Becoming a teacher in Canada is a provincial job from start to finish: finish your degrees, then get certified in the one province where you will teach.
Applies in: CA
There is no Canadian teaching licence. Each province certifies its own teachers, through its own certifier, on its own requirements — so the work splits into two parts that never change order. First, the education: a degree and a teacher education program. Second, the certification: one application, to the certifier of the one province where you will teach. Items 1 and 2 apply to everyone. Items 3 to 7 each cover a set of provincial routes: work the item for your province and skip the rest. Item 8 applies to every new teacher. Each item names the guide it rests on. No fees are stated here; the provincial guides carry the fees as their official pages state them.
Done when: the degree and the teacher education program are complete, and the transcripts exist to prove both.
The national teacher guide sets out how the provincial systems fit together and what the education half of the route looks like across the country. Ontario states the order plainly: the Ontario College of Teachers' certification page says a person who wants to teach in Ontario's publicly funded schools must first complete an initial teacher education program, and only then apply to the College for certification. Every other province's guide on this site runs the same order — education first, certification second — even where the certifier and the program names differ.
Done when: the Certificate of Qualification and Registration is issued, and the annual membership that keeps it in good standing is on your calendar.
This item applies only in Ontario. The Ontario teacher guide walks the route end to end. The College's own page names the pieces: the Certificate of Qualification and Registration is the licence to teach in Ontario's publicly funded schools, it records your degrees, your teacher education program and your basic and additional qualifications, and it stays in good standing while the annual membership is kept up. Ontario's qualifications page adds the education side: an undergraduate degree for general education and a completed initial teacher education program, in most cases.
Done when: the application is in with the certifier of the province where you will teach, on that province's requirements.
This item applies only in British Columbia or Alberta. The British Columbia teacher guide and the Alberta teacher guide each walk their own province's certification route — the certifier, the documents and the order of steps are the province's own in both cases, and neither guide borrows the other's steps. Work the one for your province.
Done when: the application is in with Saskatchewan's regulator or Manitoba's certification unit, as the guide for your province directs.
This item applies only in Saskatchewan or Manitoba. The Saskatchewan teacher guide rests on the Saskatchewan Professional Teachers Regulatory Board, the body that certifies teachers in that province. The Manitoba teacher guide rests on Manitoba Education's Professional Certification Unit. Same pattern as the rest of the country, two different offices: the guide names which one takes your application.
Done when: the application for Quebec's teaching authorization is in, on Quebec's own requirements.
This item applies only in Quebec. The Quebec teacher guide walks the route run by the Ministère de l'Éducation du Québec, at the end of which sits the brevet d'enseignement, Quebec's teaching authorization. Quebec does not use a teachers' college of the Ontario kind, and the guide does not import one: qualifying program, probationary steps and authorization are set out as Quebec's own pages state them.
Done when: the application is in with the teacher certification office of the Atlantic province where you will teach.
This item applies only in the four Atlantic provinces. Each province certifies through its own office: the Nova Scotia teacher guide rests on the Office of Teacher Certification, the New Brunswick teacher guide on New Brunswick's Office of Teacher Certification, the Newfoundland and Labrador teacher guide on the province's Teacher Certification office, and the Prince Edward Island teacher guide on the Registrar for Teacher Certification. Four provinces, four applications — work the guide for the one province where you will teach.
Done when: the new province's certifier has your application, assessed under its labour mobility rules.
This item applies to a teacher who is already certified in one province and takes a job in another. The first province's certificate does not travel on its own. The Ontario College of Teachers' registration guide treats applicants certified in another Canadian province or territory as labour mobility applicants, and the other certifiers run their own version of the same assessment. The provincial guides on this site are written for the destination province, so the guide to work is the new province's guide.
Done when: degree transcripts, teacher education transcripts, the certificate itself and the certifier's letters are in one file you can send again without asking anyone to reissue them.
This item applies to every new teacher. Certification applications ask institutions to send transcripts directly, additional qualification courses are added to the certificate over a career, and a move to another province starts the document round again. The file that makes all of that cheap is built at the first application, not at the move.
This checklist states no certification fees, application fees or processing times. Those figures are set by each certifier — the Ontario College of Teachers in Ontario, the regulators and ministries named in the provincial guides elsewhere — and they change on the certifiers' own schedules, so they are left to the linked provincial guides and the certifiers' own pages. The checklist also covers the ten provinces. The territories run their own certification through their departments of education, and no territorial teacher guide exists on this site yet, so no territorial route is summarized here.
No.
In Ontario, two pieces, in most cases: an undergraduate degree for general education, and a completed initial teacher education program. The province's qualifications page adds proof of language proficiency in some cases. Ontario's certificate then records four things: your degrees, your program of teacher education, your basic qualifications and your additional qualifications. You must be qualified in at least two consecutive divisions, Primary/Junior, Junior/Intermediate or Intermediate/Senior. Other provinces set their own education list, and the guide for the province where you will teach carries it.
In Ontario, partway in, under a transitional certificate. The Transitional Certificate of Qualification and Registration is built for teacher candidates who have finished at least 30 credits and 40 practicum days of their program. It lasts 18 months, with a one-time six-month extension, and up to 20 days of teaching under it can count toward the program's practicum requirement. A second route, the Multi-Session Transitional Certificate, is valid for six years. Both are Ontario College of Teachers certificates, applied for like the general one, with the faculty of education reporting to the College. Whether another province runs an equivalent is a question for that province's guide.
Not on the first province's certificate alone. You apply to the new province's certifier, which assesses your existing certification under its own rules. The Ontario College of Teachers' registration guide, for example, treats applicants certified in another Canadian province or territory as labour mobility applicants and assesses them on that basis. Work the guide for the province you are moving to, not the one you are leaving.
Quebec runs its own route, built around the teaching authorization issued under the Ministère de l'Éducation du Québec, the brevet d'enseignement. It is not a college certification of the kind Ontario or British Columbia uses, so the Quebec guide walks Quebec's own steps and this checklist gives Quebec its own item, item 5.
No. Certification and membership fees are set by each province's certifier and change on the certifier's own schedule. One example of the pattern, with no figure attached: Ontario's Certificate of Qualification and Registration stays in good standing only while the annual membership is kept up, and the College's certification page says so in those terms. The provincial guides on this site carry the fee detail for their own route as their official pages state it. Check the current fee in the guide for your province, and on the certifier's own page, before you apply.