Run excavators, dozers and graders that move earth for roads, pipelines and buildings. A short training path and a Job Bank median of about $68,000 a year, but seasonal.
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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 2,260 hours on the job, even at the minimum wage you would earn at least $40,567 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 2,260 hours on the job, even at the minimum wage you would earn at least $40,567 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 2,260 hours on the job, even at the minimum wage you would earn at least $40,567 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 $68,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $50,000 at the lower end to about $94,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
1 to 2 years, on the usual route, and you are paid while you train from the first day.
$250 to $15,150 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 Quebec. 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
$68,000
Lower end
$50,000
Upper end
$94,000
Job Bank's figures for heavy equipment operators across Canada (2023 to 2024) are $24.00 an hour at the low end, $32.50 median and $45.00 at the high end, about $50,000, $68,000 and $94,000 a year at 40 hours a week.
$29.25 an hour
Average starting wage for heavy equipment operators in Alberta, about $60,800 a year
From the 2023 Alberta Wage and Salary Survey, published by alis, Alberta's career information site. Many operators start as a construction labourer and earn their way into the seat.
$43.73 an hour
The median in the Northwest Territories, about $91,000 a year
Among the provinces Quebec leads at $36.00, then British Columbia at $35.75. Ontario's median is $32.00 (Job Bank, 2023 to 2024). Camp jobs on rotation add long shifts and overtime, so yearly pay can beat what 40 hours a week would give.
Roughly, all in
$250 to $15,150
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is a registered apprenticeship or a union or employer program, where the in school blocks at $400 to $800 each are often paid out of a union training fund, leaving you a pair of boots, since the first certificate exam try is free in Ontario once your apprenticeship is complete. The high end is a private heavy equipment school, a four to twelve week course costing $8,000 to $15,000 that you pay for yourself. Be careful with private schools: some are excellent, but a short course certificate does not guarantee anyone will hire you, while a union or employer program is cheaper and puts you on a crew. Apprentices can use the Canada Apprentice Loan and EI (Employment Insurance) during school blocks. The federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant closed in March 2025, so check the Government of Canada apprenticeship page for what is open now.
Be careful with private schools. Some are excellent, but a certificate from a short course does not guarantee a job. A union or employer program is cheaper and comes with a crew. 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 such as 793 in Ontario, 955 in Alberta and 115 in BC (British Columbia) represent many operators on highway and heavy civil work.
Overtime at premium rates
Road building runs long days while the weather holds.
Camp, travel and living-out allowances
On mines and remote projects.
EI (Employment Insurance) in the off season
Many operators are laid off for part of the winter and collect it.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Shorter than most trades. Two routes: a registered apprenticeship, or a short course plus seat time.
High school diploma and a driver's licence
Grade 12
Grade 12. A clean driving record matters. A DZ (truck and air brake) licence helps because operators often float their own machine to site.
Get on a crew
Months
Start as a labourer with a road builder, excavation company or municipality, or apply to the union hall. Seat time is earned by showing up and being trusted.
Train
1 to 2 years
Either register an apprenticeship with your provincial trades authority (Ontario's excavator apprenticeship is 2,560 hours, 300 of them in school, roughly a year and a half), or take a private course of 4 to 12 weeks and learn the rest on the job.
Certify
After your hours
Heavy Equipment Operator (Dozer), (Excavator) and (Tractor-Loader-Backhoe) are each Red Seal trades in Ontario, Quebec, the Atlantic provinces and Nunavut. Certification is optional, but some union and government employers ask for it.
Math
Grades, slopes, volumes of material and reading survey stakes.
Shop, auto or technology classes
You will do daily inspections and basic maintenance on your machine.
Geography or earth science
Soil types, drainage and frost matter every day.
Heavy equipment operator is a voluntary trade in Ontario and in most provinces. In Quebec it is a compulsory trade on construction sites, where you need a CCQ (Commission de la construction du Québec) certificate. Elsewhere no licence is legally required to run an excavator or dozer on a private site, though employers must train you and you need a driver's licence to move machines on the road. Where it is offered, Red Seal certification proves your skill, and some employers ask for it. Machines like cranes and forklifts have their own separate rules.
In Quebec construction the classroom comes first, as a vocational diploma, and the work is split into two trades: heavy equipment operator and shovel operator.
Secondary III courses
From age 16
The DEP (Diploma of Vocational Studies) in Construction Equipment Operation needs Secondary III language of instruction, second language and math, and you must be 16. A high school diploma also gets you in.
DEP in Construction Equipment Operation (5220)
About 9 months
1,095 hours. Offered in French in Lévis, Les Cèdres and Sainte-Anne-des-Monts. The English version (5720) runs at the Anchor vocational centre of the Eastern Shores school board, in the Gaspé region.
Apprentice competency certificate
Weeks
Issued by the CCQ (Commission de la construction du Québec) once you show the DEP and an employer registered with the CCQ guarantees you at least 150 hours over 3 months.
Pick your trade
At hiring
Heavy equipment operator covers bulldozers, loader-backhoes, graders, spreaders and rollers. Shovel operator covers excavators, backhoes and similar digging machines. The same DEP leads to both.
Apprenticeship, then the exam
Set by the CCQ
Paid site work as an apprentice for the hours the CCQ (Commission de la construction du Québec) sets, then the provincial qualification exam. Pass it and you become a journeyperson (compagnon).
Red Seal, if you want it
Any time after
Quebec takes part in the Red Seal for Dozer, Excavator and Tractor-Loader-Backhoe. Quebec calls them heavy equipment operator and power shovel operator.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Grader operator
The hardest machine to run well. The grader puts the final shape on a road before it is paved.
GPS (Global Positioning System) machine control
Modern excavators and dozers follow a 3D design model. Operators who understand the screens and the survey data get the newest machines.
Mining haul truck and shovel
Enormous machines at open-pit mines, usually on long rotations.
Pipeline sideboom and rock truck
Specialty machines on pipeline and northern projects.
Mechanical sense
Operators who spot a problem before it breaks the machine keep their jobs.
Comfort working alone for hours
It is you, the machine and a radio.
Willingness to travel
Camp, mining and pipeline work is often far from a city.
A used mini excavator or skid steer costs about the price of a pickup truck. Some operators buy one and rent themselves out with it to builders and landscapers by the hour. It is a real business with real risks: payments on the machine continue through the winter whether it is working or not.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
On site at 6:30 for a walk-around inspection: fluids, tracks, hoses. Then into the seat. On a subdivision you dig basements and trenches to the stakes the surveyor set, watching for gas and water lines. On a highway job you push and shape fill for kilometres, checking the grade with the screen or a laser. Dust, noise and a lot of coffee. Ten-hour days in summer, because winter is coming.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Red Seal treats dozer, excavator and tractor-loader-backhoe as three separate trades. All three are Red Seal only in Ontario, Quebec, the four Atlantic provinces and Nunavut.
In Ontario, buried gas, power and water lines must be located before anyone digs. Asking the Ontario Dig Authority (formerly Ontario One Call) is free, and you ask at least 5 business days ahead.
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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