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Security guard in British Columbia: licence, salary and jobs

Understand the BC security worker licence, Basic Security Training and the local job outlook. Keep the course, assessment and licence fees separate when planning your budget.

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Start free practice →Official application ↗How to read these numbers

Official data at a glance

Gross hourly median

CAD 22.75

2023-2024 data · published 19 Nov 2025 · NOC 64410

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The official open-data record describes licences issued per year by category. Issuance is a flow and can include renewals; it cannot stand in for the number of currently licensed people. This edition leaves the active-holder total unavailable, not zero.

The work and the licence

A BC security worker licence specifies the type of security activity. This pathway focuses on ordinary security guard work and Basic Security Training. It does not cover every specialist category, restraint authorization or additional training requirement.

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What the employment evidence means

The province-wide 2025-2027 outlook is Limited. Job Bank lists Moderate prospects in Lower Mainland-Southwest and Vancouver Island and Coast, with Limited prospects in several other regions. The CA$22.75 median is gross hourly pay from an earlier reference period, not a cost-of-living-adjusted provincial ranking.

  • Lower Mainland-Southwest: Moderate
  • Vancouver Island and Coast: Moderate
  • Thompson-Okanagan: Limited
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Your licensing checklist

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  1. For this route, be at least 19, ordinarily resident in Canada, able to work in Canada and meet the training and English requirements. The regulator assesses eligibility and prescribed checks.

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  2. The standard BST theory course is 40 hours through JIBC or an approved school. Check whether a training or experience exemption applies before purchasing a course.

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  3. JIBC publishes a 75-question, 90-minute assessment with a minimum 70% grade. Follow its booking rules. The academic proof is the JIBC transcript; BST certificates are no longer issued from 15 December 2025.

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  4. Prepare identity and work-status evidence, photo, training evidence, consent and initial fingerprints. Use the BC Security Services Platform through the official application page. Training completion alone is not the licence.

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Checks are only a personal reminder on this page. They are not saved, sent or proof of eligibility.

Moving to BC with another licence

The provincial application page still requires a BC security worker licence for out-of-province licensees. Check category-specific training recognition and exemptions with Security Programs; another licence is not a blanket authorization for BC work.

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Questions before you apply

Why is the BC licence-holder total missing?

We did not verify a current active-person total with a comparable definition. The public dataset describes annual issuance. Treating that number as active workers would mislead the comparison.

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Does the higher median mean BC is the best province?

No. CA$22.75 is the 2023-2024 provincial gross hourly median for NOC 64410. It excludes a personal comparison of rent, commuting, guaranteed hours and actual offers. The outlook varies by region.

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Does free BST practice provide the official qualification?

No. Our original questions have explanations but are not the JIBC assessment or an approved course. Complete the official route and apply for the appropriate licence.

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Definitions, dates and limits

  • Licensing records measure authorization, not whether a holder works or is seeking work. Ontario counts individuals in separate licence categories; Québec counts permits including temporary permits. Do not rank provinces by these totals.
  • Wages refer to the broad occupational group NOC 64410, security guards and related security service occupations, not exclusively newly licensed guards. The median is gross CAD per hour, using the 2023-2024 reference period; the release date is 19 November 2025. It is not a current offer, minimum wage or take-home salary.
  • Employment outlooks are Job Bank assessments for 2025-2027, released 10 December 2025. Limited does not mean no jobs; regional assessments can differ. We do not turn them into a personal hiring probability.
  • No live posting total or provincial vacancy estimate is stored here. External Job Bank listings cover that service, not every opening. Statistics Canada vacancy estimates are a separate quarterly survey measure. Missing or suppressed data are unavailable, not zero.
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Official references

The reference period describes the data; the checked date describes our editorial review. A page update is not a new statistical observation.