Water, gas and drainage in every building. Paid apprenticeship, licensed in about 5 years.
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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 8,280 hours on the job, even at the minimum wage you would earn at least $148,626 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 $71,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $44,000 at the lower end to about $96,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
4 to 5 years, on the usual route, and you are paid while you train from the first day.
$1,800 to $6,400 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, New Brunswick, 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
$71,000
Lower end
$44,000
Upper end
$96,000
Job Bank's national median is $34 an hour, about $71,000 a year at 40 hours a week. The lower end ($21) and upper end ($46) are the bottom and top of the range for everyone in the group.
$44.82 an hour
The Job Bank median in Nunavut, the highest in Canada
Quebec is the highest province at $40, Ontario is $32.50, and New Brunswick is lowest at $26. Apprentices earn a share of the journeyperson rate that rises with each level. In Ontario that share is agreed with your sponsor, never below the minimum wage.
Roughly, all in
$1,800 to $6,400
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The apprenticeship is paid work, so the cost is classroom blocks, tools and the exam, not tuition for a program. The low end is an employer who covers some of the three or four in school blocks and a tool kit you build up slowly over the four years. The high end is paying for every block yourself and buying a full kit at once, plus the certification exam at the end, free on your first try in Ontario once your apprenticeship is complete. The Canada Apprentice Loan charges no interest and Employment Insurance is available during school blocks, so most plumbers finish with no debt.
Most apprentices finish with no debt.
Union pension and benefits
Strong in commercial and industrial work.
Overtime at premium rates
Company van and phone
Common for service plumbers.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
An apprenticeship: mostly on the job, with short college blocks.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Math and shop classes help. Some provinces let you start through a high school apprenticeship program.
Find an employer to sponsor you
Weeks to months
Plumbing companies, mechanical contractors, or a union hiring hall. A pre-apprenticeship program makes this easier.
Register as an apprentice
Days
With your provincial trades body.
Work and study
4 to 5 years
9,000 hours in Ontario (about 8,280 on the job plus 720 in class over three blocks). Other provinces run 4 periods of roughly 1,500 to 1,800 hours each.
Certificate of Qualification and Red Seal
After your hours
Pass the exam. Red Seal lets you work in any province.
Math
Pipe sizing, slopes and pressure calculations.
Physics
Water and gas behave by rules you will need to know.
Shop or technology classes
Plumbing is a compulsory trade in Ontario, Alberta, Quebec, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island: you must be a registered apprentice or a licensed plumber to do the work. In BC (British Columbia), Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador and the territories the certificate is voluntary, though gas work needs its own licence. Plumber is a Red Seal trade in every province and territory. Gas fitting is a separate licence, and many plumbers add it because it means more billable work.
In Quebec you take a vocational diploma before you start, and the construction commission, not an apprenticeship office, decides who can work on a site.
Secondary IV courses
From age 16
The DEP (Diploma of Vocational Studies) needs Secondary IV language of instruction, second language and math, or a high school diploma. You can start at 16.
DEP in Plumbing and Heating
About 14 to 17 months
Program 5333 in French, 1,680 hours. In English as program 5833 at the Verdun Adult and Career Centre, the Construc-Plus Vocational Centre and a centre in Lennoxville.
Apprentice competency certificate
Weeks
From the CCQ (Commission de la construction du Québec). You need the DEP, an employer who guarantees 150 hours of work within 3 months, the 30 hour site safety course and a $100 fee.
Work as an apprentice
About 3 years
Four periods of 2,000 hours, 8,000 in all. DEP hours count one and a half times, so the diploma covers 2,520 hours and about 5,480 hours of paid site work remain.
Qualification exam
End of apprenticeship
3 hours, 61 questions, 60% to pass, in French or English. You get the Quebec plumbing code to use during the exam. Pass and you become a journeyperson.
Red Seal
Optional
Quebec is part of the Red Seal program for this trade, under the title Pipe Fitter (Plumber). It makes it simpler to work in other provinces.
The CCQ (Commission de la construction du Québec) calls the trade tuyauteur (pipe fitter), with two specialties: plumbing and heating. Collective agreements set hourly pay at $23.93 to $50.87 (August 2026 rates), and journeyworkers who worked 500 hours or more averaged $89,107 in 2025, according to the CCQ trade sheet. To run your own plumbing business you must join the CMMTQ (Corporation des maîtres mécaniciens en tuyauterie du Québec, the Quebec master pipe-mechanics corporation), which issues the contractor licence.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Gasfitter licence (G2 or G1 in Ontario, B or A elsewhere)
Lets you install furnaces, water heaters and gas lines.
Steamfitter or pipefitter
Industrial pipe work.
Backflow prevention certification
Required for testing commercial systems.
Master plumber licence
Needed to run your own contracting business in most provinces.
Pre-apprenticeship college program
A semester that gets you sponsored faster.
Driver's licence
Required by nearly every employer.
Customer service skills
Service plumbers spend the day in people's homes.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
On new construction: roughing in drains, vents and water lines before the walls go up, then installing fixtures at the end. On service: driving between calls to fix leaks, clear drains, replace water heaters and diagnose problems. Commercial and industrial work means bigger pipe, more math and more crew.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Job Bank's projection for 2024 to 2033 expects a moderate risk of a labour shortage for plumbers across Canada. About 59,900 people worked as plumbers in 2023, and 19% were 50 or older.
Plumber is a Red Seal trade, so a certified plumber can move from Halifax to Calgary without re-qualifying.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Plumbing, pipes and HVAC 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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