp rotations and overtime.
$22 to $28 an hour
First-year apprentice
Caterpillar dealers such as Toromont (Ontario and east) and Finning (west) run large apprentice programs and pay at the higher end. Small construction fleets pay less.
$45 to $55 an hour
Experienced journeyperson on site
Field technicians drive a service truck to broken machines on job sites. Mine and oil sands rotations (like 14 days on, 14 off) add camp pay, flights and heavy overtime. $110,000 or more is realistic there.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The apprenticeship is paid work, so the costs here are the three or four in school blocks at $400 to $900 each, your own tools, and the certificate exam at about $150. The low end assumes a dealer that supplies the big specialty tooling or offers a tool allowance, so you buy a modest starter set. The high end is buying a fuller kit yourself, which is closer to $10,000 and keeps growing over a career. The Canada Apprentice Loan covers up to $4,000 interest free per block to a maximum of $20,000, and EI (Employment Insurance) pays you during the classroom blocks. The federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant closed in March 2025.
Dealers often supply the big specialty tooling and some offer tool allowances. The federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant closed in March 2025.
Pension
Mines, municipalities and unionized dealers, often defined-benefit.
Camp and travel pay
Flights, room and board and a living-out allowance on remote sites.
Service truck
Field techs get a fully stocked truck. Some employers let you take it home.
Health, dental and boot allowances
Overtime
Machines break on their own schedule.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A 4-year Red Seal apprenticeship. Mostly on the job, with 3 or 4 school blocks.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Grade 12 with math, physics and shop. Alberta students can start in high school through RAP (Registered Apprenticeship Program). Ontario has OYAP (Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program).
Find a sponsor
Weeks to months
Equipment dealers (Toromont, Finning, Brandt, Wajax), mines, construction companies, municipal fleets and forestry contractors all hire apprentices. Dealers recruit straight from college pre-apprenticeship programs.
Register the apprenticeship
Days
With Skilled Trades Ontario (trade code 421A), Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry Training, SkilledTradesBC or your province's authority.
Work and study
4 years
Ontario requires 7,000 hours: 6,280 on the job plus 720 in school. Alberta runs four 8-week school periods over four years.
Certificate of Qualification and Red Seal
After your hours
Pass the exam. Heavy Duty Equipment Technician is a Red Seal trade, so the ticket works in every province.
Math
Torque specs, pressures, tolerances.
Physics
Hydraulics is pressure and force. Every machine runs on it.
Shop or auto technology
Hands-on time with engines.
Computer skills
Diagnostic laptops plug into every modern machine.
English
Service reports and manuals.
In Ontario anyone can work on heavy equipment, but employers and dealers expect the Certificate of Qualification. Alberta treats heavy equipment technician as a compulsory trade: you must be a registered apprentice or certified. Either way, the Red Seal endorsement is what lets you move between provinces without re-testing.
Ontario
Centennial, Conestoga, Cambrian in Sudbury, Fanshawe.
Alberta
SAIT (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology), NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology).
British Columbia
BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology), Okanagan College.
Prairies
Saskatchewan Polytechnic, Red River College Polytechnic in Winnipeg.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Manufacturer training
Caterpillar, Komatsu, John Deere and Volvo run their own courses through dealers. Usually paid.
Hydraulics and electronics
Modern machines are run by computers. Techs who can read wiring and hydraulic schematics are the ones dealers fight over.
Agricultural equipment technician (a second trade)
Tractors and combines, big in the Prairies.
Truck and coach ticket
Adds highway trucks and buses to what you can fix.
Field welding
A useful add-on for repairs on site.
Driver's licence with air brakes
Service trucks are often big enough to need a DZ (medium truck) licence in Ontario or a class 3 in Alberta.
Welding basics
Pre-apprenticeship program
Dealers recruit from these.
Comfort with remote work
Camps, bugs, cold, long days.
Fitness
Parts are heavy even with a crane.
Many heavy-duty techs spend part of their career on rotation at a mine or oil sands site: two weeks on, two weeks off, flights and camp paid. The pay is the best in the trade and you get half the year off. The trade-off is missing birthdays, 12-hour days and a camp bed.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Shop days start around 7am: scheduled service on excavators and loaders, rebuilding a hydraulic pump, replacing a final drive. Field days you load the service truck and drive to a job site or quarry where a machine is down, diagnose it in the mud or snow, and fix it on the spot. Parts get lifted with cranes, not hands. Twelve-hour days on rotation sites are normal.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Oil sands haul trucks like the Caterpillar 797 carry around 360 tonnes per load and stand taller than a two-storey house. A single tire costs more than a new car. Heavy-duty techs keep them running.
Finning, founded in Vancouver in 1933, is the world's largest Caterpillar dealer. Toromont covers Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Atlantic Canada and Nunavut. Both run big apprentice programs.
You cannot tow a 100-tonne excavator to the shop. Field service trucks carry a crane, air compressor, welder and thousands of dollars of tools so the tech can fix it where it sits.
A modern excavator has dozens of sensors and controllers. Half of diagnosis now happens with a laptop plugged into the machine.
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.