Starting a cleaning business in Canada takes five moves: pick your structure, register your business name with your province, get a Business Number from the CRA, set up insurance, and put up a bookable website. The path is short, and the startup cost is low. My sister Jen and I built Oak Bay Clean here in Canada, in Victoria, BC, to $2.8M in sales over four years, so this guide comes from running the model in our own country, with the actual costs, the GST/HST rule, and where your first clients come from in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, and Calgary.
The model Jen and I use does not require you to buy supplies, a van, or equipment. You hire independent contractors who bring their own supplies, clients book online and leave a card on file, and you pay your cleaners out of money the client has already paid. Members run this exact setup across the country, from Yaletown Clean in Vancouver to Westmount Cleaning in Montreal, which I will come back to.
The short answer: how to start a cleaning business in Canada
Here is the whole path in order. The rest of this post backs up each step with Canadian numbers.
- Cleaning the houses yourself, lowest cost: start as a sole proprietor and register your business name with your province.
- Building a company that runs without you: register the business, get your Business Number, set up insurance, and put up a bookable website. Incorporate when the income makes it worth it.
- The Canadian tax line to know: cleaning is taxable, but you only register for and charge GST/HST once you pass $30,000 in revenue over four quarters.
- Fastest to your first paying client: email Realtors and property managers about move-out cleans while your Google ranking builds.
For most people who want a business rather than a job, the company path is the one Jen and I teach, and it is what the rest of this guide walks through.
How much does it cost to start a cleaning business in Canada?
You can start a cleaning business in Canada for a few hundred dollars. Canada has no "LLC," so you either run as a sole proprietor, which is the cheap and simple way to begin, or you incorporate, which costs more and adds liability protection as you grow. Your Business Number from the CRA is free.
Here are the line items for the company path. All figures are in Canadian dollars.
| Line item | Canada cost |
|---|---|
| Register a sole proprietorship (business name) | usually under $100, varies by province |
| Incorporate (optional, federal or provincial) | about $200 to $500 |
| Business Number from the CRA | free |
| GST/HST registration | free, and required once you pass $30,000 in revenue |
| General liability insurance | commonly a few hundred dollars a year |
| Booking and website software | from about $67 a month, often free for the first 30 days |
Most owners start as a sole proprietor for under $100 and incorporate later, once the revenue makes the extra cost worth it. The reason this is so much lower than the $2,000 to $10,000 most Canadian guides quote: those numbers assume you buy supplies, equipment, and a vehicle. Your contractors bring all of that, so it never lands on your books.
Do you need a licence to start a cleaning business in Canada?
Canada has no national licence for house cleaning. What you do need is to register your business name with your province and, in many cities, a municipal business licence to operate. This is general information and not legal advice, so confirm your own province and city before you start.
A few things that apply across Canada:
- Provincial name registration and approval. You register your business name with your province, and each province sets its own name-approval process. Some require a NUANS name search to confirm your name is not already taken, especially if you incorporate. The exact steps differ by province, so check yours, and our province guides walk through each one.
- Municipal business licence. Many cities require a local business licence to operate, including home-based businesses. Look up your city's rules.
- WHMIS. If your team handles cleaning chemicals, Canada's Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System sets out labelling and safety-data rules worth knowing.
To see exactly what your business and location need, the federal government's free BizPaL tool lists the permits and licences for your address. For the general version of this question, read do I need a licence to start a cleaning business.
Do you charge GST/HST on cleaning services in Canada?
Cleaning is a taxable service in Canada, but you only register for and charge GST/HST once your revenue passes $30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters. While you are under that line, you are a small supplier, which means you can run without charging tax and keep your pricing simple. This is general information and not legal or tax advice, so confirm your situation with the Canada Revenue Agency and an accountant.
How the $30,000 line works:
- Under $30,000: you are a small supplier. You can register voluntarily to claim input tax credits, or keep it simple and wait.
- Once you pass $30,000: you register for a GST/HST account through your Business Number, then charge the rate for your province and send it in.
- Plan ahead: if you cross the line before you register, the CRA can ask you to remit the tax you should have charged, so register as you approach $30,000.
What you charge depends on your province. Five provinces fold the federal and provincial tax into one HST. Alberta and the three territories charge the 5% GST only. British Columbia, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan have their own provincial sales tax, but it generally applies to goods rather than cleaning, so you charge the 5% GST on a clean. Quebec is its own case: you charge the 5% GST plus the 9.975% QST as two separate taxes.
| Province or territory | Sales tax you charge on a clean | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Alberta | GST only | 5% |
| British Columbia | GST only (PST does not apply to cleaning) | 5% |
| Manitoba | GST only (RST does not apply to cleaning) | 5% |
| Saskatchewan | GST only (confirm PST with the province) | 5% |
| Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut | GST only | 5% |
| Ontario | HST | 13% |
| Nova Scotia | HST | 14% |
| New Brunswick | HST | 15% |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | HST | 15% |
| Prince Edward Island | HST | 15% |
| Quebec | GST plus QST (two separate taxes) | 5% + 9.975% |
A few notes. In British Columbia the PST does not apply to cleaning services, so you charge 5% GST. Manitoba's RST generally does not apply to cleaning either. Saskatchewan treats some services to property as taxable, so confirm yours with the province. Quebec uses the QST rather than an HST, and you register for it separately with Revenu Québec. Nova Scotia lowered its HST to 14% on April 1, 2025. The government sources that explain this best are GST/HST rates on Canada.ca, the BC PST small business guide, and Revenu Québec on the GST and QST.
