Parks, streets, campuses and the land around buildings. A design degree, two years of practice and a four-part exam.
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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 $85,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $47,000 at the lower end to about $171,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
6 to 9 years after high school, on the usual route.
$20,000 to $50,000 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
$85,000
Lower end
$47,000
Upper end
$171,000
Job Bank's national median is $40.87 an hour, about $85,000 a year at 40 hours a week. The lower end is $22.53 an hour and the upper end $82.05. The range covers everyone in the group. Municipal parks departments pay steady, pensioned wages.
$46.87 an hour
Alberta, about $97,000 a year at 40 hours a week (Job Bank)
Ontario is close behind at $45.76 an hour and British Columbia at $44.32. Quebec's median is the lowest published, at $34.62. Government jobs come with a pension.
Roughly, all in
$20,000 to $50,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
You need one accredited degree, not two, so these numbers cover a three or four year BLA (Bachelor of Landscape Architecture) rather than a bachelor's followed by an MLA (Master of Landscape Architecture). The low end is the 3 year bachelor's at Université de Montréal at the Quebec resident rate, about $4,500 a year, with modest software and model making supplies. The high end is 4 years at Guelph or Dalhousie, about $9,500 a year, fuller supplies, intern association dues and the LARE (Landscape Architect Registration Examination), whose four sections are charged in US dollars. If your first degree was in something else, add two or three years of master's tuition on top.
You only need one degree, not two, unless your bachelor's was in something else.
Health and dental
Standard at most firms and every municipality.
Pension
Defined-benefit plans in municipal and provincial parks jobs.
Time outdoors
Site visits and planting checks are part of the job, not a perk on paper.
Professional fees paid
Many employers cover association dues and exam costs.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
One degree, two years of supervised work, a four-part exam, then registration.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Biology, geography, visual arts and math. Get a summer job with a landscaping crew or a parks department.
Degree
3 to 7 years
Either a 4-year BLA (bachelor of landscape architecture) at Guelph or Dalhousie, a 3 year bachelor's in French at Université de Montréal, or any bachelor's followed by a 2 to 3 year MLA (master of landscape architecture) at Guelph, Toronto, UBC (University of British Columbia), Manitoba or Université de Montréal.
Intern or associate
About 2 years
Join your provincial association as an intern and work under a full member. Log your experience.
LARE (Landscape Architect Registration Examination)
1 to 2 years
Four computer-based sections, taken at a testing centre or online with a remote proctor. To register from Canada you must be an intern or member of a provincial association.
Full membership
After the exam
Apply to your provincial association, such as the OALA (Ontario Association of Landscape Architects). Some provinces add a short exam on local law.
Biology
Plants, soils, ecosystems.
Geography
The closest school subject to the job.
Visual arts
Drawing and composition for your portfolio.
Math
Grading, drainage and budgets are all numbers.
English
Reports and public presentations.
Anyone can design a garden, but outside Quebec only full members of a provincial association can call themselves landscape architects. In Ontario that is the OALA (Ontario Association of Landscape Architects). In Quebec the AAPQ (Association des architectes paysagistes du Québec) is an association, not a professional order, and it grants the title architecte paysagiste agréé (certified landscape architect). Each province has its own association under the CSLA (Canadian Society of Landscape Architects), and full members move between provinces through a reciprocity agreement. Most public projects and senior jobs require the title, so nearly everyone gets it.
Only a handful of accredited programs in Canada.
Ontario
Guelph (accredited bachelor's, plus a master's), Toronto (master's).
Quebec
Université de Montréal, bachelor's and master's in French.
Atlantic Canada
Dalhousie in Truro, Nova Scotia: a bachelor's that takes students from high school and is a candidate for accreditation.
West
UBC (University of British Columbia) and Manitoba, both master's.
In Quebec the title comes from an association, not a professional order, and the bachelor's degree is taught in French at Université de Montréal.
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
Art, science and geography all help. Start a sketchbook of parks, streets and gardens.
Pre-university DEC (Diploma of College Studies)
2 years
2 years at a CEGEP (public college). Université de Montréal selects on college grades alone. In 2026 the lowest admitted R score (cote R) was 24.4.
Bachelor's in landscape architecture
3 years
90 credits over 3 years at Université de Montréal, in French. Tuition is $2,254.42 a term of 15 credits for Quebec residents (2025 to 2026).
Intern member of the AAPQ (Association des architectes paysagistes du Québec)
After graduating
The Quebec association of landscape architects. Your hours only count once you register as an intern member.
Log your hours
About 2 to 3 years
3,900 hours after Université de Montréal's current 90 credit bachelor's, 5,400 after an older 3 year degree, fewer after a master's.
Three exams, then certified
During the internship
Project stages, laws and regulations, and ethics. Pass all three to become an architecte paysagiste agréé (certified landscape architect).
Things you don't need, but that help.
Stormwater and green infrastructure
Cities are paying to manage rain with plants and soil instead of pipes.
GIS (geographic information systems)
Mapping software. Opens planning and environmental work.
LEED (a green building rating system) accreditation
Asked for on many public and institutional projects.
Certified arborist
Through the ISA (International Society of Arboriculture). Tree work is part of every urban project.
Playground safety inspector
A short certification that municipalities value.
Plant knowledge
Knowing 200 species by sight is a real advantage. Start with the ones on your street.
A summer with a landscaping crew or nursery
Teaches how things are actually built and planted.
Drawing and software
Sketching, AutoCAD, Rhino and Adobe before you start.
A driver's licence
Sites are rarely on a subway line.
Many landscape architects end up in municipal parks, planning or transit departments. The trade: fewer late nights, a pension, set hours and influence over public land, but less pure design and a lot of approvals and public meetings. Consulting firms are the reverse. Plenty of people do a decade of each.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Morning: a grading plan for a new park, checking that every slope drains somewhere sensible. Late morning: a call with the civil engineer about a storm pond. Afternoon: a site visit to check the plants match the spec and walk the job with the contractor. End of day: renderings for a public meeting next week. Seasons matter. Spring and summer are site heavy; winter is drawing heavy.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Frederick Todd trained for four years from 1896 in the Olmsted firm near Boston, then moved to Montreal in 1900. He is called the first truly resident landscape architect in Canada.
The LARE (Landscape Architect Registration Examination) is set by CLARB (the Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards), an American council. It is fully computerized and you can write it at a testing centre or online.
Dalhousie's Bachelor of Landscape Architecture in Truro takes students straight from high school with a 70% minimum average. It is a candidate for accreditation by the CSLA (Canadian Society of Landscape Architects).
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Architecture and planning first, then the rest of the field. See every career in architecture and design.
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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