How Much Do Firefighters Make in Canada? Salary by Province and Year of Service (2026)

Job Bank's national median wage for firefighters in Canada is $45.79 an hour, and it covers everyone in the occupation, captains and lieutenants included. A new hire starts on an entry rate well below that median and moves up through fixed annual pay steps for several years.

This guide sets out both figures: the Government of Canada's Job Bank wages for firefighters (NOC 42101), province by province, and the pay rates that Calgary, Edmonton, Barrie, Halifax and Brandon print on their own recruitment pages and postings. Every figure was read on the official page in October 2026 and is quoted as printed, without rounding.

How much do firefighters make in Canada?

Job Bank puts the median wage for firefighters in Canada at $45.79 an hour, with a low of $29.00 and a high of $61.40. Those wages were updated on November 19, 2025, and draw on Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey for 2023 and 2024.

Keep three points in mind before you plan around that number.

• Low and high are percentiles. Job Bank's methodology says the low wage is, in most cases, the 10th percentile and the high wage the 90th. So about one firefighter in ten earns $29.00 an hour or less, and about one in ten earns more than $61.40.
• It mixes every rank and level of experience. The NOC 42101 profile's index of titles includes fire captain, fire lieutenant, fire department platoon chief, fire inspector, airport and industrial firefighters, and firefighter apprentices. Job Bank states that its wages do not account for years of experience. Fire chiefs and senior firefighting officers are a separate group (40041), and forest firefighters are counted with silviculture and forestry workers (84111).
• It is a median. People search for the "average firefighter salary in Canada", but Job Bank does not display one. It prefers the median because extreme values move it less, and it points anyone who wants an average to its open data files.

Job Bank also publishes this occupation's wages as hourly figures, not annual salaries. The full table is on Job Bank's firefighter wages page, and its methodology says wages are reviewed once a year, usually in the fall, so check for a newer release before you quote these.

What do firefighters make per hour in each province?

Among the provinces, British Columbia has the highest Job Bank median at $50.00 an hour and Nova Scotia the lowest at $37.98. Ontario ($48.53), Alberta ($48.43) and Saskatchewan ($48.08) sit close together, just below British Columbia.

Province or territory	Low ($/hour)	Median ($/hour)	High ($/hour)
Canada	29.00	45.79	61.40
Alberta	28.11	48.43	60.10
British Columbia	36.00	50.00	62.00
Manitoba	31.25	43.99	59.00
New Brunswick	25.00	40.35	50.00
Newfoundland and Labrador	25.00	43.67	54.95
Nova Scotia	21.90	37.98	47.12
Ontario	32.00	48.53	64.58
Prince Edward Island	Not published	Not published	Not published
Quebec	20.83	40.17	50.00
Saskatchewan	29.76	48.08	57.69
Northwest Territories	n/a	58.13	n/a
Nunavut	27.90	48.97	77.47
Yukon	n/a	56.49	n/a

Read the bottom of the table with care. The Labour Force Survey does not sample the three territories, so Job Bank's figures for the Northwest Territories and Yukon come from the 2021 Census, and Nunavut's from a Statistics Canada small-area model for 2024. They are not directly comparable with the provincial rows. For Prince Edward Island, Job Bank says data limitations prevent publishing a wage and refers readers to the national figure.

How much do firefighters make in Ontario?

Job Bank's Ontario median for firefighters is $48.53 an hour, with a low of $32.00 and a high of $64.58. By region, the median runs from $45.79 in Kitchener-Waterloo-Barrie to $55.00 in the Ottawa region.

