Ontario Has No Provincial Roofing Contractor Licence

Ask the Province who licenses your roofer and the answer is nobody. Ontario names 144 skilled trades in law and makes 23 of them compulsory, which means you must be certified or registered as an apprentice to do that work. Roofer is on the list of 144 and is not one of the 23. So there is no provincial roofing licence to ask for, and no provincial list of roofers to search. Six of the GTA's 25 cities and towns fill part of that gap by licensing the business. Everywhere else, the checks that mean something are a WSIB clearance, proof of working at heights training, and a written contract.

Roofer is trade 449A, and it is voluntary

Ontario's trades sit under the Building Opportunities in the Skilled Trades Act, 2021. A rule made under that Act, O. Reg. 876/21, does two things. Section 1 lists the 144 trades the Act covers. Section 2 lists the ones classed as compulsory. There are 23.

Roofer is item 121 in the section 1 list. It does not appear in section 2 at all. Skilled Trades Ontario says the same in plain words. There are 23 compulsory trades and 121 non-compulsory ones, and "non-compulsory means that you don't have to be certified to work in the trade."

Plumber, electrician, sheet metal worker and steamfitter are all on the compulsory list. Section 6 of the Act bars anyone from practising those trades without a certificate, a provisional certificate or a registered training agreement. Section 7 bars anyone from hiring a person who holds none of the three. A ministry inspector can issue a monetary penalty for either. Neither section reaches roofing.

Roofing does have a real apprenticeship behind it. Skilled Trades Ontario sets the Roofer program at 4,000 hours, with a certifying exam and a Red Seal, which is the national standard recognized across Canada. A roofer can earn a Certificate of Qualification. They just do not have to.

The public register will not show you a roofer

Skilled Trades Ontario runs a Public Register. It is a real tool, and it does not cover roofers.

Section 47 of the Act says the register holds the name of every apprentice and certificate holder in a compulsory trade. Skilled Trades Ontario spells out what that means on its own Roofer page: "Because this trade is non-compulsory, this certificate does not have to be renewed, and the information of individuals practicing this trade will not appear on the Skilled Trades Ontario Public Register."

So a roofer with a Red Seal does not show up there, and neither does one who started last week. If a company shows you a certificate, ask for the paper. You cannot look it up.

The Government of Ontario says it outright on its own consumer page: "Roofing contractors are not licensed by the government."

Six GTA municipalities licence the business

Local licensing changes the picture, and it changes by address. We applied one test to all 25 GTA municipalities. Does it require a licence for a business that repairs or replaces a house roof? Every "no" was read out of the municipality's own licensing by-law, not its summary web page. A page that leaves a category out is not proof the category does not exist.

Six require a licence. Nineteen do not. Four of the six publish a licensee list you can search yourself, and Toronto's returned a service error on both days we checked. Those lists are the closest thing the GTA has to a roofer register.

Toronto defines a Building Renovator in Chapter 545 of the Municipal Code as a person in the business of "altering, repairing or renovating buildings or structures." The City's own page is blunt. The licence "is required for all businesses that provides services to repair or renovate buildings and structures, including any business that advertises renovation services." Applicants sit an oral trade exam, and its form lists Flat Roofing and Shingling among the trades they can be tested in. The application fee is $234.62 and the licence fee is $260.50, and the City publishes the total to start at $495.12. Renewal is $293.14 and the exam fee is $79.65 including GST.

Toronto also writes the contract for you. Chapter 545 makes a building renovator use the City's own form, Appendix I, before starting work, and give you an itemized written bill within 24 hours if you ask.

Vaughan lists roofers by name among the businesses that need its Renovator licence. Licensees must carry at least $2 million in general liability insurance. They must give you a written list of the City by-laws and permits that apply. Before taking any money they must also hand you a written contract setting out the work and the payment schedule.

Mississauga licenses building renovation as a trade. Every applicant must pass a three-hour written test on the Ontario Building Code. Brampton and Oakville both publish their licensed renovators online, and Toronto runs a Business Licence Lookup. Brampton's list held 136 businesses when we read it on August 27, 2026. Twelve are classed "Roofing," and most of the rest carry no trade classification at all.

Halton Hills licenses roof work under a name no homeowner would guess. Business Licensing By-law 2005-0067 licenses a "Specialty Trade Contractor." Section 1.79 puts a "General Trade Contracting Company" in that class, and section 1.24 defines "General Trade" to include roofing. Schedule G makes a licensed General Trade Contracting Company sign a written contract with you before the work starts. The rule is live. A by-law passed on January 26, 2026 sets the penalty for working without the licence at $300 a day for a first notice, or $500 a day where the business is a corporation. The Town publishes no list of its licensees.

The check that actually works: a WSIB clearance

Roofing is high-risk work. This is the one province-wide check that returns a real answer.

A clearance is a number the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board issues to a registered business that is up to date on its premiums and reporting. They cost nothing and are valid for up to 90 days. You can find one through the quick access clearances service with no account and no log-in, searching by business name, phone, address, city or postal code.

