Cut, shape and set natural stone on walls, monuments and century-old buildings. A craft trade with a paid apprenticeship.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Journeyperson
$83,000
1st-year apprentice
$54,000
Restoration specialist
$101,000
Job Bank's national median is $40 an hour, about $83,000 a year full time. Job Bank pools stonemasons with bricklayers under one code, so these are masonry-wide figures. Skilled heritage and carving work is a small market that often pays above the top of this range.
$22 to $28 an hour
First-year apprentice, a percentage of the journeyperson rate
Many people start as a mason's labourer or on a landscaping crew building stone walls, which is paid too. Your rate rises with each level you pass.
$38 to $49 an hour
About $80,000 to $101,000 a year at full-time hours
Restoration contractors, monument companies and high-end custom builders pay the most. Many stonemasons eventually run their own small business, where income depends on reputation.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
Bricklayer is a Red Seal trade, so the apprenticeship is paid work and the school blocks are the only real bill. The low end is three blocks at a cheaper provincial rate, chisels and hammers bought gradually, and the certificate exam. The high end is the same three blocks at the top of the provincial range plus grinders, levels and a fuller kit bought up front. The Canada Apprentice Loan is interest free and EI (Employment Insurance) applies during class, but the federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant ended in 2025, so check the Government of Canada apprenticeship page for what is current.
Most apprentices finish with no debt. The federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant ended in 2025, so check the Government of Canada apprenticeship page for what is current.
Union pension and health plan
BAC (the bricklayers' union) covers stone work on union commercial and institutional sites.
Overtime at premium rates
Owning the business
Small stone companies with two or three masons are common and can do well on custom work.
EI (Employment Insurance) in the off-season
Outdoor stone work slows in deep winter, though interior and shop work continues.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Most stonemasons come through the bricklayer apprenticeship and specialize in stone. A few go through a heritage school.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Grade 12 with math and a shop or art class. Some provinces let you start through a high school apprenticeship program.
Find a sponsor
Weeks to months
A masonry or restoration contractor, a landscaping company that builds stone walls, or the union hiring hall. Starting as a labourer is the usual way in.
Register the apprenticeship
Days
In Ontario the trade is called Brick and Stone Mason (401A). Elsewhere it is Bricklayer. Register with your provincial trades body.
Work and study
3 years
About 5,600 hours in Ontario: roughly 4,880 on site plus three in-school levels totalling 720 hours. Ask for a sponsor that does stone, not just brick.
Certificate of Qualification and Red Seal
After your hours
Pass the provincial exam and add the Red Seal endorsement to work anywhere in Canada.
Math
Measuring, geometry for arches and corners, estimating stone quantities.
Visual arts
Carving and shaping stone is sculpture with a deadline.
History
Heritage work means understanding how buildings were made 150 years ago.
Physical education
Stone is heavier than brick. Fitness is the biggest filter.
There is no separate stonemason licence in Canada. The Red Seal Bricklayer trade covers natural stone, and Ontario names it Brick and Stone Mason. You can legally work without a certificate, but union sites, public restoration contracts and better employers usually want one. Quebec regulates construction work through the CCQ (Commission de la construction du Québec). The Red Seal endorsement lets you move between provinces without retesting.
Willowbank School of Restoration Arts, Queenston, Ontario
A three-year Diploma in Heritage Conservation with hands-on craft training on a national historic site.
College masonry programs
Pre-apprenticeship and in-school levels at colleges across the country, delivered as part of the bricklayer apprenticeship.
Union training centres
BAC (the bricklayers' union) locals run stone and restoration courses for members.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Heritage restoration
Repointing, replacing and carving stone on century-old churches, courthouses and forts. Slow, skilled and steady in Ottawa, Quebec City, Montreal, Kingston and Halifax.
Stone carving and lettering
Monuments, ornament and repairs to carved detail. A rare skill.
Dry stone walling
Walls built with no mortar at all. A niche with its own guilds and competitions.
Red Seal endorsement
One extra exam, recognized across Canada.
Pre-apprenticeship masonry program
A college semester that gets you sponsored faster.
Driver's licence
Sites and quarries are rarely on a bus route.
Working at heights and WHMIS (workplace hazardous materials training)
One-day courses employers expect.
Drawing skills
Sketching a repair or a carving before you cut is part of the craft.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Start at 7am. Set up scaffold and mortar boards. Pick and cut stone to fit, with a chisel and hammer or a diamond saw, then set it in the wall, checking line and level constantly. On a restoration you cut out failed mortar, replace a cracked block with one you have carved to match, and keep the old work intact. On a landscape job you build a dry stone wall by eye, stone by stone. Dust, weather and heavy lifting all day. Clean up and cover the work by 3:30pm.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Canada employs a Dominion Sculptor whose job is to carve and restore the stone of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa. The Centre Block rehabilitation is one of the largest heritage stone projects in the country.
A properly built dry stone wall stands on friction, gravity and careful stone choice alone. Some in Britain are hundreds of years old. Canada has its own dry stone walling community that runs workshops and festivals.
Quebec City is the only walled city in North America north of Mexico. Its stone fortifications and old buildings keep restoration masons busy year after year.
Job Bank does not track stonemasons separately: they share a code with bricklayers. That is why the wage figures here are the same as for bricklayers, even though heritage stone work often pays more.
Last checked September 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.