Keep excavators, haul trucks and loaders running at mines and job sites. Job Bank's median is about $77,000 a year.
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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 6,280 hours on the job, even at the minimum wage you would earn at least $112,726 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 $77,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $50,000 at the lower end to about $114,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
4 to 5 years, on the usual route, and you are paid while you train from the first day.
$3,800 to $13,800 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 and Quebec. Elsewhere there is none 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
$77,000
Lower end
$50,000
Upper end
$114,000
Job Bank's figures for heavy-duty equipment mechanics across Canada (2023 to 2024) are $23.87 an hour at the low end, $37.12 median and $55.00 at the high end, about $50,000, $77,000 and $114,000 a year at 40 hours a week.
$32.20 an hour
Average starting wage for heavy-duty equipment mechanics in Alberta, about $67,000 a year
From the 2023 Alberta Wage and Salary Survey, published by alis, Alberta's career information site. The top-paid averaged $49.71 an hour.
$53.00 an hour
The median in Nunavut, about $110,000 a year
The Northwest Territories is close at $52.22. Among the provinces British Columbia leads at $45.00, then Alberta at $42.00. Ontario's median is $35.00 (Job Bank, 2023 to 2024). Mine and oil sands rotations add camp pay, flights and overtime on top.
Roughly, all in
$3,800 to $13,800
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 (Ontario pays the Level 1 classroom fee for classes from January 2026) and your own tools. The first certificate exam try is free in Ontario once your apprenticeship is complete. 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 lends up to $4,000 per block interest-free, 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. 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.
Pension
Mines, municipalities and unionized dealers, often a defined-benefit plan, one that pays a set amount every month for life.
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
3.5 to 4 years
Ontario requires 7,000 hours, about three and a half years: 6,280 on the job plus 720 in school, in three levels. Alberta runs four years with an 8-week school period in each.
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.
Alberta treats heavy equipment technician as a compulsory trade: you must be a registered apprentice or certified. Quebec requires a certificate on construction sites. In Ontario and the other provinces and territories the trade is voluntary, but employers and dealers expect the Certificate of Qualification. Either way, the Red Seal endorsement is what lets you move between provinces without re-testing.
Ontario
Centennial, Conestoga, Cambrian in Sudbury, Northern College in Timmins.
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.
On Quebec construction sites you need a vocational diploma and a construction commission card. Everywhere else the trade is not regulated, though a certificate is available.
Secondary IV courses
From age 16
The DEP (Diploma of Vocational Studies) in Construction Equipment Mechanics needs Secondary IV language of instruction, second language and math, and you must be 16. A high school diploma also gets you in.
DEP in Construction Equipment Mechanics (5331)
About 17 months
1,800 hours at public vocational centres across Quebec, taught in French. The English version (5831) is listed only at the Kativik school board's vocational centre in Nunavik.
Construction sites: apprentice certificate
Weeks
The CCQ (Commission de la construction du Québec) issues it once you show the DEP and an employer registered with the CCQ guarantees you at least 150 hours over 3 months.
Construction sites: apprenticeship and exam
6,000 hours
3 periods of 2,000 hours, 6,000 in all, then the provincial qualification exam. Pass it and you become a journeyperson (compagnon).
Mines, forestry and other employers
2 to 3 years
Off construction sites the trade is not regulated. Your employer can enrol you in the Quebec government's workplace apprenticeship, about 2 to 3 years with no experience, leading to a certificate.
Red Seal, if you want it
Any time after
Quebec takes part in the Red Seal for this trade, called Heavy Equipment Mechanic. With a Quebec certificate you apply to sit the exam: 100 to 150 questions, 4 hours, 70% to pass.
Figures from the CCQ (Quebec construction commission) trade sheet. The averages include premiums, overtime and paid holidays under the agreements. Construction is a small corner of this trade in Quebec: Québec.ca counts about 9,000 heavy equipment mechanic jobs in 2024, mostly outside construction, in sectors such as mining, forestry and farm machinery.
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 at remote sites
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. Long shifts and overtime add to the hourly wage, 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.
Québec.ca counts about 9,000 heavy equipment mechanic jobs in Quebec in 2024, but only 397 mechanics worked on construction sites in 2025. Most of the others work in sectors such as mining, forestry and farm machinery.
On Quebec construction sites in 2025, 27% of journeyperson heavy equipment mechanics were 55 or older. Among apprentices, 61% were under 30.
In 2025, 85% of the hours these mechanics worked on Quebec construction sites were on roads, bridges and other civil engineering jobs. None were on home building.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Vehicles and equipment 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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