How to Start a Travel Agency Business in Canada
Start a travel agency in Canada: TICO registration in Ontario, BC licensing, Quebec permits, trust accounts, and the host-agency alternative.
How to Start a Staffing Agency Business in Canada
Start a staffing agency in Canada: choose temp staffing, permanent placement, or both, clear the provincial agency licence where one exists, and build a client base before you carry a payroll.
Applies in: across Canada
The short answer
A staffing agency is a trust-and-cash-flow business. The job board is the visible part, but the money is decided by three things: the licence, the client base, and the payroll float. In Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec, agency licensing is a legal requirement, not a nice-to-have, and clients in those provinces cannot knowingly use an unlicensed agency. A temp agency that hires workers before it has signed clients pays wages with no revenue. And a temp agency that grows faster than its payroll float pays its workers late, which ends the agency faster than a lost client. Pick the model, clear the licence for every province you will work in, and build signed client demand before you carry a payroll.
Step 1: Pick the model before you recruit anyone
There are two models, and they have different licensing, payroll, and cash-flow consequences:
- Temporary help agency. The agency employs workers and assigns them to clients on a temporary basis. The agency runs payroll, deductions, and workers' compensation coverage, and the client pays the agency a bill rate that covers the wage plus the agency's margin and costs. Revenue is recurring while assignments run, but the agency carries the payroll float: workers paid weekly, clients paying weeks later.
- Recruiter or permanent placement agency. The agency finds workers for employers for a fee, and the worker becomes the client's employee. No payroll float, no ongoing wage liability — but revenue is lumpy, paid per placement, and a placement that falls through in the first weeks can cost the fee.
Many agencies run both, but in Ontario that means two licences: a legal entity that both operates as a temporary help agency and acts as a recruiter must submit two separate applications, though it generally pays the $1,500 application fee only once. Decide the model first, because it decides which licences, which accounts, and which cash reserves you need.
Step 2: Clear the provincial licence for every province you operate in
Agency licensing is provincial, and the regimes differ. In Ontario, temporary help agencies and recruiters have been required to hold a licence under the Employment Standards Act, 2000 since July 1, 2024. Applications submitted on or after January 1, 2026 carry a fee of $1,500 for an initial application or a renewal, and the resulting licence generally expires two years after it is issued or renewed. A temporary help agency applying for an initial licence must provide $25,000 in security to the Director of Employment Standards, in the form of an electronic irrevocable letter of credit or a surety bond. Clients are prohibited from knowingly engaging an unlicensed agency or recruiter, and violations can lead to compliance orders, monetary penalties, and prosecution.
In British Columbia, section 12 of the Employment Standards Act prohibits operating an employment agency unless licensed under the Act, and the Employment Standards Regulation sets the licence application fee at $100. The director issues the licence only if the application is complete, the fee is paid, and the director is satisfied the agency will operate in the best interests of employers and persons seeking employment. Employment agency records — the name and address of each employer served, and the name, occupation, and address of each person directed to an employer — must be kept at the agency's principal place of business in British Columbia and retained for 2 years.
In Quebec, a personnel placement agency must hold a valid licence issued by the CNESST to carry on its activities in Quebec. Agency workers have the same rights as other Quebec workers, the agency cannot offer a lower hourly rate than the client company's workers doing the same tasks in the same establishment solely because of agency status, and after six months of assignment the client company may hire the worker and the agency cannot prevent it. Other provinces regulate agencies through general employment standards and consumer protection rules, and foreign worker recruitment carries its own strict rules in several provinces — check each province you will operate in, and check the foreign-worker rules separately if you will recruit internationally.
This guide is general information, not legal advice. Licensing turns on the exact model and provinces, so confirm the requirements with each regulator before you place anyone.
Step 3: Register the business and set up tax and payroll accounts
Register the business name in the province where the agency sits: $60 for five years in Ontario, and $40 plus a $30 name request in British Columbia, with other provinces in the same range. Get a Canada Revenue Agency business number, and set up payroll, GST/HST, and workers' compensation accounts before the first placement. A temp agency is an employer from the first assignment: payroll deductions, employer contributions, and workers' compensation coverage all start with the first worker, not with the first profitable month.
Register for GST/HST when your taxable sales pass the $30,000 threshold — or voluntarily before it, so you can claim input tax credits on software, office costs, and recruiting expenses. If you operate in Quebec, you also deal with QST, and provinces with a separate provincial sales tax need their own registration. Open a business bank account before the first client payment, and keep client receipts, worker payroll, and tax money in separate accounts: a temp agency that mixes payroll money with operating cash is one late client payment from a missed pay run.
Step 4: Build the client base before you carry a payroll
Signed client agreements come before a roster of workers on payroll. A temp agency that recruits workers before it has clients pays wages with no revenue, and a placement agency that recruits candidates before it has roles wastes its recruiters' time on people it cannot place. Start with the roles: which employers, in which sectors, need which workers, and what will they pay per hour or per placement?
