Get people moving again after injury, surgery and illness. A tough master's to get into, then steady work everywhere.
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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 $62,000 at the lower end to about $117,000 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.
$55,000 to $83,000 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, Saskatchewan and Yukon. 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
$96,000
Lower end
$62,000
Upper end
$117,000
Job Bank's national median is $46.15 an hour, about $96,000 a year at 40 hours a week. The lower end ($30) and upper end ($56.21) are the bottom and top of the range for everyone in the group. Private clinic physios are usually paid a share of what they bill, so busy ones earn more and slow weeks earn less.
$50 an hour
The Job Bank median in BC (British Columbia), the highest of any province
Quebec is $48.08 and Ontario $46. Manitoba is lowest at $39.93. Hospitals, public rehab centres and private clinics all hire new grads.
Roughly, all in
$55,000 to $83,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
Both ends are the same path: a four year undergraduate degree, then a two year master of science in physiotherapy, then the national licensing exam at around 2,500 dollars and the first year of provincial college registration. The low end is cheaper universities throughout, the high end the most expensive programs. Quebec runs combined bachelor and master programs that come in below the rest of the country. Registration fees of 500 to 800 dollars repeat every year once you are working.
Total tuition around $52,000 to $80,000. Quebec runs cheaper combined bachelor-master programs.
Pension
HOOPP (the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan) or a provincial equivalent in hospitals.
Union pay grid and extended health
In public settings.
Flexible private-sector schedules
Part-time and split weeks are normal.
Being your own boss
Many physios work as self-employed contractors or open a clinic.
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, chemistry, physics, math. You need high marks for the whole path.
Bachelor's degree
4 years
Kinesiology, health science or biology are common. Programs look at your GPA in the last 2 years and want it high, usually 3.7 or better on a 4.0 scale.
MScPT (master of science in physiotherapy)
2 years
Two intense years with 1,000 or more hours of clinical placements across hospitals, private clinics and community care. Canada has only a small number of programs.
CPTE (Canadian Physiotherapy Examination)
After graduation
Since 2026 there is one national exam, run by CAPR (the Canadian Alliance of Physiotherapy Regulators). It has a written section and an oral, scenario-based section with a single pass mark. It replaced the old PCE (physiotherapy competency exam) and the separate provincial clinical exams.
Register with your provincial college
A few weeks
For example the College of Physiotherapists of Ontario. Then you can use the title physiotherapist.
Biology
Anatomy is the foundation of everything.
Physics
Movement is physics.
Chemistry
A prerequisite for most science degrees.
Math and English
Both required for admission almost everywhere.
You need a licence to work as a physiotherapist in every province and in Yukon. The Northwest Territories and Nunavut have none. Outside Quebec you register with a provincial college after passing the CPTE (Canadian Physiotherapy Examination). Registration transfers between provinces with paperwork. You do not need a doctor's referral to see a physiotherapist anywhere in Canada, though some insurance plans still ask for one.
Canada has a small number of accredited programs. 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, University of Saskatchewan
Prairies
McGill, Université de Montréal, Laval, Dalhousie
Quebec and Atlantic Canada
In Quebec you go to university straight from CEGEP (public college) and finish a combined bachelor's and master's in about 4 to 5 years.
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
With Secondary V math (Technical and Scientific, or Science option), chemistry and physics. These are the entry courses for the CEGEP (public college) science program.
Science DEC (Diploma of College Studies)
2 years
A 2 year CEGEP (public college) program (200.B1), offered in English at Dawson and the other English colleges. Montréal also accepts the 3 year Physiotherapy Technology DEC.
Bachelor's in physiotherapy
3 years
3 years. In English only at McGill, in French elsewhere. Admission is competitive: Montréal uses the R-score (the CEGEP ranking score) and the Casper test.
Professional master's
1 to 2 years
The bachelor's alone does not let you practise. The master's adds 1 to 2 years and more than 1,000 hours of clinical placements in total.
Join the order
About 10 business days
Apply to the Ordre professionnel de la physiothérapie du Québec (the Quebec order of physiotherapy): $125 admission fee, yearly dues and insurance. You must show French. A Quebec high school diploma counts.
Montréal's lowest admitted R-score (the CEGEP ranking score) for fall 2026 was 33.975. Casper counts for 30% of its selection.
Quebec also licenses the technologue en physiothérapie (physiotherapy technologist), who works with physiotherapists to help patients recover. It takes a 3 year Physiotherapy Technology DEC (Diploma of College Studies) (144.A1), offered in English at Dawson, then membership in the same order. It is a faster way into the field, and Montréal accepts it for entry to its physiotherapy bachelor's.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Manual therapy fellowship, FCAMPT (Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Manipulative Physiotherapy)
Years of extra courses and exams; allows spinal manipulation.
Sport physiotherapy diploma
Sideline coverage for teams, up to national and Olympic level.
Pelvic health
A private-clinic niche; courses cost a few thousand dollars.
Acupuncture and dry needling
A common add-on in private clinics.
Volunteer or work in a physio clinic
Most programs require observation hours.
Athletic experience or coaching
Physiotherapist assistant work
A 2-year college diploma, and a paid way to see the job up close.
Comfort with hands-on work
Half the job is touching strangers.
Most private clinics are owned by physiotherapists. A typical path: 3 to 5 years as an associate, then buy in or open a small clinic. You are then paid from the clinic's profit, and you carry rent, staff, marketing and insurance billing.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Private clinic: 30-minute appointments back to back, 12 to 16 patients a day, mostly backs, knees, shoulders and post-surgery rehab. Hands-on treatment, exercise prescription, notes. Hospital: fewer patients, sicker. Getting someone walking the day after a hip replacement, chest physio in intensive care, discharge planning with the team.
The good
The hard parts
Like the field but not this exact job?
Things people don't tell you.
About 38,300 people worked as physiotherapists in Canada in 2023. Job Bank sees a moderate risk of a shortage of them over 2024 to 2033.
Physiotherapy used to be a 4-year undergraduate degree in Canada. Every program outside Quebec is now a 2-year master's on top of a bachelor's, and Quebec programs end with a master's too.
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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