Decide what gets built where. A planning degree, two years on the job, then a professional title. Expect public meetings and politics.
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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.
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 $59,000 at the lower end to about $135,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
6 to 8 years after high school, on the usual route.
$30,000 to $80,000 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.
Limited 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
$59,000
Upper end
$135,000
Job Bank's national median is $46.15 an hour, about $96,000 a year at 40 hours a week. The low is $28.21 and the high is $65 an hour: the bottom and top of the range for everyone in the group. Small towns hand new graduates real responsibility fast.
$56.94 an hour
The median in Nunavut, about $118,000 a year, the highest in Canada
Alberta has the highest provincial median, $52.50, and the Northwest Territories is at $51.58. Saskatchewan's is the lowest, at $40.10. Most people start as a junior planner at a municipality or consulting firm.
About 15,600
Urban planners working in Canada in 2023
Only 22% are 50 or older. Job Bank expects the number of jobs and the number of people looking for them to stay roughly in balance to 2033.
Roughly, all in
$30,000 to $80,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is a four year accredited planning bachelor's degree at a cheaper public university, the professional exam, and two years of candidate membership at about 660 a year with OPPI (Ontario Professional Planners Institute). The high end adds a two year planning master's at up to 15,000 a year on top of a more expensive undergraduate degree, which is the common route for people whose first degree was in something else. There are no lab fees or expensive software licences, and most employers pay your professional dues once you are hired. Dues continue at roughly 660 a year for the rest of your career.
Roughly $30,000 to $80,000 in all, the high end with a master's. No lab fees, no expensive software, and most employers pay your dues.
Pension
Municipal and provincial planners get defined-benefit pensions, the kind that pay for life.
Health and dental
Standard at cities, provinces and larger firms.
Union
Many municipal planners are in CUPE (Canadian Union of Public Employees) or a staff association.
Banked time
Evening council and public meetings are usually paid back as time off.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A degree, two years of work under a registered planner, then an exam for the title.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Geography, math, English and civics. Go to a city council meeting once. If you find it interesting, this might be for you.
Degree
3 to 6 years
Either a 4-year accredited planning bachelor's (Waterloo, TMU (Toronto Metropolitan University, formerly Ryerson), Dalhousie, Saskatchewan), a 3 year one in Quebec, or any bachelor's followed by a 2-year planning master's (Queen's, UBC (University of British Columbia), McGill, Toronto, Dalhousie, Manitoba, Calgary).
Candidate member
About 2 years
Join your provincial institute as a candidate and work under an RPP (registered professional planner). Log two years of planning work with a sponsor, spend at least a year with a mentor and pass an ethics course and test. Many take three years or more.
Professional exam
A few months
An exam on ethics, planning law and practice, run through your provincial institute.
RPP (registered professional planner)
After the exam
Full membership in your provincial institute and the CIP (Canadian Institute of Planners). Now you can sign planning reports under the title.
Geography
The closest thing to planning in high school.
Math and data
Population forecasts, traffic counts, housing numbers.
English
Staff reports and public speaking are most of the job.
Civics and politics
Councils make the final call. Understand how.
Environmental science
Floodplains, wetlands, climate rules.
You do not need a licence to work as a planner. But the title RPP (registered professional planner) is protected by law in most provinces, and nearly every job above junior level asks for it. Each province has an institute, such as OPPI (Ontario Professional Planners Institute), under the CIP (Canadian Institute of Planners). The title transfers between provinces through the institutes with little fuss.
Accredited programs, by region.
Ontario
Waterloo, TMU (Toronto Metropolitan University, formerly Ryerson), Queen's, Toronto, Guelph (rural planning).
Quebec
McGill, Université de Montréal.
West
UBC (University of British Columbia), Calgary, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba.
Atlantic
Dalhousie.
In Quebec a 3 year planning bachelor's leads straight to the order's paid internship, which is 2 years after a bachelor's and 1 year after a recognized master's.
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
Geography, history and math all help. The planning degrees select mainly on college grades.
Pre-university DEC (Diploma of College Studies)
2 years
2 years at a CEGEP (public college). UQAM (Université du Québec à Montréal) asks for an R score (cote R) of at least 21.
Planning degree
3 years
A 90 credit, 3 year bachelor's in urban planning in French at Université de Montréal or UQAM. Or a recognized master's at McGill (in English), Laval or Montréal.
Internship with the OUQ (Ordre des urbanistes du Québec)
1 to 2 years
The Quebec order of urban planners. A paid planning job with a sponsor from the order: 24 months after a bachelor's, 12 after a master's.
Admission exam
Fall
Once a year in the fall, online, on Quebec planning law and the order's rules. You need 60% to pass. Fee $260.
Show French, get the permit
After the exam
A Quebec high school diploma from 1985 to 1986 or later counts. Otherwise you pass the provincial French exam.
The two planning bachelor's degrees the OUQ (Ordre des urbanistes du Québec, the Quebec order of urban planners) lists are taught in French. In English, McGill's Master of Urban Planning is accredited by the OUQ and the Canadian Institute of Planners, and includes a summer internship. After a master's the order's internship is shorter, so the master's route is not much longer.
Things you don't need, but that help.
GIS (geographic information systems)
Mapping and data software. Planners who can run it stand out.
Transportation or urban design specialty
Transit projects have money. Urban design adds a drawing skill most planners lack.
Environmental assessment
Big infrastructure needs it. Consulting firms hire for it.
Development finance
Understanding what makes a project pencil out can move you to the developer side.
A summer job at a municipality
Even in the front office. You learn how a city actually runs.
Public speaking
You will present to councils and angry rooms.
A second language
French for federal and Quebec work; any language in a big city.
Spreadsheets
Housing targets, budgets, growth forecasts.
Developers hire planners to get their projects approved. The work moves faster, but there is usually no pension, layoffs follow the housing market, and some planners feel they have changed teams. Many go back and forth: a few years at a city, a few at a firm, then back.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
At a municipality: morning reviewing a development application against the official plan and zoning bylaw, then a call with the applicant's consultant. Afternoon writing a staff report for council and a meeting with engineering about sewers and roads. One or two evenings a month, a public meeting where residents explain why they hate the proposal. At a consulting firm you do the same from the other side, and track every hour for billing.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
On May 10, 2023, Toronto council allowed duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes in residential neighbourhoods across the city, where many streets had allowed only detached houses. In 2025 it allowed six units in parts of the city.
The most famous writer on cities moved from New York to Toronto in 1968 and helped halt the Spadina Expressway in 1971, a fight that pitted downtown residents against suburban commuters.
Begun in Toronto in 1953, Don Mills was the first large modern community of Canada's post-war era: four neighbourhoods with schools around a central shopping centre, industry kept to the edges, and paths so children could walk to school without crossing a main road.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Architecture and planning first, then the rest of the field. See every career in architecture and design.
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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