Use games, sport, art and outings as treatment for people recovering from illness, injury or living with disability. A diploma or degree, mostly in hospitals and care homes.
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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 $67,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $46,000 at the lower end to about $103,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
2 to 5 years after high school, on the usual route.
$7,200 to $41,000 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
$67,000
Lower end
$46,000
Upper end
$103,000
Job Bank's national figures for recreational therapists, 2023 to 2024: a median of $32 an hour, about $67,000 a year at 40 hours a week, with a lower end of $22 and an upper end of $49.73 an hour. Job Bank counts them with kinesiologists and other therapy professionals.
$28.93 an hour
Average starting wage, Alberta's 2023 wage survey
The survey covers the whole group recreation therapists belong to, kinesiologists and other therapy professionals, not recreation therapists alone. Long-term care homes hire many diploma graduates.
$42.41 an hour
Average top wage, Alberta's 2023 wage survey
Same survey and the same whole group. Senior hospital and rehab therapists and program managers are the ones near the top.
Roughly, all in
$7,200 to $41,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is a two year college diploma plus the police check, immunizations and first aid a placement requires. The high end is a four year degree plus the CTRS (Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist) exam, which is priced at about 350 US dollars and lands near 500 Canadian. Placements are unpaid and the degree route includes a 560 hour internship, so the real squeeze is the months you cannot earn, not the fees. Association membership adds a small amount each year.
Placements are unpaid. The degree route includes a 14-week internship of at least 560 hours if you want the international certification.
Public-sector pension
Hospitals and municipal or provincial care homes are unionized with a defined-benefit pension, one that pays a set amount every month for life.
Health and dental
Standard in full-time jobs; part-time care-home contracts often have none.
Weekday hours
Most programs run days, with some evenings and weekends for events.
Paid training
Employers often fund dementia care and safety courses.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Two routes: a college diploma for care-home jobs, or a degree for hospitals and certification.
High school
Grade 12
Grade 12 English, plus anything active or creative: physical education, art, music, drama. Volunteer at a care home or with an adaptive sports program.
Diploma or degree
2 to 4 years
A 2-year therapeutic recreation diploma at colleges such as Mohawk, Georgian, Douglas or Red River, or a 4-year degree in therapeutic recreation or recreation and leisure studies at a university such as Waterloo, Brock, Dalhousie or Alberta.
Placements
Built into the program
Unpaid placements in care homes, hospitals or community programs. Degree students do a long final internship.
Professional membership
After graduation
Join your provincial body, such as Therapeutic Recreation Ontario, and apply for its designation. Most Alberta employers require membership in the Alberta association.
Optional certification
After a degree
The CTRS (Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist) credential from NCTRC (National Council for Therapeutic Recreation Certification), a US body, needs a degree, set coursework, a 560-hour internship and an exam.
Physical education
Adapted sport and movement are core tools.
Biology
Aging, disability and how the body heals.
Psychology or family studies
Motivation, mental health and dementia.
Art, music or drama
You will run these programs for people who cannot do them alone.
No province licenses recreation therapists, and anyone can use the title. In practice, employers ask for a therapeutic recreation diploma or degree and membership in the provincial association. Ontario's association runs the R/TRO (Registered Therapeutic Recreation Ontario) designation, and Alberta employers usually require membership in the Alberta Therapeutic Recreation Association. The CTRS (Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist) credential is American and voluntary, but hospitals like it.
Quebec has no licence for this work, and you can start with a 3 year college diploma in recreation as well as a university degree.
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
No specific science or math courses are required for the college recreation program.
Recreation DEC (Diploma of College Studies, 391.A0)
3 years
3 years at a CEGEP (public college). In English, Community Recreation Leadership Training at Dawson, with over 580 hours in three internships, including hospital and therapeutic recreation. In French at several colleges.
Or a university degree
3 years
Concordia's Therapeutic Recreation BA (Bachelor of Arts), in English at the Loyola campus, takes 3 years after CEGEP. In French, the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières offers a bachelor's in leisure, culture and tourism.
Health track and internship
Built into the degree
The Trois-Rivières degree has a health and social services track and an 8 month internship. A recreation DEC can count for up to 18 of its 90 credits.
Recreation therapy is not one of the professions run by Quebec's 46 professional orders, so there is no permit, order exam or French test from an order. Employers set their own hiring requirements. The French college program is called Techniques de gestion et d'intervention en loisir, and the university graduates are called récréologues (recreation professionals).
Things you don't need, but that help.
CTRS (Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist)
The international credential. Opens hospital and rehab jobs and moves you up the pay grid in some health authorities.
Degree completion
Diploma grads can bridge into a degree; it is the line between care-home and hospital pay.
Dementia and mental health specialties
Where most of the jobs are. Extra courses make you the person they call.
Management
Recreation and activity directors run whole departments in large care homes.
A driver's licence
Outings and community programs mean driving a van.
Lifeguard or coaching certifications
Aquatic and sport programs need them.
A musical instrument
Sing-alongs are a staple in care homes.
Comfort with older adults
Most jobs are in long-term care; if that is not for you, the field is much smaller.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Morning exercise group for residents in wheelchairs. Assess a new admission: what did they love doing, what can they still do, what might get them out of their room. Run a baking group after lunch, then a one-on-one visit with someone who is withdrawn. Plan next week's outing and its transport. Chart everything, because recreation therapy in a hospital is treatment with goals and notes, not entertainment.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Therapeutic Recreation Ontario, the provincial association, counts more than 1,800 members: practitioners, educators and students. It has been the only body speaking for the profession in Ontario since 1999.
Among the provinces where Job Bank publishes a figure, Alberta has the highest median for recreational therapists: $37.63 an hour. Alberta's 2023 wage survey puts the wider group at an average of $36.84 an hour, and Alberta employers usually ask for a 4-year degree and membership in the provincial association.
The CTRS (Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist) credential many Canadian hospitals ask for comes from a US council. It requires a degree, a 560-hour internship supervised by another CTRS, and an exam that costs about $350 US.
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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