The Alberta employment agency business licence: fee, term, and the rules that catch agencies (2026 guide)

Who needs an employment agency business licence in Alberta?

Alberta licenses the employment agency business under the Consumer Protection Act, through the Employment Agency Business Licensing Regulation, administered by Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction. There are two classes. A national licence covers people in Alberta being placed anywhere, and people elsewhere in Canada being placed into Alberta. An international licence covers people outside Canada being placed into Alberta.

The classes are not interchangeable. An agency may hold both, but it may not operate outside the class it holds. A warehouse or food processing agency recruiting inside Canada needs the national licence; the moment it recruits from outside Canada it needs the international one as well.

What does the Alberta licence cost and how long does it last?

The written agreement rule that catches staffing agencies

Alberta requires a written agreement on both sides of a placement, signed before the work is arranged, not after. Section 10 of the regulation requires an agreement with the individual before securing employment for them or testing their skills, and an agreement with the employer before securing an employee for that employer. Each one must be in writing and signed by the parties, set out the services and the respective responsibilities, carry contact details for the agency and for anyone who may act on its behalf under the agreement, and contain the prescribed statement about prohibited fees in at least 12-point bold type. The individual gets their copy when they sign.

There is a second notice most agencies miss. Under section 11, when the agency communicates or arranges an offer of employment, it must give the individual a written notice with the job description, the terms of employment where known, and the employer's contact details. That duty falls away only if the employer made the offer directly.

What can an Alberta agency charge a worker?

Nothing for the placement. Section 12 prohibits demanding or collecting a fee, reward, or other compensation from a person seeking employment, from someone seeking information about employers, or for securing employment or testing skills, whether taken from the individual or from anyone acting on their behalf. Separate services such as resume writing or job-skills training may be charged for, but only under a separate written agreement that states the fee, only where access to them is not required to reach the agency's placement services, and only at a reasonable price. Requiring a job seeker to provide a deposit, security, or bond is listed as an unfair practice in its own right.

What happens during a strike or lockout?

This is the Alberta rule most often described wrongly, and it is narrower than it sounds. Section 14 does not ban sending workers to a business affected by a legal strike or lockout. It prohibits knowingly sending a person, assisting in sending them, or causing them to be sent, to take employment in place of an employee who is on strike or locked out, without informing that person the strike or lockout exists. The duty is disclosure, and a contravention of section 14 is a designated offence under section 16.

In operating terms it means that if a client site goes into a labour dispute, every worker you dispatch there has to be told before they accept, and you want evidence you told them. A separate rule, section 15, stops an agency from presenting its licence as a government endorsement, though it may say plainly that it is licensed.