How to Get a Security Guard Licence in Ontario

You cannot work as a security guard in Ontario without a licence — it's a legal requirement, not an industry preference. The good news: the path is one of the most straightforward licences in Ontario. No degree, no experience, no interview. It's five steps — eligibility, a 40-hour course, an exam, a police check, and the licence application — governed by the Private Security and Investigative Services Act and administered by the Ministry of the Solicitor General's Private Security and Investigative Services Branch. This guide follows the process as ontario.ca describes it today, because much of what ranks online is stale: pages quoting $75-ish fee figures the Ministry no longer lists, promising physical licence cards that haven't been issued for years, 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: Ontario Health Cards are not accepted as identification documents, and if your name differs from your IDs, you'll need a government-issued name-change document.

Step 2: Take the 40-hour mandatory training course

Every applicant must complete the mandatory basic training for security guards from a training provider the Ministry approves. The syllabus is provincially set: roughly 33.5 hours of security curriculum plus 6.5 hours of Emergency First Aid with CPR/AED certification. Core modules cover your role and responsibilities under the PSISA, legal authorities and the Canadian legal system, use-of-force theory, report and note-taking, emergency response, health and safety, and professional communication.

Training is offered online or in person — private career colleges, community colleges, and licensed agencies all run approved versions. On completing it, your provider gives you an Ontario Training Completion Number (TCN), which you need to book the exam and later to apply. Double-check the TCN's name and date of birth match your ID exactly.

On cost: the course typically runs $75–$230 plus HST, and First Aid is sometimes bundled and sometimes a separate $75–$110. The First Aid component is in-person (usually one 8-hour day) even when the rest is online. Shop providers on pass rate and instructor support, not just price — and note that use-of-force/handcuffing certification is not part of the basic syllabus; employers ask for it separately later for specific roles.

Step 3: Pass the Ministry licensing exam

The exam is administered by Serco (Ontario Security Guard and Private Investigator Testing). The format:

• 60 multiple-choice questions, 75 minutes (within a 90-minute appointment)
• Passing grade: 62% (about 38 correct answers)
• Cost: $40 plus 13% HST = $45.20 (raised from $35 on November 1, 2026)
• Available in person at test centres across Ontario, or online via remote proctoring
• Results typically within 2–5 business days

Study what the exam actually weights: legal authority vs. citizen's arrest limits (the single most-tested distinction), incident report writing (clear, chronological, factual), emergency response steps, and occupational health and safety. If you fail, you can retake the exam after re-registering and paying the fee again.

Step 4: Get your Criminal Record and Judicial Matters Check

The CRJMC is the Level 2 police check the Ministry requires. Order it from your local police service or an authorized provider — it typically costs $25–$60. If you apply for the licence online, you must receive and submit the CRJMC as an original, unaltered digital PDF. For renewal applications, the CRJMC must have been issued within the last 6 months, so don't order it too early.

Step 5: Apply for the licence

Apply online through ServiceOntario — it's the fastest route. A correctly completed online application takes up to 15 calendar days; a mail application takes up to 30. Your application package:

• Your Ontario Testing Completion Number (TCN)
• Your Ontario mailing address
• Your CRJMC in its official format
• A quality photo meeting the photo requirements (typically valid for 6 years)
• The front and back of two different valid, non-expired government-issued ID documents (one proving work eligibility)
• The $80 licence fee

Online payment is by Visa/Mastercard credit or Visa/Mastercard 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.

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's closed. 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.

Staying licensed: renewals and rules

Your licence expires two birthdays after it's issued (roughly two years), and renewals are also $80. You can renew up to 90 days before expiry; don't leave it late, because there's a restriction window — you can't update licence information or change licence type when the licence is expired or within 90 days of expiry. While licensed, you must notify the Ministry within 5 days if you're convicted of an offence listed in the Clean Criminal Record Regulation, and you must carry a digital or printed copy of your licence at all times on duty.

If you also want to do investigation work, the dual security-guard-and-private-investigator licence costs $160; changing licence type later costs $80. Note one oddity: a dual-licence holder cannot work as a guard and a private investigator at the same time.

Coming from another province

If you hold a valid security guard licence from another Canadian province or territory, you skip Ontario's training and testing entirely. Submit your out-of-province licence details (number, type, expiry, province, plus front/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're deemed certified and can work in Ontario for 6 months while review continues. The full licensing decision comes within 30 calendar days.

Is it worth it?

The honest case: entry is genuinely cheap and fast for licensed work — all-in costs run roughly $270–$450 and the licence can be in hand in a month. Recent Ontario postings advertise roughly $17–$28 per hour depending on the site and shift (event and retail sites pay toward the lower end; Job Bank-derived data puts the occupation's median around $22–$23/hour), with Commissionaires, condo concierge, retail loss prevention, transit, and event security as the big employers. The honest risks: it's shift work — evenings, nights, weekends, and holidays are the norm; much of the work is part-time or contract; and the licence is step zero of the career, not the career. Guards who move up do it through supervisory roles, mobile patrol, or corporate security, or they use the experience as a stepping stone toward policing and corrections.

Related: security guard licence cost in Ontario (this process priced out line by line: training, the $45.20 exam, the police check, the $80 licence and what renewal really costs), how to start job hunting in Canada (where the guard jobs actually get posted), how to open a business bank account in Canada (some guards work as contractors through agencies — keep the money separate), and how to start freelancing in Canada (the CRA mechanics if you go the self-employed route), and how to get a security guard licence in British Columbia (the British Columbia version of this process — Basic Security Training through the Justice Institute of BC, fingerprints, and a one-to-three-year licence term), and how to become a private investigator in Ontario (the parallel PSISA licence — 50-hour training, the Serco exam, the same $80 fee — and the agency-employment rule that decides how investigators actually work).

Sources

• Government of Ontario, Security guard or private investigator licence (individuals) — eligibility, fees, renewals, and out-of-province applications.
• Government of Ontario, Training syllabus for security guards — the training hours and the syllabus sections.
• Government of Ontario, Security guard study guide — the test format, the cut score, and the results timing.
• Ontario Security Guard and Private Investigator Testing, Book A Test — booking and the training completion number.
• Serco Canada, Ontario Security Guard and Private Investigator Testing — the test fee increase to $40 plus HST effective November 1, 2026.