What the number on the phone actually covers, which three provinces license locksmiths, and the six questions worth asking before anyone drives out. Written by the Locksmiths Canada editorial team from the official provincial sources named below.
Almost every argument between a locksmith and a customer is the same argument: one number was said on the phone, a different number appeared on the invoice.
It usually happens because the two people were talking about different things. A two-digit price advertised for a lockout is almost always the call-out fee alone, quoted as though it were the whole bill. It is not a lie, exactly. It is the first line of five presented as the total.
The honest version of the same conversation is a range for attending, plus a plain statement of what gets added and when. That is the only thing this directory asks a business to do before it will print a phone number.
So the question worth asking is never how much. It is what is the total, including the call-out, at this hour, at this address. A business that can answer that on the phone is telling you how it works. One that will not is telling you something too.
Three provinces license locksmiths. The other ten provinces and territories do not.
This gets stated wrongly almost everywhere, including by locksmiths, and it decides what you can usefully check before you let someone near your door.
In Alberta the licence is held by the person, not the company, and it is portable, so ask the technician rather than the office. In British Columbia there are two: a security business licence for the company and a locksmith security worker licence for the individual. In Quebec both halves are licensed by the Bureau de la sécurité privée, and the only exempt activity is cutting a copy of a key you already have.
Everywhere else there is no registrar, no licence number and nobody who can remove a locksmith from the trade. That is why this directory checks the corporate registry instead: it is the strongest public record that exists in ten of thirteen jurisdictions, and it is a great deal better than a logo on a website.
Sources: Alberta Public Safety and Emergency Services; Province of British Columbia, Security Programs Division; Private Security Act (CQLR c S-3.5) and the Bureau de la sécurité privée; Government of Canada Job Bank on voluntary trade certification. Checked 6 September 2026.
All six can be asked in under a minute, and every one of them has bitten somebody.
The call-out on its own is not the bill. Ask for the number you will actually be handed.
Many businesses name a core area and add a surcharge outside it. The surcharge is rarely volunteered.
A national-sounding brand is often a call centre selling your job on. Ask for the legal name of the business that will attend.
Those three provinces license locksmiths. In Alberta and BC the individual holds one, so ask the person who arrives.
For anything bigger than a lockout, a written quote before work begins is the single most useful thing you can insist on.
Drilling means a new cylinder and more labour. Ask what that changes before it becomes the answer to a problem you did not know you had.
There is no national rate and no province caps one. The figure to compare is the call-out fee, which is what a business charges to attend before any work is priced, and it typically rises after hours. Every listing on this site that shows a phone number has stated the range it works in and the date it stated it. We publish ranges rather than exact prices, because no locksmith can quote a lock they have not seen.
Three. Alberta licenses locksmiths under the Security Services and Investigators Act, British Columbia under the Security Services Act, and Quebec under the Private Security Act. The other ten provinces and territories have no locksmith licence at all. Several offer voluntary trade certification, which is a qualification rather than permission to trade.
Because that business has not stated a call-out range. It is the one rule the directory runs on: state a range and let us print the date you said it, and your number is shown. Decline, and the listing stays up without a number. We would rather show you an incomplete listing honestly than a complete one that hides the only number you wanted.
No, and not on any job, ever. We are not paid per lead, per call or per booking, and organic results are never ordered by what a business pays. Sponsored placement exists: one clearly labelled position per city, for a flat monthly fee. Organic results are never reordered by payment, and it never buys a badge, a verification mark or a better score.
It means we matched the business to its provincial corporate registry and confirmed the company was registered and active on the date printed on the listing. We re-check monthly. It is a check that the company legally exists, not a judgement on the work or the price, and we do not describe it as anything more than that.
In ten of the thirteen provinces and territories, no. There is nothing there to be licensed for, so a locksmith saying they hold no licence is describing the law rather than confessing to something. In Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec it is a different matter, and there you should ask to see it.