Ontario region	Low ($/hour)	Median ($/hour)	High ($/hour)
Toronto	36.00	50.00	64.58
Ottawa	26.04	55.00	69.71
Hamilton-Niagara Peninsula	32.05	49.45	64.10
Kingston-Pembroke	29.76	50.00	54.95
Kitchener-Waterloo-Barrie	29.00	45.79	64.58
London	27.24	47.12	62.00
Northeast	33.00	51.26	58.00
Northwest	28.04	48.59	58.00
Muskoka-Kawarthas (model estimate)	35.70	47.56	60.86
Stratford-Bruce Peninsula (model estimate)	37.29	49.98	65.94
Windsor-Sarnia (model estimate)	34.93	48.14	60.01

Eight of the eleven regions use the Labour Force Survey for 2023 and 2024. The three marked as model estimates come from Statistics Canada's small-area model for 2024, the same method behind the Nunavut figure. Job Bank also reports that 98.4 percent of Ontario firefighters receive at least one non-wage benefit.

For a published starting rate, Barrie Fire and Emergency Service's posting PB-26-02, for a permanent full-time Firefighter, 5th Class, lists a 2026 salary of $73,918 a year, or $33.73 an hour, within the Barrie Professional Fire Fighters Association bargaining unit. The hours average 42 a week on 24-hour shifts. The posting went up on September 16, 2026, and gives an application deadline of 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 14, 2026. That starting rate sits just above Job Bank's Ontario low and well below the provincial median.

Not every department prints its pay. Toronto's Operations Firefighter page, read in October 2026, sets out the requirements and assets in detail but gives no salary.

What does a firefighter make in the first year?

In the current rates quoted here, the entry rank pays $33.73 to $37.32 an hour, below the Job Bank median for the department's province in every case. Halifax gives a single salary figure for its entry rank, $55,384.95, with no hourly rate.

Department	Entry rank as printed	Rate as printed	Where it comes from
Calgary	Probationary firefighter (65% index)	$37.32 an hour, $6,818 a month	City of Calgary recruitment page, rates effective January 2026
Edmonton	Probationary / 1st Year Firefighter	$76,828 a year, $35.04 an hour	City of Edmonton salary table, reflecting the collective agreement finalized September 2025
Barrie	Firefighter, 5th Class	$73,918 a year, $33.73 an hour	Posting PB-26-02, 2026 salary
Halifax	Firefighter 4th Class	$55,384.95 salary	Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency's 2026 competition, IAFF Local 268 agreement
Brandon	Probationary Firefighter / Paramedic	$36.62 an hour	City of Brandon applicant handbook, Competition #179, 2026 rates

Two notes on the table. Brandon's competition is for experienced firefighter/paramedics, a dual role, so its grid is not a like-for-like comparison with the others. And Halifax's page, which now marks its January 6 to 20, 2026 application period as closed, pairs that salary with an E Platoon shift of 42 hours a week, worked four days a week between Monday and Friday, 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Job Bank's own methodology says its low wage "might offer some insight" into some entry-level salaries, and these rows are consistent with that. Each hourly entry rate sits closer to its province's Job Bank low than to its median.

The entry rank is not always the first paycheque. Edmonton's recruitment FAQ says recruits are paid employees during the four-month recruit training program and move up to first-year firefighter pay when it ends, but the salary table does not print the training rate.

How long does it take to reach first-class pay?

In the published grids, several years of fixed annual steps. Calgary pays a probationary firefighter 65 percent of its Firefighter 1 rate and reaches 100 percent after the fourth-year step, while Edmonton's table climbs year by year to the fifth year before smaller steps at the 8th, 11th and 18th years.

Calgary's rates, effective January 2026, show each step as a percentage of the top rate:

Calgary step	Index	Hourly	Monthly
Probationary firefighter	65%	$37.32	$6,818
Probationary firefighter, 13 to 18 months	75%	$43.06	$7,867
Permanent second year firefighter, 19 to 24 months	75%	$43.06	$7,867
Permanent third year firefighter	85%	$48.80	$8,916
Permanent fourth year firefighter	95%	$54.54	$9,965
Firefighter 1	100%	$57.41	$10,489

Edmonton prints annual and hourly pay, all at 84 bi-weekly hours:

