Help people do the everyday things illness or injury took away: dressing, driving, working, living at home.
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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 $96,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $75,000 at the lower end to about $114,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
6 years after high school, on the usual route.
$49,000 to $78,000 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, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec and Saskatchewan. Elsewhere there is none to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Good 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
$96,000
Lower end
$75,000
Upper end
$114,000
Job Bank's median is $46 an hour, about $96,000 a year at 40 hours a week. The lower end ($36.17) and upper end ($55) are the bottom and top of the wage range for everyone in the group. Hospital OTs (occupational therapists) are usually paid on union grids, like physiotherapists.
$50 an hour
The median in British Columbia, about $104,000 a year
Alberta is next at $48.08, and Prince Edward Island is the lowest at $39.46. Hospitals and home care agencies hire many new grads.
Roughly, all in
$49,000 to $78,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is a four year undergraduate degree and a two year master of science in occupational therapy at the cheaper end of Canadian tuition, plus the NOTCE (the national occupational therapy certification exam) and your first year of provincial college registration. The high end is the same six years at higher tuition. The master's degree is required, so there is no shorter route into this job. Registration is an annual fee for as long as you practise, and clinical placements are unpaid.
Total tuition around $48,000 to $76,000. Similar to physio, and slightly less competitive to enter.
Pension
HOOPP (the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan) or a provincial equivalent in hospitals and home care.
Union grid and extended health
In public jobs.
Daytime, weekday hours
Few nights or weekends compared with nursing.
Part-time and contract options
Easy to mix a hospital job with private work, such as car insurance assessments in Ontario.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A bachelor's degree, then a 2-year professional master's.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Biology, English, a social science. OT (occupational therapy) programs like both science and people skills.
Bachelor's degree
4 years
Any degree with the prerequisites, usually anatomy, physiology, psychology and statistics. Kinesiology, psychology and health science are common.
MScOT (master of science in occupational therapy)
2 years
Two years including about 1,000 hours of fieldwork in hospitals, community and mental health settings. Programs run at universities across Canada.
NOTCE (national occupational therapy certification exam)
After graduation
A written national exam run by CAOT (the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists). Required in every province except Quebec.
Register with your provincial college
A few weeks
For example the College of Occupational Therapists of Ontario. Then you can use the title.
Biology
Anatomy and the nervous system come up constantly.
English
You write a lot of reports and care plans.
Psychology or social sciences
Mental health is a big part of the field.
Math
Statistics shows up in the degree.
You need a licence to work as an occupational therapist in every province, though none of the three territories has one. You register with your provincial college after passing the NOTCE (national occupational therapy certification exam). Registration moves between provinces with paperwork. Quebec is the exception: its order, the OEQ (Ordre des ergothérapeutes du Québec), gives Quebec graduates a permit with no exam, and the work is in French.
Accredited programs across Canada. A few examples:
University of Toronto, McMaster, Western, Queen's, University of Ottawa
Ontario
UBC (University of British Columbia)
British Columbia
University of Alberta, University of Manitoba
Prairies
McGill, Université de Montréal, Laval, Dalhousie
Quebec and Atlantic Canada
In Quebec you start the occupational therapy degree straight after CEGEP (public college). A bachelor's and a master's run back to back, with no national exam.
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
With the math and science courses your CEGEP (public college) program asks for.
DEC (Diploma of College Studies)
2 to 3 years
From a CEGEP (public college). Montréal ranks CEGEP applicants 70% on grades and 30% on the Casper test.
Bachelor's in occupational therapy
3 years
3 years, 90 credits. In English at McGill (BSc in Rehabilitation Science), in French at Université de Montréal and other French universities. On its own it does not let you practise.
Professional master's
1 to 2 years
Montréal's is 1 year (45 credits). McGill's MSc (Applied) is 63 credits over 5 terms with 1,000 hours of fieldwork.
OEQ (Ordre des ergothérapeutes du Québec) permit
After the master's
The Quebec order of occupational therapists issues your permit. Quebec is the only province with no NOTCE (national certification exam), but you must show you are fluent in French.
The R-score is the CEGEP ranking score universities use to compare applicants.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Certified hand therapist (CHT)
An extra exam after 3 years of practice; hand clinics and surgeons look for it.
Driver rehabilitation
Assessing whether people with injuries or dementia can still drive. Specialized and in short supply.
Mental health
Hospitals and community teams.
Ergonomics and return-to-work
Insurers, WSIB (Ontario's Workplace Safety and Insurance Board) and employers pay for this.
Volunteer with seniors, kids with disabilities or a rehab unit
Shadow an OT (occupational therapist)
Most programs want observation hours and ask about them.
Practical hands: building, sewing, fixing
OTs (occupational therapists) adapt equipment and homes.
Patience
Many OTs (occupational therapists) work outside hospitals: visiting homes, assessing stairs and bathrooms, ordering wheelchairs and lifts. You drive a lot, work alone, and see the real conditions people live in. Jobs often come with a car allowance.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Hospital: assess a stroke patient's ability to dress and make a meal, fit a wheelchair, run a memory screen, then argue for a safe discharge at the team meeting. Community: 4 or 5 home visits across the city, measuring doorways, testing bath rails, teaching a caregiver. Evenings are for reports.
The good
The hard parts
Like the field but not this exact job?
Things people don't tell you.
Job Bank counted about 22,700 occupational therapists in Canada in 2023, and only 18% were 50 or older. It rates the outlook good in most provinces.
Every province uses the NOTCE (national occupational therapy certification exam) except Quebec, where the OEQ (Ordre des ergothérapeutes du Québec) gives its own graduates a permit with no exam.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Therapy and rehab first, then the rest of the field. See every career in health.
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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