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CCQ trade · Interior Systems Installer (Drywaller)
Interior Systems Installer (Drywaller) in Québec: wage, competency card and outlook.
What aninterior systems installer (drywaller) does, what it pays under the CCQ, how you get your competency card, and where the market is headed. The facts, sourced, no fluff.
CCQ wage
How much does aninterior systems installer (drywaller) earn in Québec?
$45.76 – $50.28 / hour (journeyperson, by sector, April 26, 2026)
Hourly rates are set by the collective agreements of Québec's construction industry and vary by sector: $45.76/h in light residential, $49.61/h in heavy residential, $50.16/h in institutional-commercial and industrial and $50.28/h in civil engineering and roads (journeyperson rate, effective April 26, 2026). Apprentices earn a percentage of that rate depending on their apprenticeship period. Official grids published by the ACQ (residential and institutional-commercial-industrial) and the ACRGTQ (civil engineering and roads).
The trade
Interior systems installers build walls, partitions, and ceilings using steel studs and metal furring, then install drywall or composite panels over the frame. They read plans, take measurements, cut and fasten panels, and finish the joints that prepare a building's interior surfaces. Most of the work is on institutional and commercial job sites.
Competency card
How to become a CCQ-carded interior systems installer (drywaller).
Interior systems installers must hold a CCQ competency card to work on job sites governed by the R-20 Act. The main path in is the DEP in Interior Systems Installation (program 5350, 735 hours). After the DEP, the apprentice competency certificate (CCA) is issued on presentation of a job guarantee of 150 hours over 3 consecutive months with a CCQ-registered employer. The apprentice then completes 3 periods of 2,000 hours each (6,000 hours total), then passes the provincial qualification exam to earn the journeyperson competency certificate (CCC). The ratio is 1 journeyperson per apprentice in residential; in institutional-commercial, industrial, and civil engineering, a minimum of 1 journeyperson per apprentice is required on site each day, with a second apprentice allowed per journeyperson when one of them is in their final apprenticeship period (maximum 2 apprentices).
Outlook
The interior systems installer (drywaller) market, in 2025.
In 2024, 2,914 interior systems installers were active on Quebec job sites while 1,034 companies were trying to recruit them — a ratio that points to heavy pressure on the available labour pool. Only 161 new apprentices were admitted into the trade that year. The CCQ rates job prospects for this trade as "excellent," driven by high turnover and a graduate pipeline seen as insufficient to meet job site needs. The average age of active workers is 38.2 (42.0 among journeypersons), younger than in several other trades, but new talent is still in demand. The trade is heavily concentrated in institutional-commercial, which accounted for 95% of hours worked in 2024.
What it takes
The skills in demand.
- Valid CCQ competency certificate (apprentice or journeyperson) — mandatory to work on CCQ-regulated job sites
- ASP Construction card (general health and safety on job sites) — required to obtain the CCQ competency certificate
- Skilled at framing steel studs and metal furring, installing drywall panels, and finishing joints
- Ability to read plans and specs to build walls, partitions, and ceilings to code
- Experience in institutional-commercial, which accounts for 95% of hours worked in the trade
Frequently asked questions
The interior systems installer (drywaller) trade, plainly.
Do I need the DEP in Interior Systems Installation to get into the trade?
It's the most common and direct path: the DEP in Interior Systems Installation (program 5350, 735 hours) gets you the apprentice competency certificate (CCA) right at graduation, provided you have a job guarantee of 150 hours over 3 consecutive months with a CCQ-registered employer. The training is shorter than for several other construction trades, which lets you get on job sites quickly. Other entry paths may exist depending on your situation — check ccq.org directly. The context works in your favour: in 2024, 2,914 installers were active and 1,034 companies were recruiting, for only 161 new apprentices admitted. The CCQ also rates job prospects for this trade as excellent, which improves your odds of landing a job guarantee quickly.
How long before I become a journeyperson and earn full rate?
You need to log 6,000 apprenticeship hours across 3 periods of 2,000 hours each, then pass the provincial qualification exam. Working full-time, that's roughly 3 years. Your rate climbs with each period during the apprenticeship: in industrial, institutional-commercial, you go from $30.10/h in period 1 to $42.64/h in period 3 (April 26, 2026). Once you're a journeyperson, the full rate runs from $45.76/h in light residential to $50.28/h in civil engineering and roads, depending on sector. Institutional-commercial, where 95% of the trade's work is concentrated, pays $50.16/h to journeypersons. With 1,034 companies recruiting in 2024 for only 161 new apprentices, demand for freshly qualified journeypersons should stay strong.
Which sector has the most work for interior systems installers?
Institutional-commercial dominates by a wide margin: it accounted for 95% of hours worked by interior systems installers in 2024. Residential trails far behind at 4%, industrial at 1%, and civil engineering at practically 0%. In practice, almost all the positions are in hospitals, schools, office towers, retail spaces, and other institutional and commercial buildings — that's where most of the wall, partition, and ceiling framing in steel studs and drywall happens. Interregional mobility is lower than the trade average (11% of installers travel between regions, versus 16% overall), a sign that the work is spread fairly evenly across Quebec without much need to relocate. The journeyperson hourly rate there reaches $50.16/h (April 26, 2026).
Sector breakdown, regional mobility and apprenticeship progression figures are drawn from Commission de la construction du Québec data. Hourly rates: official grids published by the ACQ (residential, institutional-commercial and industrial) and the ACRGTQ (civil engineering and roads), in force since April 26, 2026. acq.org
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