Edmonton step	Annual	Hourly
Probationary / 1st Year	$76,828	$35.04
2nd Year	$89,022	$40.60
3rd Year	$101,218	$46.16
4th Year	$113,412	$51.73
5th Year	$121,950	$55.62
8th Year	$124,388	$56.73
11th Year	$130,485	$59.51
18th Year	$131,704	$60.07

Rank names differ from city to city, so compare the steps in each grid rather than the names. Calgary's top step is Firefighter 1. Brandon's handbook numbers its levels downward, from probationary through 4th, 3rd and 2nd Level to 1st Level at $50.86 an hour, one step a year subject to satisfactory performance. Increments follow at 8, 12, 16, 20 and 25 years, reaching $53.91. Barrie hires at 5th Class and Halifax at 4th Class, but neither posting prints the steps above.

The Calgary, Edmonton, Barrie and Halifax pages each tie their rates to a collective agreement with the firefighters' union, so the rates can change when a new agreement is settled. Edmonton's table carries a note that its rates reflect the adjustments from the agreement finalized in September 2025.

What do senior firefighters and captains make?

Of the five departments in this guide, only Edmonton prints officer pay. Its table lists Senior Firefighter Qualified at $140,241 a year, Fire Captain at $153,656, Station Captain at $156,094 and District Fire Chief at $169,509.

Captains and lieutenants sit in the same Job Bank occupation as a first-year firefighter, so the national median blends officer pay with entry pay. Calgary's page lists increments through promotion among its additional wage considerations, without printing the officer rates.

What comes on top of the base rate?

Premiums, allowances, a pension and benefits. Calgary lists a dry cleaning allowance, night shift differential premiums and statutory holiday premiums, and Job Bank reports that 97.6 percent of firefighters in Canada receive at least one non-wage benefit.

• Calgary. Firefighters belong to two pension plans, the Local Authorities Pension Plan (LAPP) and the Calgary Firefighter's Supplementary Pension Plan (FSPP), as the page names them. The benefits package includes extended health, dental, and short- and long-term disability, and protective equipment and uniforms are fully provided. The full list is on the City of Calgary's firefighter recruitment page.
• Barrie. The posting lists extended health and dental coverage, life and accident insurance, paid vacation, a sick leave plan and the OMERS pension plan.
• Brandon. The handbook prints a second, higher grid for firefighter/paramedics with ACLS certification: $37.44 an hour at probationary and $52.00 at 1st Level, against $36.62 and $50.86 on the standard grid. It also lists paid overtime among the benefits tied to the collective agreement.

What should you weigh besides the pay grid?

Two things: what the hiring process costs before an offer, and when the department next hires. The same recruitment pages that print the pay also list the fees candidates pay along the way, before any salary starts.

Calgary's page lists a $55 USD aptitude test, a $500 plus GST polygraph and a $200 plus GST CPAT at CFD facilities, and says it does not provide moving expenses to applicants relocating from outside Calgary. Edmonton's page lists a $65 aptitude test fee and $388.50 for the University of Alberta Physical Fitness Test, both non-refundable and both subject to change without notice. Departments that require fire certification before you apply, as Toronto does with NFPA 1001 Level 1 and 2, add tuition on top. Before you spend, work through the self-assessment step of our roadmap, which sets out the three hiring models, what each expects you to pay for before you can compete, and a checklist for drawing up your own budget.

If Edmonton's grid appeals, timing is the next question. Its recruitment page says applications are accepted through the City of Edmonton careers site between January 1 and 31 each year, and as of October 2026 it says the process is being updated for the 2027 intake. Our Edmonton Fire Rescue Services page tracks that window and lists what you need to hold at each stage.

These rates apply once you are hired, after the selection process. Semparo Pro is $149 a year or $19 a month, and each section (Aptitude, Medical Readiness, Fitness, Interview Lab or PHS) is $12 a month on its own, so you can compare the plans and pay only for the stages your target department uses.