Training and recruitment for fishery officers

Our Fishery Officer Career Progression Program recruits successful candidates from the fishery officer selection process.

On this page

• About training
• Training allowance, salary and benefits
• Recruitment projections

About training

You’ll begin as a cadet and progress through the various competency stages. This training takes about 34 months.

Classroom training takes approximately 16 weeks. You’ll gain skills in areas such as:

• fishing gear
• fish identification
• acts and regulations
• marine emergency duties 
• enforcement methods and use of force, including firearms training and mandatory exposure to pepper spray

Location of the first 7 weeks of training varies each year. However, the last 9-week component of training is delivered at the RCMP Academy in Regina, Saskatchewan.

Cost

You must reimburse part of the travel, room and board, and other costs related to the classroom training if you:

• voluntarily leave the classroom training program before its completion
• successfully complete the classroom training but refuse a fishery officer position
• accept a fishery officer position but voluntarily leave before completing at least 30 months of employment

Training allowance, salary and benefits

Cadets receive an allowance of $350 per week during the classroom training.

Your allowance will be deducted at source for:

• income tax
• room and board ($90)
• employment insurance (EI)
• the Canada/Quebec pension plan

Cadets will not be paid during the break between each component of the training program.

Salary

After successfully completing the classroom training, you’ll be appointed to a GT-02 fishery officer position. You’ll then have to successfully complete 30 months of field training in order to be appointed to a GT-04 position.

Associated salary scales are: 

1. GT-02 ($52,864 to $59,754)
2. GT-03 ($59,118 to $67,035)
3. GT-04 ($66,610 to $75,733)

In addition, all Fishery Officer are entitled to an allowance of $3,534 annually.

Benefits

Once you become a public service employee with 6 months of experience, you’re entitled to receive the following benefits.

• Pension and insurance benefits
• Public Service Health Care Plan
• Public Service Dental Care Plan

Recruitment projections

A total of 167 new fishery officers were hired and trained since 2017.

We anticipate staffing more than 100 fishery officer positions over the next 4 years (2021 to 2024).