Your complete guide to the 313A apprenticeship, refrigerant certifications, wages, and what the Red Seal means for your HVAC career.
The Red Seal 313A trade is Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Mechanic. Commercial buildings, food retail chains, data centers, and industrial facilities all rely on refrigeration and climate control systems, and Job Bank projects a strong risk of labour shortage for the occupation nationally over 2024–2033.
If you're considering this trade or are already partway through your apprenticeship, here's a clear-eyed breakdown of what the path looks like, what the work actually involves, and what you can expect to earn once you're certified.
Hourly pay figures on this page are Government of Canada Job Bank data for everyone working in the occupation, not only certified tradespeople. The 313A exam is 125 questions in 4 hours. The pass mark is 70%, which is 88 correct answers; SkilledTradesBC rounds results up from 69.5%, so 87 correct also passes there.
See what the questions look like — 115 free 313A practice questions → No account, no sign-up.
The trade officially covers residential, commercial, industrial and institutional heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration systems; work on fuel-fired equipment may need additional licensing in some jurisdictions. As a 313A Red Seal mechanic, your day-to-day work will involve:
The work spans supermarkets, office towers, data centers, cold storage warehouses, hospitals, restaurants, and industrial plants. Field work means you'll be on call, working in tight mechanical rooms, on rooftops, or inside refrigerated spaces — so physical tolerance for varied environments is part of the job.
Like all Red Seal trades, 313A is structured as a combination of on-the-job hours with an employer and technical training blocks. The specifics vary by province:
| Province | On-the-Job Hours | Technical Training |
|---|---|---|
| Ontario (Skilled Trades Ontario) | 8,280 hrs (9,000 in all, approximately five years) | 720 hrs across 3 levels |
| British Columbia (SkilledTradesBC) | 6,210 hrs | 33 weeks over 4 years |
| Alberta (Tradesecrets) | 1,560 hrs in each of 4 periods (each about 1 year) | 8 weeks per period |
Your employer registers you through the provincial apprenticeship authority, and your hours are tracked via a record book (physical or online depending on your province).
Before you can legally handle refrigerants, you need a refrigerant handling certificate, set by provincial regulation. In Ontario it is the Ozone Depletion Prevention (ODP) card, earned on a one-day course offered by HRAI (Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Institute of Canada) and its delivery partners. It is separate from your apprenticeship certification.
Ask your employer or technical school when to take the course. In Ontario, a person qualifies for the certificate by successfully completing a course approved by the Director that provides training and testing on the use and handling of ozone depleting substances, halocarbons, refrigerants and refrigeration equipment (O. Reg. 463/10, s. 34(1)).
The Red Seal 313A certification exam consists of 125 multiple-choice questions aligned to the 2024 Red Seal Occupational Standard (RSOS) in provinces that have moved to the new exam (British Columbia from June 22, 2026; Alberta's counselling sheet dated August 5, 2026; checked October 2026). On that exam the questions are spread over six Major Work Activities (SkilledTradesBC breakdown):
| Major Work Activity | Questions |
|---|---|
| A — Performs common occupational skills | 10 |
| B — Performs routine trade activities | 20 |
| C — Plans installation | 16 |
| D — Performs installation | 26 |
| E — Performs commissioning | 22 |
| F — Performs maintenance and service | 31 |
| Total | 125 |
The pass mark is 70%. The red-seal.ca exam information page shows the split of the exam based on the previous standard (13/19/18/26/21/28), which red-seal.ca labels the occupational standard for current exams, so confirm with your apprenticeship authority which version you will write and how rewrites work.
