Millwright in Québec: wage, competency card and outlook.

The CCA (apprentice competency certificate) is your entry ticket into the trade: you get it with your industrial mechanics DEP and a job guarantee. The CCC (journeyperson competency certificate) is the full trade credential, which you earn after 6,000 apprenticeship hours and passing the provincial qualification exam. That exam covers three hours and 61 questions, with a 60% pass threshold to clear. Once you've earned your CCC, journeyperson rates run from $47.85/h in residential up to $50.79/h in industrial, the sector where most millwright work actually happens. Millwrights also fabricate jigs and handle lifting, machining, and welding work as part of routine equipment commissioning, so the CCC signals broad hands-on competence, not just time served. Rates for a journeyperson also range up to $50.87/h in civil engineering, versus $47.85/h in residential.

Mainly in industrial (60% of hours in 2024) and civil engineering and roads (32%). Institutional-commercial makes up about 8% of opportunities. Large infrastructure sites and industrial projects are your best bet. That matches the kind of equipment millwrights work on day to day — conveyors, turbines, wind turbines, compressors, and production lines — which is concentrated in those same industrial and civil engineering settings. With only 1,042 active millwrights in Quebec in 2024, experience in those sectors makes you a stronger candidate. That's consistent with the equipment millwrights actually work on — conveyors, turbines, wind turbines, compressors, and production lines — most of which sits on industrial and civil engineering sites rather than smaller residential jobs. With wind farms and other major projects driving new apprentice admissions up to 106 in 2024, that demand looks set to continue.

Yes. About 38% of millwrights travel between regions to follow the work. It's a mobile trade, especially for industrial projects out in the regions. That mobility is paying off for workers right now: new apprentice admissions jumped to 106 in 2024, well above the 67-per-year average from 2020-2023, as wind farms, plants, and civil engineering sites across the province ramp up demand. With the average millwright now 42.7 years old, regional projects are also where a lot of the upcoming retirements will need replacing. Fabricating jigs and handling the lifting, rigging, and welding side of the job also travels well from site to site, since those skills apply regardless of which region a wind farm, plant, or civil engineering project happens to be in. With the average millwright now 42.7 years old, mobile workers are especially well positioned.