Out of Province Technicians Can Start in Your Bay in 10 Business Days
Ontario certified 725 truck and transport mechanics in 2022. One year later Statistics Canada found 65 of them filing tax in another province, and not one newly certified truck tech from anywhere else in Canada had moved in to replace them.
Since 1 January 2026 that traffic is allowed to run both ways, and it runs faster than most of the owners we talk to expect. A licensed heavy duty technician in Red Deer can be legally working in a Mississauga bay inside 10 business days, with no Ontario exam and no wait for a file to clear Skilled Trades Ontario.
*Current as of September 2026. The national half of this is still being negotiated, and ministers meet again on 2 October.*
## What the rule says
[Ontario Regulation 199/25](https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/r25199), made under the [Ontario Labour Mobility Act, 2009](https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/09o24), came into force on 1 January 2026, and section 1 prescribes every regulated occupation in the province, so the trades are in.
A worker already certified in the same occupation by another province or territory gives the Ontario regulator their authorizing certificate plus whatever information the regulator has prescribed, and section 10.1(3) of the Act then gives the regulator 10 business days to issue a notice of receipt. From the date on the notice the worker is deemed certified in Ontario for six months, treated under section 10.1(4) as certified for all purposes under the authorizing statute, which Table 1 of the Act names for the trades as the Building Opportunities in the Skilled Trades Act, 2021.
The six months is a one-time period per person, spent completing the ordinary labour mobility application. Since July 2025 the Act has required a decision on that application within 30 calendar days of a complete file.
## What a regulator can still ask for
Section 4(2) of the regulation sets the ceiling. A regulator can ask the worker to attest that every out-of-province certificate they hold is in good standing, that no regulator has refused to certify them in the last two years, and that no misconduct proceeding is open against them. It can charge a fee, ask for a police record check or require insurance, in each case only where it already asks the same of an ordinary Ontario applicant. It can require a jurisdictional knowledge exam, and under section 6 that requirement falls away if the exam is not put in front of the applicant within 10 business days.
Section 2 is the exception to watch. A worker sits outside the process where Ontario has adopted a published certification requirement under Article 707 of the Canadian Free Trade Agreement against the province they are certified in.
## What Skilled Trades Ontario has published
Section 9 of the regulation tells every Ontario regulator to publish, on its own website, a statement that deemed certification is available, an explanation of how it works, and the information it requires. As of 15 September 2026 the Skilled Trades Ontario site carries no such page. The published route is still [Recognized Canadian Certificates](https://www.skilledtradesontario.ca/experienced-workers/recognized-canadian-certificates/), the older labour mobility process, at $50 plus HST to verify a Canadian authorizing certificate and ending in a full Ontario Certificate of Qualification with no further training or examination. Your hire should start that application and, on the same day, ask for deemed certification by name and in writing, because that request is what starts the 10 business days.
## Where the certified people are
Alberta granted 1,185 heavy duty equipment technician certificates in 2024. Ontario granted 171.
Alberta on its own accounts for more than half of the 2,070 granted in the whole country that year, and British Columbia granted another 414. A shop staffing 421A work out of the Ontario pool is fishing in water that produces about one certificate for every seven Alberta produces, which is the argument for looking west now that looking west is practical.
The automotive and industrial trades run the other way. Ontario granted 1,212 automotive service technician certificates in 2024 against Alberta's 504, and 747 millwright certificates against Alberta's 219. Which province you recruit from depends on which bay you are filling.
## What Ontario has been losing
Statistics Canada follows newly certified journeypersons and reports which province they file tax in. Ontario's 2022 truck and transport mechanic cohort was 725 people, and one year on, 65 had left, zero had arrived, and the province was down 9.9% of the group. Alberta's cohort that year was 180 and it finished the same twelve months with a net gain of 40, up 24.2%, while British Columbia gained 15 on a cohort of 170. Ontario's heavy duty equipment cohort came out even and its automotive cohort lost 2.5%, so the leak is specific to truck and coach.
The door opens in both directions. Whatever makes it easier to bring a Saskatchewan technician into Brampton makes it easier for a Brampton technician to take a job in Fort McMurray, and Ontario has been on the losing end of that exchange for years.
## What changed on 27 August
The Committee on Internal Trade met on 27 August 2026 and ratified amendments to the Canadian Free Trade Agreement that put a 30-day service standard on labour mobility applications everywhere in the country. Online digital registries for tradespersons are live in most provinces and territories, with the rest expected before the end of the year, which turns verifying a certificate into a desk job rather than a week of phone calls.
The same communique carries a date that matters to anyone running industrial maintenance. Jurisdictions have built common reference models for Working at Heights and Mobile Elevating Work Platform training and are working towards recognizing each other's by 1 January 2027. Deemed certification moves a trade certificate, and health and safety training sits outside it until that recognition arrives.
## How to run this on a real hire
In 2023, among Canadian businesses that hired somebody holding a certification or licence from another province, 19.9% named the wait for certification in the hiring province as an obstacle, and in repair and maintenance it was 23.4%. That wait is what the new rules are aimed at.
**Ask for the certificate number and the issuing province on the first call.** A valid out-of-province certificate in the same trade is the whole eligibility test, and most provinces now run a digital register you can check yourself.
**Request deemed certification in writing and keep the date.** The 10 business days run from the day the regulator has everything it asked for, and section 7 requires it to flag anything missing within 10 business days.
**Treat the six months as a ceiling.** The decision on the full certificate is due within 30 calendar days of a complete file, so somebody starting in October should hold an Ontario Certificate of Qualification well before Christmas.
**Price the offer against the province you are recruiting from.** A technician leaving Alberta heavy equipment work is comparing your number to an Alberta number, and the same rules that brought them here will take them back just as quickly.
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*Certus Technical Search places 310T, 421A, 310S and industrial trades across Canada. If you are weighing an out-of-province licensed hire and want to know what the offer has to look like, we are happy to tell you what we are seeing.*
**Sources.** [O. Reg. 199/25, Deemed Certification](https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/r25199); [Ontario Labour Mobility Act, 2009](https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/09o24); [Ontario, "As of Right" (deemed certification) guidance for Ontario regulatory authorities](https://www.ontario.ca/page/right-deemed-certification-non-health-occupations-guidance-ontario-regulatory-authorities); [Ontario, Labour mobility between provinces and territories](https://www.ontario.ca/page/labour-mobility-between-provinces-and-territories); [Skilled Trades Ontario, Recognized Canadian Certificates](https://www.skilledtradesontario.ca/experienced-workers/recognized-canadian-certificates/); [Statistics Canada, Table 37-10-0205, net mobility indicators of newly certified journeypersons](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3710020501); [Statistics Canada, Table 37-10-0142, certificates granted in Red Seal trades](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3710014201); [Statistics Canada, Table 33-10-0974, obstacles experienced when hiring out-of-province certificate holders](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3310097401); [Committee on Internal Trade communique, 27 August 2026](https://www.cfta-alec.ca/communique-august-27-2026-committee-on-internal-trade-meeting).