Job Bank publishes wages by occupation and region, not by sector or union status. The figures below are Job Bank hourly wages for NOC 72402, the occupation group that also includes apprentices: low–high with the median in brackets, 2023–2024 data (Nova Scotia and PEI: 2024), updated November 19, 2025:
| Province | Job Bank Hourly Wage, Low–High (Median) | Job Bank outlook, 2025–2027 |
|---|---|---|
| Alberta | $25.00–$54.00 ($40.00) | Good |
| British Columbia | $24.23–$62.00 ($40.00) | Moderate |
| Ontario | $21.00–$58.00 ($37.00) | Good |
| Saskatchewan | $28.50–$59.00 ($40.00) | Very good |
| Manitoba | $18.00–$45.00 ($36.07) | Moderate |
| Quebec | $22.40–$46.08 ($38.00) | Moderate |
| Atlantic Provinces | NB $20.50–$45.63 ($29.76); NL $20.00–$46.00 ($36.00); NS $20.70–$53.85 ($30.84); PE $21.02–$34.02 ($31.21) | NB Moderate; NL, NS and PE Good |
Job Bank projects a strong risk of labour shortage for refrigeration and air conditioning mechanics nationally over 2024–2033, and ESDC projects about 21,800 job openings for heating, refrigeration and air conditioning mechanics (NOC 72402) over the same period. Some of the trends behind the work:
The 2024 Red Seal standard for the trade notes amendments to Canada's Ozone-depleting Substances and Halocarbon Alternatives Regulations to reduce the supply of HFCs, includes retrofitting HVAC/R equipment refrigerants and refrigerant oils (sub-task D-11.04), and lists natural refrigerants such as R-744 and R-717 among the refrigerants mechanics work with.
Data centers need cooling around the clock. Job Bank publishes no separate wage for data center cooling work; its national range for refrigeration and air conditioning mechanics is $22.00–$56.00/hr (2023–2024 data).
Job Bank puts 25% of workers in the occupation at age 50 or over, with a median retirement age of 63.0 in 2023.
ESDC's 2024–2033 projections count about 10,300 openings from employment growth and 8,800 from retirements for the occupation, about 21,800 in all, on 2023 employment of about 46,100.
Unlike some trades where certification is optional, this trade is compulsory in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia: to work in it you must be a registered apprentice or certified, with limited exceptions. Here's why the Red Seal endorsement matters:
If you're considering the 313A path:
Ready to start practicing for the 313A Red Seal exam?
Our free practice questions cover refrigeration cycle, refrigerants, components, controls, and troubleshooting.
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313A Practice Questions →To become a 313A Refrigeration & AC Mechanic: 1) Find an employer in HVAC-R, commercial refrigeration or industrial cooling to sponsor your apprenticeship, 2) Register with your provincial apprenticeship authority, 3) Complete the apprenticeship and its technical training – about five years in Ontario (9,000 hours), 33 weeks of technical training over 4 years in British Columbia, and 4 periods of about a year each in Alberta, 4) Get any refrigerant handling certificate your province requires (in Ontario, an Ozone Depletion Prevention card; in British Columbia, only an approved person, who has completed an approved environmental awareness course, may service the equipment), and 5) Write the Red Seal 313A exam. Most provinces and territories use the Red Seal exam as the final certification exam (red-seal.ca); in Alberta it is an option in the final period.
The length of the 313A Refrigeration & AC Mechanic apprenticeship depends on the province. Skilled Trades Ontario sets it at 9,000 hours (approximately five years): 8,280 hours on the job plus 720 hours in school. British Columbia sets 6,210 hours of work-based training plus 33 weeks of technical training over 4 years, and Alberta four periods of 1,560 hours of work experience plus 8 weeks of classroom instruction each (each designed to take about a year). SkilledTradesBC's program outline, for example, includes describing basic refrigeration systems and the PE chart in relation to refrigeration cycles, selecting refrigerants, compressed gases and oils, and troubleshooting simple circuits.
Yes. Refrigerant handling certification is set by provincial regulation: Ontario requires an Ozone Depletion Prevention (ODP) certificate card to purchase and handle refrigerants (O. Reg. 463/10), and British Columbia allows only an approved person, who has completed an approved environmental awareness course, to service refrigeration and air conditioning equipment. On federal systems, the Federal Halocarbon Regulations, 2022 under CEPA apply.
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