Do contractors need a licence in Ontario?

Which trades actually require a licence in Ontario?

Twenty three of them. Skilled Trades Ontario, the provincial regulator, calls these the compulsory trades, and it names plumber, electrician, steamfitter and hairstylist among them. To work in one of those you must hold a valid Certificate of Qualification, a Provisional Certificate of Qualification, or a Registered Training Agreement, and the regulator publishes a Public Register so anyone can check a person holds one.[1]

Everything else is a non-compulsory trade. The work is legal to do without a certificate, which is why the trades on this site have no licence for you to ask after.

Do flooring installers need a licence?

No, and this is the part most people get wrong. Floor Covering Installer is a real trade named under the Building Opportunities in the Skilled Trades Act, 2021. It has an apprenticeship, a certifying exam and Red Seal status. Somebody can genuinely earn a Certificate of Qualification in it.

But it is non-compulsory, and Skilled Trades Ontario is explicit about what follows from that: the certificate does not have to be renewed, and people practising the trade do not appear on the Public Register.[2]

So an installer may be fully certified and you still cannot verify it on the register, because the register only carries the compulsory trades.[3] Anyone who tells you to "check they are licensed" for flooring is sending you to look something up that was never going to be there.

Do garage door installers need a licence?

No. Ontario does not name a garage door trade at all, so there is no apprenticeship, no certificate and no register entry to hold. Garage door work sits outside the trade certification system entirely.

That does not make it low skill. A sectional door hangs on a spring under enough tension to injure somebody badly, which is exactly why what you check is insurance and coverage rather than a certificate that does not exist.

So what should you actually check before you hire?

Three things, and all three are documents a contractor can hand you today.

• A WSIB clearance certificate. It confirms the business is registered with the WSIB and current on its premiums at the moment it was issued. It is a statement about their account on that date, and it says nothing about how your job will go.
• Liability insurance. Ask for the certificate and look at the dates and the amount, not just the fact that one exists.
• An HST number, if the work is over the small supplier threshold. A business charging HST without one is a problem you do not want to inherit.

Then the things no document covers: references you actually phone, a written quote that itemises the work, and a start date somebody will put in writing.

Does a licence tell you the work will be good?

No, and it is worth saying plainly. Even in the compulsory trades a certificate proves someone passed an exam, not that they will turn up, clean up or stand behind the job. In the non-compulsory trades there is no exam in the picture at all.

What is left is the boring evidence: how long they have been doing it, whose floors or doors you can go and look at, and whether they carry the coverage that protects you when something goes wrong.

How 905 Trades handles this

Every contractor introduced here is required to carry WSIB coverage and liability insurance, and to confirm their HST registration, before they take referred work. That is the standard the network is built on.

Here is the part most directories will not put in writing. Partners confirm that position to us themselves, and we take them at their word, because the operator chose each of them by name. 905 Trades does not collect the certificates and holds no copies. Nobody here has audited a policy or pulled a clearance number, so our word is one person's judgment about companies he picked, not a paperwork audit.

Which means the advice higher up this page applies to our partners exactly as it applies to anyone else you might hire: ask to see the certificate of liability insurance and the WSIB clearance certificate before work starts, and read the dates on them. Each partner's own page says what that business told us and on what date, rather than implying a check that has not happened. You can read them on the partners page.