Navigate and command commercial ships. You train as a cadet at sea, not in a lecture hall.
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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.
The median pay is about $86,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $51,000 at the lower end to about $150,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
3 to 5 years after high school, on the usual route.
$14,000 to $40,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
Yes. It is a regulated job, so you need a licence or registration before you can work.
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
$86,000
Lower end
$51,000
Upper end
$150,000
Job Bank's national median for this group is $41.36 an hour, about $86,000 a year at 40 hours a week. The lower end ($24.33) and upper end ($72.12) are the bottom and top of the wage range for everyone in the group. The page is titled Ship Chief Officer and pools deck officers together, from a new mate to a captain.
$33.01 an hour
The first step of the federal ship officers' pay scale from April 1, 2025, about $69,000 a year at 40 hours
Set in the Treasury Board agreement for Canadian Coast Guard ship officers. The next two levels top out at $40.71 and $44.81 an hour. Private fleets set their own rates, often as a daily rate, and food and a bunk on board keep your costs low.
$45.67 an hour
Job Bank's median in Quebec, about $95,000 a year
Nova Scotia is close behind at $45.03 and Alberta at $44.92. Ontario's median, on the Great Lakes, is the lowest listed, at $38.46. Masters and chief officers earn the most.
Roughly, all in
$14,000 to $40,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
Cadet programs at Canadian marine schools charge tuition, but the sea phases are paid work, so you earn through part of the training. The low end is the cheapest school at the shorter end of the program with basic uniforms, books and gear. The high end is a longer program at a higher tuition rate, a fuller kit, the marine medical certificate and the several Transport Canada written and oral exam fees. This works out far cheaper than a four year degree with no income attached.
About $14,000 to $40,000 in all. Sea phases are paid, so a cadet program costs far less in the end than a four-year degree with no income attached.
Room and board at sea
You do not pay rent or buy groceries while you are on the ship.
Equal time off
Many Canadian vessels run rotations like 28 days on and 28 days off, so you get months ashore each year.
Union coverage
Officers on many Canadian vessels are hired through the Canadian Merchant Service Guild.
Pension and benefits
Standard on unionized domestic vessels and ferry fleets.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A cadet program mixes school terms with paid sea phases, then Transport Canada tests you.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Grade 12 English and math are the normal entry requirements; in Quebec the college takes students from Secondary V. You also need a Transport Canada marine medical certificate saying you are fit for sea service before you start.
Nautical science or marine navigation program
3 to 4 years
Three or four years mixing campus terms with sea phases. Georgian College in Owen Sound runs a three-year advanced diploma; the Marine Institute in Newfoundland runs a four-year diploma of technology.
Sea time as a cadet
About 12 months, inside the program
Roughly 360 days of approved sea service, logged in an accredited book and signed off by the officers you sail with.
Transport Canada examinations
Months of study
Written and oral exams for the Watchkeeping Mate certificate of competency, plus safety courses such as Marine Emergency Duties training.
Sail, then climb the certificates
Years
Watchkeeping mate, then chief mate, then master. Each rung needs more sea time and more exams.
Math
Navigation, tides, stability and cargo calculations all run on it.
Physics
Stability and ship handling are applied physics.
English
The international language at sea, and the exams are demanding.
Geography
Charts, weather and ocean currents become daily tools.
You cannot stand a navigation watch on a Canadian commercial vessel without a certificate of competency issued by Transport Canada. Getting one means approved training, documented sea service, written and oral examinations, and a medical certificate. The certificates follow the international standard for seafarer training, so a Canadian ticket is recognized abroad. Only Canadian citizens and permanent residents can hold one.
Newfoundland and Labrador
Marine Institute, Memorial University, in St. John's.
Ontario
Georgian College Marine Technology, Navigation in Owen Sound, a three year program for the Great Lakes and beyond.
British Columbia
BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology) Nautical Sciences, a four year cadet program at its Marine Campus.
Quebec
Institut maritime du Québec in Rimouski, in French.
In Quebec you go straight from Secondary V into a 4 year college diploma in navigation, taught in French in Rimouski. The Transport Canada steps are the same.
Secondary V, with the right Secondary IV courses
Age 16 or 17
Secondary IV math in the TS (Technical and Scientific) or SN (Science) sequence, plus Secondary IV science and technology and environmental science, or the applied technology versions.
Navigation DEC (Diploma of College Studies, 248.B0)
4 years
4 years at the IMQ (Institut maritime du Québec) in Rimouski, in French with English courses. 66 places a year, fall start only, open to Canadian citizens and permanent residents.
Sea internships
Inside the 4 years
12 months at sea in all, split into three periods, on different types of ships in Canada or abroad.
Transport Canada exams
Near the end
With the sea time done, you sit the federal exams for a first officer certificate, the same exams as the rest of Canada.
Sail and climb the certificates
Years
The same federal ladder as elsewhere. In Quebec about three in four deck officers work in transportation and about one in four in public administration, mostly the Canadian Coast Guard.
Quebec counted about 1,000 deck officer jobs in 2024 and rates the outlook for 2025 to 2029 as very good. The Quebec government lists an 88% placement rate for graduates of the Navigation DEC (Diploma of College Studies). The program is taught in French, with English courses.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Higher certificates of competency
Chief mate and master, near-coastal or unlimited. Each one opens more senior jobs.
Tanker endorsements
Oil, chemical and gas cargo training.
Dynamic positioning
Needed on offshore supply and construction vessels.
Ice navigation
Valuable on Arctic resupply, the St. Lawrence in winter and Coast Guard work.
Small boat experience
Sailing, fishing or a summer on a water taxi. It tells a recruiter you actually like boats.
Mechanical aptitude
Deck officers deal with cranes, hatches and winches, not just charts.
French
Useful on the St. Lawrence and with Quebec operators.
Good sea legs
Chronic seasickness will end this career fast. Find out early on a rough ferry crossing.
A lot of officers sail for ten or fifteen years, then move ashore with the ticket still in hand. Marine pilots, harbour masters, port operations managers, Transport Canada inspectors, marine insurers and ship management companies all hire from people who have actually commanded a vessel. Marine pilotage in particular is only open to experienced masters.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Watches run in four or six hour blocks, and you work them around the clock, so a normal day might be four hours on the bridge at 4am and another four at 4pm. On watch you navigate, monitor radar and traffic, handle radio calls and keep the log. Off watch there is cargo planning, safety drills, maintenance paperwork and inspections. In port you supervise loading, mooring and sometimes the cargo watch overnight. You eat and sleep about twenty metres from your workplace, with the same twenty people, for weeks.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Under the Canada Shipping Act, 2001, the master of a Canadian vessel may detain anyone on board to keep order, and may take a suspected offender into custody without a warrant, handing them to a peace officer as soon as possible.
Job Bank counts about 6,200 deck officers working in Canada in 2023, and 36% of them are 50 or older. It is a small field, so every retirement opens a bridge job.
The Marine Institute's nautical science cadets must log at least 360 days of approved sea service, in an accredited logbook signed off at sea, before they sit the last exams for a Watchkeeping Mate certificate.
The Canada Shipping Act, 2001 says only Canadian citizens and permanent residents may hold a Canadian certificate of competency. Even the Quebec school warns applicants about this rule.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Sea first, then the rest of the field. See every career in transport.
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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