The 13 apprenticeship authorities

There is no federal apprenticeship you can sign up for. Red Seal is a standard, not a program — you register with a province, train under that province’s rules, and the Red Seal endorsement is what makes the resulting certificate portable.

This has three consequences people learn too late:

The same trade takes different time in different provinces. Check the Ellis Chart before assuming a number you read online applies to you.
Whether a trade is compulsory is a provincial question, and the answer changes your life: in a compulsory trade the certificate is the job, and working without it is an offence. In a voluntary trade you can often start earning first and certify later.
Moving mid-apprenticeship is possible but not automatic. Transfer is handled between authorities under interprovincial mobility agreements — start that conversation before you move, not after.

Province / territory	Apprenticeship authority	Compulsory certification
British Columbia	SkilledTradesBC	7 compulsory trades
Alberta	Apprenticeship and Industry Training (Alberta Advanced Education)	23 trades (restricted activities)
Saskatchewan	Saskatchewan Apprenticeship and Trade Certification Commission (SATCC)	5 compulsory trades
Manitoba	Apprenticeship Manitoba	9 compulsory trades
Ontario	Skilled Trades Ontario	23 compulsory trades
Quebec	Ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale / Commission de la construction du Québec (CCQ) for construction trades	CCQ competency certificates
New Brunswick	Apprenticeship and Occupational Certification (Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour)	12 compulsory trades
Nova Scotia	Nova Scotia Apprenticeship Agency	13 compulsory trades
Prince Edward Island	Apprenticeship Section (Education and Lifelong Learning)	4 compulsory trades
Newfoundland and Labrador	Apprenticeship and Trades Certification Division	not verified — ask the authority
Yukon	Apprenticeship Training (Yukon Education)	not verified — ask the authority
Northwest Territories	Apprenticeship, Trades and Occupations (Education, Culture and Employment)	not verified — ask the authority
Nunavut	Apprenticeship, Trade and Occupations Certification (Department of Family Services)	not verified — ask the authority

How to read the compulsory column

list — A defined list of trades where certification (or registered-apprentice status) is legally required. Working in one without it is an offence.
restricted-activities — Certification is tied to defined restricted activities within a trade rather than the trade as a whole.
ccq — Quebec’s construction sector is governed separately by the Commission de la construction du Québec, with competency certificates and regional workforce rules rather than a compulsory-trade list.
unverified — This repo has not found a primary list page for this jurisdiction. Contact the authority — do not assume voluntary.

Counts are not comparable between provinces. Alberta ties certification to restricted activities within a trade; Ontario counts whole trades in a statutory schedule; Manitoba mixes Red Seal and provincial-only designations. Read your own province’s page, then read the source.

Where this repo says not verified, it means no primary list page was found — not that certification is optional. Contributions from anyone who knows their jurisdiction are the highest-value thing you can add here.

Verified 2026-08-29. Sources: https://www.canada.ca/en/services/jobs/training/support-skilled-trades-apprentices/provinces-territories.html · https://ellischart.ca/eng/contacts/pt.shtml