Two conditions matter, and most articles drop them.

First, you are not required to get one. The WSIB says so: "If a contractor or subcontractor is hired to do home repairs or renovations by a home's resident, occupant or a member of their family, then a clearance certificate is not required." The Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997 carves "exempt home renovation work" out of the clearance duty in section 141.2 and out of the money rule in section 141.1. Get one anyway: it shows the business is registered and up to date.

The carve-out only covers a home that you or a family member live in, or will. For a roof on a rental that neither you nor a family member lives in, section 141.2 requires a clearance before work starts. Skip it, and section 141.1 makes you liable for any WSIB premiums the contractor fails to pay on that job, up to the value of the labour part of your contract.

Second, coverage is not the same as a covered crew. Under section 12.2, a sole owner whose only construction work is home renovation for the occupant who hired them can be exempt from coverage. The WSIB's own worked example describes a handyman with two employees. The exemption applies to the owner, and he must still report his employees' earnings. So the crew can be covered while the owner on your roof is not. Ask who is covered, not just whether the company has a number.

Every worker on your roof needs a heights card

There is no local variation. The rule has one exception, for workers at automobile plants who are directly employed by the manufacturer. It does not reach a house roof.

Under O. Reg. 297/13, an employer must make sure any worker who may use fall protection has finished a working at heights course, approved by Ontario's Chief Prevention Officer and taught by an approved provider. The worker must take it before using fall protection, and it is valid for three years from the day they pass.

The Province ties this to your roof. Its consumer page says roofing workers must be trained to work safely at heights, trained in workplace safety hazards, and "protected at all times when working more than three metres (10 feet) above ground." It also says that since April 1, 2017, all roofing contractors must have a working at heights training card.

Ontario currently warns about fake training providers who take fees and hand out cards without teaching anything. Ask to see the card. Check the provider against Ontario's approved list.

No licence is not the same as no permit

These are different questions and they get mixed up constantly. Toronto's building permit page lists "Replacing existing roofing material provided no structural work is required" among the jobs that do not need a permit. Structural or material changes do need one, and so do green roofs. Carry the caveat the City attaches to its exemption list. That list "is not exhaustive and judgment should be used depending on the situation and circumstances associated with the project." Zoning by-law rules still apply even when no permit does.

In practice: like-for-like shingles on a sound deck, no permit. Rotten sheathing or a change to the roof structure, ask the City first. Permit rules are set city by city, so check yours rather than Toronto's.

What the Consumer Protection Act gives you anyway

Your rights here do not depend on anybody being licensed. Sign a roofing contract in your home worth more than $50 and it is a "direct agreement" under the Consumer Protection Act, 2002. Section 43 lets you cancel it for any reason within 10 calendar days of getting your written copy. There is no cancellation fee.

Work started inside those 10 days does not always cost you. Section 83 of O. Reg. 17/05 applies only if two things are both true. You approached the roofer, and you asked for the work to start within 10 days of signing. Where both are true, the roofer can keep reasonable compensation for the work already done, and for materials that cannot be taken back because they were used up or have become part of your house. If the roofer approached you, or you never asked for an early start, section 83 does not apply at all. Section 95 of the Act then cancels the agreement as if it never existed, and section 96 (1) (a) makes the roofer refund every payment you made.

The rules also set out 15 things the contract must contain. Those include the supplier's address, an itemized list of prices with taxes, and a cancellation notice in at least 10 point type. That notice goes on the first page, unless the first page says where to find it. Never got a copy that meets those rules? Section 43 then gives you a full year to cancel instead of 10 days.

One gap matters. Ontario bans unasked-for door-to-door selling for a set list of goods and services: furnaces, air conditioners, air cleaners, air purifiers, water heaters, water treatment devices, water purifiers, water filters, water softeners and duct cleaning. Roofing is not on it. A roofer knocking after a hailstorm is not breaking that rule. Your 10-day cancellation right still applies, and because you did not approach them, section 83 does not apply either. Cancel inside the 10 days and you are owed every dollar back, even if the crew has already started.

The Consumer Protection Act, 2023 will replace the 2002 Act. As of the August 25, 2026 e-Laws currency date it is still marked "THIS ACT IS NOT YET IN FORCE." The 2002 Act governs your contract today.

Your five-minute check

1. Pull a WSIB clearance by company name and confirm it is current.
2. In Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Vaughan, Oakville or Halton Hills, check the municipal licence. Use the public list where there is one. Toronto's Business Licence Lookup returned a service error on August 27 and 28, 2026, so call 311 if it will not load for you either.
3. Ask for working at heights cards for the crew, not just the owner. Check the provider is approved.
4. Search the company and the owner's business name on Ontario's Consumer Beware List.
5. Insist on a written contract with an itemized price. Ontario advises keeping a deposit to no more than 10% and never paying in full before the work is done.

The Province's own page notes about 1,600 complaints and inquiries about home renovation services in 2015, the latest year it gives. Roofers accounted for 21% of them. Nobody is going to check the licence for you, because there is no licence to check.