Win the first clients on a niche, not on a promise to staff everything. A new agency that claims to cover warehousing, health care, and office roles on day one convinces nobody; an agency that knows one sector's roles, wages, and shift patterns convinces the employers in that sector. Get the client terms in writing before the first assignment: the bill rate, the pay rate, and the billing cycle. Also settle the conversion terms if the client hires the worker, and who handles safety training and site orientation. A verbal rate agreement that drifts is a dispute waiting for the first invoice.
Step 5: Build the candidate pipeline and the compliance file
Recruiting is the operating core: where candidates come from, how they are screened, how references are checked, and how the file is kept. Keep the records each province requires — in British Columbia, employment agency records kept for 2 years at the principal place of business — and keep them in a form you can produce on request. Screening must match the role: a warehouse role needs different checks from a health care role, and a role involving vulnerable people needs the checks that sector requires.
Treat candidate communication as a product: workers who are kept informed about the role, the wage, the hours, and the start date show up, and workers left guessing do not. In Ontario, agencies must give assignment employees specific information about the assignment, including the client's name, the wage rate, and the work — build that disclosure into the assignment routine rather than treating it as paperwork. Never charge a worker a fee until you have checked the provincial rule for that model and province: fee rules differ, and a prohibited fee is a compliance failure, not a revenue line.
Step 6: Open with contracts, billing, and a pay cycle clients can trust
The operating rhythm that keeps an agency alive is simple and unforgiving: workers paid on time, every time; clients billed on the agreed cycle, with hours that match the timesheets; and a payroll float large enough to cover the gap between paying workers and being paid by clients. Set the pay cycle before the first assignment, test the payroll run with a small group before it carries a large roster, and keep a reserve for the client who pays late — because one will.
Bill from verified hours, not from estimates, and reconcile every invoice against timesheets before it goes out. A client who finds billing errors stops trusting the agency's hours, and a worker who finds pay errors stops trusting the agency's wages. Both kinds of trust are the business: clients buy reliable workers, workers stay with agencies that pay correctly, and an agency that does both, on time, every cycle, is the agency that survives its first year.
Related guides: How to Register a Sole Proprietorship and GST/HST in Canada, How to Incorporate Federally vs Provincially in Canada, Do Freelancers Need a Business Licence in Canada, and Best Business Bank Accounts for New Businesses in Canada.
Starting a staffing agency in Canada, in six steps
- Pick the model: temp staffing, permanent placement, or bothA temp agency employs workers and assigns them to clients. A placement agency finds workers for employers for a fee. Each model has different licensing, payroll, and cash-flow consequences.
- Clear the provincial licence for every province you operate inOntario requires a licence for temporary help agencies and recruiters. British Columbia requires an employment agency licence. Quebec requires a CNESST licence for personnel placement agencies. Check each province you will work in.
- Register the business and set up tax and payroll accountsRegister the business name provincially, get a Canada Revenue Agency business number, and set up payroll, GST/HST, and workers' compensation accounts before the first placement.
- Build the client base before you carry a payrollSigned client agreements and a pipeline of roles come before a roster of workers on payroll. A temp agency that hires workers before it has clients pays wages with no revenue.
- Build the candidate pipeline and the compliance fileRecruiting, screening, reference checks, and the records each province requires — in British Columbia, employment agency records kept for 2 years — are the operating core.
- Open with contracts, billing, and a pay cycle clients can trustClient terms, worker pay terms, billing cycles, and a payroll that runs on time decide whether clients and workers stay. A missed pay run ends an agency faster than a lost client.
What a staffing agency costs to enter, in verified figures
| Ontario temporary help agency or recruiter licence application | $1,500, valid for 2 years |
|---|---|
| Ontario security for a temporary help agency licence | $25,000 |
| British Columbia employment agency licence application | $100 |
| Ontario business name registration | $60 for 5 years |
| British Columbia business name registration | $40 plus a $30 name request |
Ontario's $1,500 fee and two-year term apply to applications submitted on or after January 1, 2026; a legal entity applying for both a temporary help agency licence and a recruiter licence generally pays the fee only once. The $25,000 Ontario security takes the form of an electronic irrevocable letter of credit or a surety bond. Quebec's CNESST licence and other provinces' requirements carry their own fees and conditions — check each regulator before you budget.
Questions people ask
Do I need a licence to run a staffing agency in Canada?
