Firefighters salary in Canada
$90,481CAD/YR
Firefighters in Canada earn a median of $90,481 a year, about $45.79 an hour.
SOURCE·Employment and Social Development Canada — Job Bank wage data·Open Government Licence – Canada·REVIEWED 2025
What $90,481 is actually worth
Move this wage out of Canada and it converts to $64,148. Spend it where it was earned and it buys what $71,783 buys in the United States. Those are two answers to two different questions, and the distance between them is the thing worth reading — here it is a factor of 1.12.
At the exchange rate At local prices The disagreement
The hollow marker is the exchange-rate reading: what the money is worth if it leaves. The solid marker is the purchasing-power reading: what it is worth if it stays. The hatched span between them is the disagreement, and it is what every single-country salary site leaves out.
SOURCE·European Central Bank reference rates (via Frankfurter) and World Bank PPP conversion factor PA.NUS.PRVT.PP·FX 2026-07-29·REVIEWED PPP 2025
How Canada arrived at this figure, and what it is not
- Employment and Social Development Canada publishes Job Bank wage data for the reference period 2025. We take the occupation row as released and change nothing in it.
- 2021 Census wage distributions by NOC and economic region
- Where the agency publishes a distribution we carry the whole distribution, because a single average throws away the part of the answer people are actually asking about.
- The wage is then read twice: converted at the European Central Bank reference rate for 2026-07-29, and divided by the World Bank purchasing-power conversion factor for CAN. Both readings are printed; neither is presented as the answer.
- Countries measure pay differently. A tax return, an employer payroll survey, a PAYE sample and a household survey are four different instruments, and gaps of a few per cent between countries are the instruments, not the wages.
converted = CAD 90,481 / FX(CAD->USD) adjusted = CAD 90,481 / PPP(CAN) disagreement = adjusted / converted
Where it pays more in Canada
Median pay for this occupation by area, highest-employing first.
| Area | Median | vs national |
|---|---|---|
| Northwest Territories | $114,865 | +27% |
| Wood Buffalo--Cold Lake | $114,608 | +27% |
| Yukon Territory | $111,624 | +23% |
| Ottawa | $108,680 | +20% |
| Lower Mainland | $102,752 | +14% |
| Northeast | $101,290 | +12% |
| Kingston--Pembroke | $98,800 | +9% |
| Toronto | $98,800 | +9% |
| Saskatoon--Biggar | $98,800 | +9% |
| British Columbia | $98,800 | +9% |
| Stratford--Bruce Peninsula | $98,760 | +9% |
| Hamilton--Niagara Peninsula | $97,713 | +8% |
| Nunavut | $96,765 | +7% |
| Northwest | $96,014 | +6% |
| Ontario | $95,895 | +6% |
| Alberta | $95,698 | +6% |
| Edmonton | $95,698 | +6% |
| Northeast | $95,579 | +6% |
| Windsor--Sarnia | $95,125 | +5% |
| Saskatchewan | $95,006 | +5% |
| Regina--Moose Mountain | $95,006 | +5% |
| Prince Albert | $95,006 | +5% |
| Winnipeg | $94,848 | +5% |
| Muskoka--Kawarthas | $93,979 | +4% |
| Interlake | $93,287 | +3% |
Regional figures come from the same release as the national one. Where an area is missing, the source suppressed it for sample-size reasons rather than reporting an unreliable estimate.
Every figure this page rests on
| Reading | CAD | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Median | $90,481 | The middle earner |
| Mean | $90,461 | Pulled up by top earners |
| 25th percentile | $74,950 | — |
| 75th percentile | $105,854 | — |
| Hourly | $45.79 | Median at 38 hrs/week |
Employment and Social Development Canada · 2025
SOURCE·Employment and Social Development Canada — Job Bank wage data·Open Government Licence – Canada·REVIEWED 2025
What people ask next
- How much do firefighters earn in Canada?
- The median is $90,481 a year, about $45.79 an hour, according to Employment and Social Development Canada, Job Bank wage data 2025.
- Is that figure before or after tax?
- Before. Every figure on this page is gross pay as the statistics agency published it — income tax, social contributions and any deductions come off afterwards, and they differ enough between countries that we do not model them.
- Why is the US-dollar figure different depending on where I read it?
- Because there are two of them. $90,481 converts to $64,148 at the exchange rate on 2026-07-29, and buys what $71,783 buys in the United States once Canada's price level is accounted for. The first answers "what could I wire abroad", the second answers "how well does someone live on this".
Related occupations in Canada
- Early childhood educators and assistants $44,065
- Instructors of persons with disabilities $59,280
- Paralegals and related occupations $65,307
- Police officers (except commissioned) $98,800
- Religion workers $39,895
- Social and community service workers $51,376
- Specialized members of the Canadian Armed Forces $70,010
