If you finished your apprenticeship and earned your Red Seal any time since April 2025, Ottawa wants to send you $5,000.
The new Red Seal Completion Bonus is open to eligible tradespeople across Canada. Applications open Nov. 16.
It’s not just for people certifying now. Anyone certified in an eligible Red Seal trade on or after April 1, 2025, can apply. That’s a year and a half of people who may not know they qualify.
If you hold more than one eligible Red Seal, you can get $5,000 for each one, up to $50,000.
In Alberta, that’s a big pool. The province had more than 78,000 registered apprenticeships as of February, up 8 per cent in a year.
Here’s who qualifies, what you’ll need and the deadlines.
Who qualifies
According to the federal government, you need to:
Be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident or protected person
Have completed an apprenticeship as a registered apprentice in a designated Red Seal trade, or be a certified journeyperson who completed an apprenticeship program in one
Hold a Certificate of Qualification or equivalent from your province or territory
Not be a full-time high school student
Apply on time and submit the documents your province or territory requires
Years on the job don’t count on their own. The bonus is for people who completed an apprenticeship and got certified. If you’ve been welding for 15 years but never finished an apprenticeship, this one isn’t for you.
Already working as a journeyperson? That’s fine. Someone who certified last spring and has been working full-time since can still apply.
Which trades count
The trade has to be recognized by the national Red Seal program and designated in the province where you registered. There are more than 50 Red Seal trades, including:
Electricians
Plumbers
Welders
Carpenters
Steamfitter-pipefitters
Heavy equipment technicians
Millwrights
Machinists
Cooks, bakers and hairstylists
Don’t go by your job title. Check your exact trade on the Red Seal trades list.
The deadlines
| If you were certified | You must apply by |
|---|---|
| April 1, 2025 to Nov. 15, 2026 | May 31, 2027 |
| Nov. 16, 2026 or later | Within 12 months of certification |
Ottawa says it won’t consider applications outside those windows.
The 28-day rule
Once you start an application, you have 28 calendar days to submit your supporting documents, including proof that you completed your apprenticeship and got certified. If you miss that window, you have to start over.
So don’t open the application until your paperwork is in hand.
What you’ll need
Social Insurance Number
Mailing address
Email address (optional, but recommended)
Banking information for direct deposit
Your Red Seal trade and certification date
The province or territory where you were certified
Your apprentice identification number
Proof of apprenticeship completion and certification
Permanent residents whose SIN starts with a 9, and protected persons, also need to provide proof of status in Canada.
Alberta apprentices can find their records and credential information through Tradesecrets, the province’s apprenticeship site.
How to apply
Applications aren’t open yet. Starting Nov. 16, you’ll apply through the federal government’s Red Seal Completion Bonus page.
Use the government site only. You don’t need to pay anyone to apply or to check whether you qualify.
Why Alberta is watching this
Few provinces lean on the trades like Alberta does.
According to Alberta’s Apprenticeship and Industry Training office:
Trades employ about 1 in 6 Albertans.
They make up about 1 in 4 job vacancies in the province.
Alberta is projected to be short roughly 40,000 skilled workers by 2033.
Electricians, plumbers, welders and heavy equipment technicians are among the trades the province expects to grow fastest.
More people are starting, too. Participation in Alberta’s Registered Apprenticeship Program, which lets high school students start an apprenticeship and earn hours while still in school, is up 32 per cent.
Schools are adding room to train them. In Grande Prairie, Northwestern Polytechnic opened a $29 million, 40,000-square-foot Skilled Trades Training Centre in August. It adds more than 1,500 training seats for programs including heavy equipment technician, plumber, gasfitter and steamfitter.
Read more: Grande Prairie’s $29M Skilled Trades Centre Opens August 26 With 1,500 Seats
Finishing is the hard part, and that’s the problem Ottawa is trying to fix. Nationally, fewer than half of apprentices complete their training and earn their journeyperson ticket, according to CLAC, a union representing trades workers.
“Earning a Red Seal takes time and hard work, and we want more apprentices to see it through,” said Patty Hajdu, the federal minister of jobs and families.
It’s part of an $8 billion trades plan
The bonus is one piece of Team Canada Strong, an $8 billion federal plan announced in September. Ottawa says Canada will need more than 1.4 million new trades workers by 2033. The plan aims to recruit, train and hire 80,000 to 100,000 new Red Seal trades workers by 2030-31.
Three other pieces are worth knowing:
Paid placements for young people. Ottawa is putting $880 million over five years into Team Canada Strong Youth Placements. These are paid entry-level jobs of up to four months, so young Canadians can try a trade before committing to an apprenticeship. Ottawa hasn’t released an age range, start date or application process yet.
$400 a week during training. A new Apprenticeship Training Grant will pay apprentices an extra $400 a week, on top of Employment Insurance, while they’re in mandatory in-class training. It’s separate from the bonus and is expected to launch in spring 2027.
Up to $10,000 for employers. Through the Build Canada Apprenticeship Service, small and medium-sized businesses can get up to $10,000 for hiring a first-year apprentice in an eligible Red Seal trade. That money goes to the employer, not the apprentice.
Ottawa is also moving Red Seal exams and logbooks online and creating a single national apprenticeship number, so apprentices can move between provinces more easily.
What to do now
If you got your Red Seal on or after April 1, 2025:
Check that your trade is on the Red Seal list.
Find your certification date and apprentice ID number.
Gather your proof of completion and certification.
Apply after Nov. 16, and submit everything within 28 days.
If you’re already certified, you have until May 31, 2027.
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