One trade, three rulebooks: how mechanic recertification differs across BC, Ontario and the US

First published 14 June 2026, alongside Counterweight Issue 2 · re-checked against the regulators’ own documents 4 October 2026

A certified mechanic in Vancouver, Toronto and New York does broadly the same work. The paperwork that keeps each of them licensed looks almost nothing alike.

British Columbia

Technical Safety BC certifies elevating devices mechanics itself, in classes A, H, C and MR. A certificate of qualification is good for three years from the day it's issued, and renewing it takes 24 hours of continuing education.

Those hours follow a formula. The directive sets the most you can count from each area: up to six hours on trade safety, up to six on the Act, the regulations and the code, and up to twelve of technical training for your class. Those caps add up to exactly the 24 hours you need, so in practice you need the full amount in each area. You need proof you completed them, and keeping that proof is your job, not the course provider's. Technical Safety BC says it sends a renewal notice about 60 days before a certificate runs out.

BC also gives every Class A, C and H mechanic and every mechanic-in-training a personal Skills Passport. A certified mechanic doesn't have to hand it in to renew, but a mechanic-in-training does: the regulation asks for it at every renewal after the first.

Ontario

TSSA runs the equivalent program under Ontario's elevating devices mechanics regulation, on a shorter clock. Your certificate expires on your second birthday after it was issued. Renewing takes 12 hours of continuing education, all from a provider on TSSA's approved list. TSSA policy splits them: six on safety, the Act, the regulations and the code, and six technical.

Ontario has a Skills Passport too, and here it counts at renewal. The regulation asks for your completed passport with every renewal application, not just your first certificate. TSSA's own renewal steps only mention the continuing education certificate, but the regulation is the rule.

Don't let it lapse. Leave a certificate expired for more than 12 months and your renewal is treated as a new application: you have to pass the written exam again.

The United States

There is no national licence. Each state decides, and many license elevator mechanics. Not all do: Texas registers contractors and inspectors, but not mechanics.

Where there is a licence, the continuing education demands swing a long way.

• New York: 16 hours per two-year licence. Mechanics who qualified by holding a current NAEC CET are exempt.
• Illinois: 8 hours, two of them a code update, in the year before the licence expires.
• Minnesota: 16 hours for a journeyworker, at least 12 on the state elevator code or elevator technology and 4 on the National Electrical Code.
• Washington: 8 hours in the year before each two-year renewal, which also falls on your birthday.
• California: a Cal/OSHA Certified Competent Conveyance Mechanic certificate, required since 2003. It runs two years and takes 8 hours of continuing education to renew, taken in the year before renewal.

On top of all that sits a voluntary national credential, the NAEC's Certified Elevator Technician. It lasts one year and expires on 31 December, and renewing it takes 10 contact hours a year, including at least one on safety. New York accepts it as one route to a licence.

Does it transfer?

Here's the catch most mechanics don't expect. Elevator work isn't a Red Seal trade, so there's no single national exam that lets a ticket travel across Canada the way it does for electricians and welders.

Moving between provinces runs through the Canadian Free Trade Agreement's labour-mobility rules instead, and each province re-issues its own certificate. TSSA publishes a list of the provinces whose certificates it accepts. BC takes transfers too, but you still sit an exam on BC's own Act and regulations.

Crossing into the US is harder. With no national licence, a move often means meeting the new state's rules from scratch. Some places do recognise other licences: Washington, D.C. law lets its board license a mechanic who holds a valid licence from a state with substantially equal standards.

The takeaway

BC and Ontario run tight systems: one regulator each, mandatory certification, a set continuing education formula and multi-year cycles. Not every province works that way. Alberta publishes no continuing education rule for certified mechanics (the sources are on our guide to becoming an elevator mechanic in Canada), and Newfoundland and Labrador certificates last only 12 months.

The US is a patchwork. What you owe depends on which state line you're standing behind, and a New York mechanic who moves to Texas goes from 16 hours of continuing education to none.

Licensing rules change. Check the specifics with your own regulator before you act on any of this.

On our sources

Every document this article links to is publicly hosted by the organization that owns it: regulations on the governments' own sites, and program rules on the regulators' and associations' own pages. None was obtained through a leak, a confidential channel, or any URL we believe was supposed to be private. Where a point is cited to our own guide to becoming an elevator mechanic, that page carries the primary source for it. Ontario's regulation page sometimes refuses automated link checkers; it opens normally in a browser.

The standard we apply: a link must point to a URL that the source organization either intentionally publishes or has chosen not to restrict. If you believe any document we've linked is improperly public, or a rule here has changed, tell us on the forum and we will review.

Related: the full province-by-province table, with certification routes and renewal terms for every province and territory, is in our guide to becoming an elevator mechanic in Canada. To reach your local, see the directory of Canadian IUEC locals.