Hire a millwright in Québec.

The ratio on the books is 2 journeypersons per apprentice in industrial, institutional-commercial, and civil engineering and roads. On site, you need at least 1 journeyperson present to supervise 1 apprentice daily. A journeyperson can oversee up to 2 apprentices if the apprentice is in their final period or is a woman. That daily minimum matters in a trade where only 1,042 workers were active in 2024, so ratio flexibility can help you keep training pipelines moving. Since 38% of millwrights travel between regions for work, don't assume your local pool reflects the full number of journeypersons available to your sites. Millwrights on your crew will also typically need to fabricate jigs and handle lifting, rigging, and welding tasks alongside their core mechanical work, so factor that broader skill set into how you structure apprentice supervision.

You need to require either the apprentice competency certificate (CCA) or the journeyperson competency certificate (CCC) issued by the CCQ. Without one of those cards, a worker legally can't work in this trade on CCQ-regulated sites. Beyond the card itself, it's worth confirming practical experience with the specific equipment your site runs — turbines, conveyors, or compressors call for different hands-on skills, and rigging, welding, and basic machining ability aren't always listed on the certificate itself. The ASP Construction health and safety course is also mandatory before a worker steps on site. It's also worth confirming hands-on experience with your specific equipment — conveyors, turbines, wind turbines, compressors, or production lines — since the CCA and CCC alone don't specify which machinery a worker has handled.

Yes, the labour supply is tight. In 2024, only 169 companies were splitting 1,042 active workers, with an average age of 42.7. Retirements are picking up. New apprentice recruitment is rising (106 admitted in 2024), but the 6,000-hour path to journeyperson creates a lag between demand and supply. The upside is that admissions are trending in the right direction — 106 new apprentices in 2024, up from a 67-per-year average in the prior four years. Given 38% of millwrights already travel between regions for work, widening your search beyond your immediate area can help close the gap faster than waiting on new graduates alone. That gap is partly regional too: with 38% of millwrights already travelling between regions for work, a shortage in your immediate area doesn't necessarily reflect the province-wide pool of available journeypersons and apprentices.