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Security guard in Québec: licence, salary and jobs

Follow the Québec guarding pathway from recognized training to a BSP agent permit. Compare the permit statistics and Job Bank evidence without treating permits as current jobs.

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

Official data at a glance

Gross hourly median

CAD 21.56

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

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BSP report p.14, Gardiennage row: includes regular and temporary permits. It counts permits in this activity, not unique employed people. The 60,789 all-category total also includes investigations, locksmithing and other activities and is not used as the guarding count.

The work and the licence

Guarding is one BSP activity category. A guarding permit does not automatically authorize investigation, locksmithing or every other private-security activity. Our route concerns an individual agent, not an agency or a supervisor permit without the right to practise.

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What the employment evidence means

Job Bank rates Québec Limited for 2025-2027: it anticipates some openings from growth and retirements, alongside experienced unemployed workers. Regional conditions differ: Montréal is Limited and Capitale-Nationale and Centre-du-Québec are Moderate. These are outlook categories, not a personal probability of employment.

  • Montréal: Limited
  • Capitale-Nationale: Moderate
  • Centre-du-Québec: Moderate
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Your licensing checklist

Steps checked: 0/4

  1. Be at least 18 and meet the BSP good-character, criminal-history, status-in-Canada, training and fitness requirements. The BSP performs its security assessment.

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  2. The standard school route is at least 70 hours: 30 on role, law and conduct, 24 on emergency procedures and 16 on workplace first aid recognized by CNESST. Other recognized or equivalence routes may apply.

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  3. Assessment belongs to the training route. The BSP training page does not publish a single province-wide multiple-choice exam format or pass mark. Our quiz format is an editorial practice format.

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  4. Use the BSP agent-application instructions and checklist, provide the evidence and pay the applicable fees. A pending application is not itself a permit. A regular permit has a five-year term, with annual fees in between.

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

Already licensed in another province?

A valid equivalent Canadian provincial licence may exempt the required training evidence. Guarding applicants must still provide accepted first-aid evidence and obtain a BSP permit. The BSP decides whether the exemption applies.

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Questions before you apply

Are 50,148 permits the number of employed guards?

No. It is the BSP count of valid guarding permits at 31 March 2025, including regular and temporary permits. A permit may be held by someone not currently employed in guarding.

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Is there an official BSP exam with our quiz format?

Not established by the published BSP training requirements. Schools assess their training. Our original practice questions are not a released BSP examination or a licence qualification.

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Can I use an Ontario security licence directly in Québec?

You need the applicable BSP permit. A training exemption may be possible, but it is not automatic permission to work on an Ontario licence. Follow the BSP process and first-aid requirements.

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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.