How to Become a Private Investigator in Ontario

You cannot work as a private investigator in Ontario without a licence — it is a legal requirement under the Private Security and Investigative Services Act, 2005 (PSISA), not an industry preference. Ontario defines a private investigator as a person who performs work, for pay, that consists primarily of conducting investigations to provide information: on the character or actions of a person, a person's business or occupation, or the whereabouts of a person or property. The path is training, an exam, a police check, and a licence application — and it has one trap that course sellers rarely lead with: the individual licence alone does not let you sell your services. This guide follows the process as ontario.ca describes it today, because much of what ranks online is stale or wrong: pages quoting a $111.47 licence fee the Ministry does not list, promising physical licence cards that are no longer issued, and citing the old Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services name.

Step 1: Check you meet the eligibility rules

Ontario's bar is citizenship-light but record-strict. To be eligible you must:

• Be 18 years of age or older
• Be legally entitled to work in Canada (citizen, permanent resident, or work-permit holder — citizenship itself is not required)
• Have a clean criminal record, as defined by the Eligibility to Hold a Licence – Clean Criminal Record Regulation. If you were convicted of a listed offence, a pardon or record suspension clears the bar
• Hold a valid Criminal Record and Judicial Matters Check (CRJMC)

Two practical notes: if your name differs from your identification documents, you will need a government-issued name-change document, and once licensed you must notify the Ministry within 5 days if you are convicted of an offence listed in the Clean Criminal Record Regulation.

Step 2: Take the 50-hour mandatory training course

Every applicant must complete the mandatory basic training for private investigators from a training provider, following the syllabus set by the Ministry of the Solicitor General. The minimum is 50 in-class hours. The syllabus suggests the following in-class time per section:

• Introduction to the private investigation industry — 2 hours
• The Private Security and Investigative Services Act — 2 hours
• Provincial and federal statutes — 6 hours
• Criminal and civil law — 12 hours
• Investigative techniques — 14 hours
• Principles of ethical reasoning and decision-making — 2 hours
• Key principles of communication and interaction — 7 hours
• Self-management skills — 5 hours

The Ministry notes that the syllabus is being modernized and new standardized curricula are being developed, but the existing legislative and regulatory requirements remain in force. Training is offered online or in person by colleges, universities, licensed agencies, and approved training companies. Research providers on quality, not just price — the Ministry itself advises conducting your own research into the quality of basic training providers. On completing the course, your provider gives you an Ontario Training Completion Number (TCN), which you need to book the exam and later to apply. The training fee is set by the provider and varies; confirm what is included before you enrol.

Step 3: Pass the Ministry licensing exam

The exam is administered by Serco (Ontario Security Guard and Private Investigator Testing), at DriveTest centres across Ontario and, per the Ministry's testing information, online. You book it with your TCN. What provider materials consistently describe:

• 60 multiple-choice questions
• Passing grade: 62% (37 correct answers)

The Ministry's licence page does not publish the sitting length or the exam fee, and secondary sources conflict on the fee — figures from $39.55 to $75.15 appear for what may be different fee vintages. No exam fee is quoted in this guide: confirm the current fee and sitting length when you book through Serco. Study the training syllabus, not exam dumps: the heaviest sections are criminal and civil law and investigative techniques, and the statutes section covers privacy law, including the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, which governs how personal information may be collected in the course of an investigation. If you fail, you re-register and pay the exam fee again.

Step 4: Get your Criminal Record and Judicial Matters Check

The CRJMC is the police check the Ministry requires. Order it from your local police service. For a first application, the check must be valid; for renewals, ontario.ca's parallel security-guard guidance requires the CRJMC to have been issued within the last 6 months, so do not order it months before you are ready to apply. If you apply online, you must receive and submit the CRJMC as an original, unaltered digital PDF — a scan of a paper copy will not do.