It depends on the province and on the model, and the answer is yes in the three provinces with the clearest regimes. In Ontario, temporary help agencies and recruiters have been required to hold a [licence](https://www.ontario.ca/page/licensing-temporary-help-agencies-and-recruiters) under the Employment Standards Act, 2000 since July 1, 2024, and clients are prohibited from knowingly engaging an unlicensed agency or recruiter. In British Columbia, section 12 of the Employment Standards Act prohibits operating an employment agency unless licensed under the Act, and the Employment Standards Regulation sets the application fee at $100. In Quebec, a personnel placement agency must hold a valid [licence issued by the CNESST](https://www.cnesst.gouv.qc.ca/en/working-conditions/categories-workers/personnel-placement-agency-workers) to carry on its activities in Quebec, and client companies must ensure the agency they use holds one. Other provinces regulate agencies through general employment standards, consumer protection, and — for foreign worker recruitment — specific recruiter rules, so check each province you will operate in before you place anyone. This guide is general information, not legal advice.
What is the difference between a temp agency, a recruiter, and a placement agency?
The difference is who employs the worker and who pays the fee. A temporary help agency is an employer that employs workers for the purpose of assigning them to perform work on a temporary basis for clients — the agency runs payroll, and the client pays the agency. A recruiter finds or attempts to find employment for prospective employees, or finds employees for prospective employers, for a fee — the worker ends up employed by the client, not by the recruiter. A permanent placement agency is the common name for a recruiter working on permanent roles, usually paid a fee by the employer when the placement starts or completes. The distinction matters because licensing follows it: in Ontario, a legal entity that both operates as a temporary help agency and acts as a recruiter must submit two separate applications, one for each licence, though it generally pays the application fee only once.
How much does it cost to start a staffing agency in Canada?
This guide gives verified fees, not a total, because a home-based placement agency and a temp agency carrying a weekly payroll are different businesses. In Ontario, a temporary help agency or recruiter licence application costs $1,500 for applications submitted on or after January 1, 2026, and the resulting licence generally expires two years after it is issued or renewed; a temporary help agency must also provide $25,000 in security, as an electronic irrevocable letter of credit or a surety bond. In British Columbia, an employment agency licence application costs $100. Business name registration costs $60 for five years in Ontario and $40 plus a $30 name request in British Columbia. The larger costs are the ones no fee table shows: a payroll float for temp workers paid before clients pay you, recruiting software, insurance, and the working capital to survive a client who pays late. A temp agency without a payroll float is a business that cannot make its first pay run.
Can a staffing agency charge workers a fee?
Do not charge a worker anything until you have checked the rules in every province you operate in. Employment standards rules restrict or prohibit fees charged to workers in several provinces, and the rules differ by model: a fee charged to a job seeker for placement is treated differently from a fee charged to a client for recruitment, and foreign worker recruitment carries its own strict rules in several provinces. In Ontario, the licensing regime also sets out what agencies must tell assignment employees — including the client's name, the wage rate, and the work — and clients are barred from knowingly using unlicensed agencies. The safe order is: check the provincial rule, write the fee term into the client contract rather than the worker agreement, and get advice on the specific arrangement before you charge anything. This guide is general information, not legal advice.
Do I need GST/HST registration for a staffing agency?
Staffing and placement services are generally taxable supplies, so once your taxable sales pass $30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters, or $30,000 in a single calendar quarter, you must register for GST/HST and charge it on your fees. You have 29 days from the day you pass the threshold to register. Most agencies register voluntarily before the threshold so they can claim input tax credits on software, office costs, and recruiting expenses. If you operate in Quebec, you also deal with QST, and provinces with a separate provincial sales tax require their own registration. Temp staffing adds a payroll tax layer on top: as the employer of assignment workers, the agency runs payroll deductions, employer contributions, and workers' compensation coverage, and those accounts must be set up before the first assignment, not after the first pay run.
What are the biggest risks in a staffing agency business?
Cash flow first: a temp agency pays workers weekly and gets paid by clients weeks later, so growth itself can break the agency — every new client is a new payroll float to fund. Client concentration second: one large client that pauses hiring or pays late can take the agency's revenue with it, so a pipeline of several clients is a survival requirement, not a growth goal. Compliance third: operating without a required licence, misclassifying workers, or charging a prohibited fee draws enforcement that a small agency cannot absorb — in Ontario, licensing violations can lead to compliance orders, monetary penalties, and prosecution. And reputation fourth: a worker placed badly, paid late, or misled about the job tells other workers, and in a trade where the candidate pool is the product, that story travels faster than any advertisement.
Sources
- Government of Ontario, Licensing for temporary help agencies and recruiters — licence required since July 1, 2024; $1,500 fee and two-year term for applications on or after January 1, 2026; $25,000 security —
- Government of British Columbia, Employment Standards Regulation — employment agency licence application fee of $100; records retained for 2 years —
- CNESST, Personnel placement agency workers — agency must hold a valid CNESST licence; wage parity; client may hire after six months —
- Canada Revenue Agency, General Information for GST/HST Registrants — small supplier threshold of $30,000 in a single calendar quarter or over the last four consecutive calendar quarters —
- FedDev Ontario, Starting a business — Getting started — Ontario business name registration costs $60 and is valid for five years —