Take the X-rays and scans, or deliver radiation treatment for cancer. Two to three years of school and a national exam.
Click through it
Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Typical
$82,000
New grad
$65,000
Senior or specialist
$100,000
Hospital jobs are unionized with a grid. MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and radiation therapy usually sit at the higher end. On-call and overtime add real money in imaging.
$32 to $38 an hour
About $65,000 to $76,000 a year at full-time hours
Alberta, Ontario and BC start near the top. Private clinics that do only X-rays often pay a bit less than hospitals.
$45 to $50 an hour
Roughly $95,000 or more with call and premiums
Technologists who cover on-call for CT (computed tomography) at night and on weekends can add $10,000 or more a year in callback pay.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is a two year accredited college program at the cheaper rate, uniforms and immunizations, the national certification exam with its proctoring fee, and one year of provincial registration. The high end is a three year or joint college and university program at the top of the range with a fuller kit. Provincial registration of 400 to 700 a year continues for your whole career. Clinical placements are long and unpaid, so plan for months of study with no income.
Roughly $12,000 to $30,000 in tuition. Some programs are joint college and university degrees, which cost more and take 4 years.
Defined-benefit pension
HOOPP (the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan) in Ontario hospitals. Similar plans elsewhere.
Extended health and dental
Shift premiums and on-call pay
Imaging runs 24 hours in big hospitals.
Paid vacation and sick days
Typically 3 to 4 weeks to start.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Pick a discipline early. Each has its own program.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Grade 12 physics, biology, math and English. Chemistry helps.
Choose a discipline
Before you apply
Radiological (X-ray and CT (computed tomography)), MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), nuclear medicine, or radiation therapy. Radiological is the biggest and the usual starting point.
Accredited program
2 to 4 years
A 2 to 3 year college diploma or a 3 to 4 year joint degree. Physics, anatomy, patient care and radiation safety, then months of full-time unpaid clinical placement.
Write the CAMRT (Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologists) exam
After graduation
The national certification exam, one per discipline.
Register with your provincial regulator
A few weeks
In Ontario that is the CMRITO (College of Medical Radiation and Imaging Technologists of Ontario).
Physics
Required almost everywhere. Radiation is physics.
Biology
Required. Anatomy is the daily work.
Math
Dose calculations, especially in radiation therapy.
Chemistry
Needed for nuclear medicine.
English
You explain procedures to nervous people all day.
Programs are accredited nationally. Some examples:
Michener Institute (with University of Toronto), Mohawk College (with McMaster), Fanshawe College
Ontario
BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology)
British Columbia
NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology), SAIT (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology)
Alberta
Saskatchewan Polytechnic
Saskatchewan
Dalhousie
Nova Scotia
Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador each have a regulator that registers medical radiation technologists, for example the CMRITO (College of Medical Radiation and Imaging Technologists of Ontario). Elsewhere, employers require CAMRT (Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologists) certification. British Columbia brings in regulation in late 2027. Because the exam is national, moving provinces is simple. You register in the discipline you trained in. Adding a second one means more school and another exam.
Things you don't need, but that help.
CT (computed tomography)
Most X-ray technologists cross-train into it within a few years. Opens on-call pay.
MRI (magnetic resonance imaging)
A post-diploma certificate and a separate exam. Higher pay and constant demand.
Mammography and interventional radiology
Breast screening, or assisting with catheter procedures in a sterile suite.
PET (positron emission tomography)
Advanced nuclear medicine imaging for cancer. Few people trained.
Advanced practice radiation therapist
A master's-level role with more clinical decision-making and pay to match.
Volunteer in a hospital
Positioning frightened, injured people is half the skill.
Comfort with physics and computers
Modern scanners are software.
Fitness
You lift and move patients and heavy equipment.
Calm under pressure
Trauma X-rays happen fast.
Scanner companies hire experienced technologists as applications specialists who train hospital staff on new machines. It means a lot of travel, regular hours and roughly $90,000 to $120,000. Many technologists move into it after 5 to 10 years on the floor.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Eight or 12 hours. In X-ray you move between the emergency department, the wards with a portable machine, and the main room, positioning a broken wrist one minute and a chest X-ray on a ventilated patient in the ICU (intensive care unit) the next. In CT (computed tomography) you scan strokes and trauma against the clock. Radiation therapists see the same cancer patients every weekday for weeks, lining them up to the millimetre and delivering a planned dose.
The good
The hard parts
Like the field but not this exact job?
Things people don't tell you.
In 1951, teams in Saskatoon and London, Ontario built the world's first cobalt-60 units to treat cancer with radiation. Radiation therapists have been delivering treatment in Canada ever since.
MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) uses no radiation, but the magnet is strong enough to pull an oxygen tank across the room. Technologists screen every person and object that enters, every time.
Medical radiation technologist covers X-ray and CT (computed tomography), MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), nuclear medicine and radiation therapy. Each has its own program and exam. Most people never work in more than two.
Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X-rays in 1895 and won the first Nobel Prize in physics in 1901. Within months, doctors were using them to find bullets and broken bones.
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.