Step 5: Apply for the licence

Apply online through ServiceOntario — it is the fastest route. A correctly completed online application takes up to 15 calendar days to be processed and approved; a mail application takes up to 30. Your application package:

• Your Ontario Testing Completion Number (TCN), or your out-of-province licence information
• Your Ontario mailing address
• Your CRJMC in its official format
• A quality photo meeting the photo requirements (50 mm wide by 70 mm high, face height 31–36 mm, not a selfie, not taken from another photo; photos are typically valid for 6 years)
• The front and back of two different valid, non-expired government-issued identification documents
• The $80 licence fee

Online payment is by Visa or Mastercard credit or debit (a "SOLGEN – PSIS Fee" line appears on your statement). By mail, you pay by bank draft, money order, or certified cheque payable to the Minister of Finance, sent to ServiceOntario, Private Security Licensing Services Office, P.O. Box 4500, Kingston, Ontario K7L 0E1 — credit cards, cash, and personal cheques are not accepted by mail. ServiceOntario counters do not accept these applications in person.

Two warnings from the Ministry's own fine print: the fee is non-refundable (withdrawn, denied, or error-returned applications keep it as a processing fee), and if your application is returned for missing information, you have 90 calendar days to respond before it is closed and a new application and payment are required. You cannot work until the licence is approved — but once it is, your digital licence counts immediately; you download it from your Ontario.ca account.

The rule that decides how you actually work: the employment condition

Section 6 of the PSISA is the section that matters most to anyone planning to go solo. You may act as a private investigator only if you hold the licence and you are employed by a licensed business entity, a registered employer under section 5, or an employer that is not required to be registered — or you are the sole proprietor of, or a partner in, a licensed business entity. Section 7 adds the other half: no person may sell the services of private investigators, or hold themselves out as available to sell them, unless they hold the agency licence (or are an employee acting for such a licensee in the normal course of their duties).

In plain terms: the individual licence qualifies you to do investigation work; it does not, by itself, authorize you to take clients directly. Starting an agency is a separate licence with its own application, and a business that employs investigators in-house without selling their services to the public registers as an employer instead. If a training provider's pitch implies the individual licence alone makes you a working solo operator, it is skipping the Act. Note also that a dual security-guard-and-private-investigator licence ($160) does not let you work as both at the same time — you work under one licence at a time.

Staying licensed: renewals and rules

Your licence expires two birthdays after it is issued (roughly two years), and the renewal fee is $80. You can renew up to 90 days before expiry. While licensed, you must carry a digital or printed copy of your licence at all times on duty and show it on request. You must notify the Ministry if your personal information changes, and within 5 days if you are convicted of a listed offence. Changing your licence type (for example, security guard to private investigator) costs $80 and requires the testing completion number for the new type. There is no fee to change your information, such as an address or name, during the licence term.

Coming from another province

If you hold a valid private investigator licence from another Canadian province or territory — current, active, and in good standing — you skip Ontario's training and testing entirely. Submit your out-of-province licence details (number, type, expiry, province, plus front-and-back photocopies) with your application. Under the "As of Right" labour-mobility framework, complete applications are decided within 10 business days — and if no decision is made in that window, you are deemed certified and can work in Ontario for 6 months while review continues. The full licensing decision comes within 30 calendar days.

Private investigator licensing across Canada

There is no national licence. Each province and territory sets its own regime, and the Ontario path above does not transfer automatically — although Ontario waives its training and testing for valid out-of-province holders, the reverse is not guaranteed. What is verified for each jurisdiction:

• Ontario — PSISA individual licence as described in this guide: 50-hour training, Serco exam, $80 fee, ServiceOntario application.
• British Columbia — You need a security worker licence to work as a private investigator, under the Private Investigators and Security Agencies Act, through the provincial security worker licensing system. Applicants must be 19 or older and submit fingerprints. A security employee licence is tied to the employing licensed security business. Running a private-investigator business is a separate business licence, and the regulation requires at least 2 years of experience as a licensed investigator (or equivalent) for a business licence to carry on private investigation work.
• Quebec — A permit issued by the Bureau de la sécurité privée (BSP) is required to work as a private detective or security officer. Apply through the BSP; the permit regime, categories, and fees are set by the Bureau, not by the Ontario process.
• Alberta — Private investigators are regulated under the Security Services and Investigators Act, through Alberta Public Safety and Emergency Services, Security Programs. The route is an approved investigator training course, a provincial exam, and a licence application to Security Programs. Confirm the current course list, exam, and fee on the Security Programs pages before enrolling — training providers describe the course at roughly 60 hours, but the regulator's pages govern.
• Saskatchewan — Private investigators are regulated, with the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General as the regulatory body. Training approved by Saskatchewan Justice is part of the route; confirm the current training, employer-engagement, and application requirements with the Ministry before enrolling.
• Manitoba — Security guards and private investigators are regulated through Manitoba Justice, Private Investigators and Security Guards Program. Confirm the current application requirements with that program.
• Prince Edward Island — Private investigators are regulated, with the Department of Justice and Public Safety as the regulatory body. Confirm the current requirements with the Department.
• Newfoundland and Labrador — Private investigators are listed as regulated in the federal Job Bank occupation profile. Confirm the current licensing route with the provincial regulator before assuming the Ontario steps apply.
• Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the territories — No private-investigator-specific regulator was confirmed in the sources checked for this guide. That is not evidence that no licence is required: check with the provincial or territorial Department of Justice before working, and do not assume an Ontario licence covers work there.

Where a province's current training hours, exam pass mark, or fee could not be verified on a regulator page at the time of writing, this guide says so rather than carrying a course seller's figure. The regulator's page is the authority in every province; a training provider's marketing page is not.

Is it worth it?

The honest case: entry is genuinely accessible for licensed work — no degree and no prior experience are required in Ontario, and the licence fee is $80. The work itself is patient, documented, and legal by definition: surveillance, background and due-diligence research, locating people and property, insurance and workplace investigations, and statements and evidence that may be used in court. The honest risks: the individual licence does not make you a solo business, most new investigators start as agency employees, much of the work is irregular-hours surveillance and report writing, and the evidence you gather is only useful if it was obtained lawfully — which is exactly what the 50 hours of training are for. The licence is step zero of the career, not the career: investigators who move up do it through specialization (insurance, corporate, legal-support work), agency ownership under the agency licence, or adjacent credentials.

Related: how to get a security guard licence in Ontario (the parallel PSISA licence — 40-hour training, the same Serco exam system, the same $80 fee — and the dual-licence option for investigators who also want guard work), how to get a security guard licence in British Columbia (British Columbia's security worker licensing, which also covers private investigators), how to become a paralegal in Ontario (another Ontario regulated licence with a set training-and-exam path, for readers weighing licensed legal-support careers), and how to start job hunting in Canada (where licensed investigator and agency jobs actually get posted), and how to become a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant (RCIC) in Canada (the national regulated-licence path — graduate diploma, national exam, and a single federal regulator — for readers weighing a different licensed career).

Sources

• Ontario.ca, Security guard or private investigator licence (individuals) — eligibility, application package, online 15-day and mail 30-day processing, out-of-province rules, cost ($80 individual, $160 dual, $80 change of type), digital-only licences, photo requirements —
• Ontario.ca, Training syllabus for private investigators — minimum 50 in-class hours, eight sections with suggested durations, modernization notice —
• Ontario.ca, Private Security and Investigative Services Act, 2005 — section 6 (individual licence employment condition), section 7 (licence to engage in the business of selling services) —
• Government of British Columbia, Security worker licence — security worker licence required for private investigators, out-of-province licence does not substitute, fingerprinting —
• BC Laws, Private Investigators and Security Agencies (Ministerial) Regulation — age 19, Canadian citizen or permanent resident, 2 years' experience for a private-investigator business licence —
• Job Bank Canada, Private Investigator job requirements — Quebec BSP permit requirement; Alberta, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador regulated status and regulatory bodies —
• Ontario Security Guard and Private Investigator Testing (Serco, via the testing links on the ontario.ca licence page above) — exam administration, training completion number required to book; exam format and pass mark as described in training-provider materials, fee and sitting length to be confirmed at booking