What other taxes does a cleaning business pay in Canada?
GST/HST is sales tax you collect from clients and pass to the government, so it flows through you rather than coming out of your margin. Income tax is the one that comes out of what you earn, and it applies to your profit, not your revenue. How much you pay depends on your structure. This is general information and not tax advice, so work it through with an accountant.
- Sole proprietor: your cleaning profit is added to your personal income and taxed at your combined federal and provincial marginal rate, the same brackets as employment income.
- Incorporated (a CCPC): active business income up to $500,000 is taxed at the small business rate, which is 9% federal plus a provincial rate from 0% to about 3.2%. That puts the combined rate at roughly 9% to 12.2% on your profit. Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Yukon sit at the low end at 9%, while Ontario and Quebec are near 12.2%, both dropping to about 11.2% in 2026.
Many owners start as a sole proprietor and incorporate once the profit makes the small business rate worth it. For the current rates, see corporation tax rates on Canada.ca.
How do you register your cleaning business in Canada?
You register a Canadian cleaning business by choosing a structure, registering your business name with your province, and getting a Business Number from the CRA. Most owners start as a sole proprietor and incorporate later, because the sole-proprietor route is fast and cheap to set up.
The order Jen and I would follow:
- Pick your name. Use your city plus the word clean or cleaning, like Hamilton Clean or Calgary Cleaning Services. That is what gets you found on Google and AI search. We walk through this in how to name a cleaning business.
- Register the name with your province, following your province's name-approval process. Some provinces ask for a NUANS name search, especially if you incorporate.
- Get a Business Number from the CRA, which is free, and add a GST/HST account when you approach $30,000.
- Decide sole proprietor or incorporate. Start simple, incorporate when the income and the risk make it worth it.
- Set up general liability insurance before you take on clients.
There is no wrong order, as long as you have your registration and insurance before you take clients.
Where do you find your first cleaning clients in Canada's cities?
Your first clients in Canada come from two places: Realtors and property managers who need move-out cleans, and Google once your business name and profile are set up. The paid social following you think you need is not where the money is.
Move-out cleans are the fastest opening, because most cleaners avoid them. Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary, Ottawa, and Edmonton all move a steady volume of homes, so Realtors and property managers are booking these constantly. This is how our own business started. One email to a Realtor named Danielle turned into 47 cleans over the following years, which is $16,718.34 in revenue from a single email.
Three things to get right before you spend a dollar on ads:
- Answer the phone. About 70% of cleaning companies do not answer on the first try, and only 30% call back after a voicemail. Answering puts you ahead of most of your competition in any Canadian city.
- Put your prices online. About 95% of cleaning companies have no transparent pricing on their site. Flat-rate prices a client can see are the biggest thing standing between a lead and a booking.
- Let people book at 10pm. A live booking widget that takes the card means you capture clients while they are interested, without a phone call.
The tool Jen and I use for both of these is ConvertLabs, and our Canadian members run on it too. It puts an instant-quote form on your site, so a client picks their options, sees a flat-rate price on the spot, and books with a card in about 60 seconds. Our own widget turns about 33% of the people who fill it out into paying clients. You can get 30 days free at convertlabs.io/blueprint. That is an affiliate link, so Jen and I earn a fee if you sign up, at no extra cost to you.
For the full playbook, read how to get clients for a cleaning business.
Where do you find cleaners in Canada?
You find cleaners in Canada the same way you find clients, by posting where people already look for work and screening for reliability over experience. You are screening for dependable people who will represent your brand well.
Indeed, Facebook groups, and Kijiji still work across Canadian cities, and there are people looking in every market. One thing to get right: the CRA has its own test for who counts as an independent contractor rather than an employee, based on control, who owns the tools, and who carries the risk. The contractor model fits that test well when you set it up properly, so structure your agreements with it in mind. This is general information and not legal advice. Hire for reliability and communication, pay your cleaners well, which on our model is 60% of the job, and treat the relationship as a partnership. We cover the full process in how to find cleaners for a cleaning business.
New owners worry about three things with contractors. Here is how the model answers each.
- Quality control. You bring on cleaners who already know how to clean, so quality comes from feedback rather than training. Clients rate every clean, you pass that straight to the cleaner, and anyone who slips stops getting offered work. Your standard travels through the feedback loop.
- Will a cleaner take my clients? The client books, pays, and keeps a card on file through your system, so the relationship and the billing stay with your brand. Your contractors get a steady stream of pre-sold jobs they never had to find or quote, which is what they would give up by going around you. A non-solicitation clause in your contractor agreement backs it up.
- Could I get in trouble for treating employees like contractors? You keep them genuine independent contractors through how the work runs. You offer gigs through ConvertLabs and they accept or decline, they wear their own clothes, drive their own cars, and bring their own supplies, and you set what a finished home should look like while they choose how to get there. Put that in a written contractor agreement and it holds up to the control test above.
Is a cleaning business profitable in Canada?
A cleaning business is profitable in Canada, and our own numbers are Canadian. Jen and I built Oak Bay Clean in Victoria, BC to about $2.8M in sales since July 2021 at roughly a 28% margin, running it with 18 cleaners. The same model is running in cities across the country right now: Yaletown Clean in Vancouver, Westmount Cleaning in Montreal, and Moncton Cleaning Co in New Brunswick, all residential-first with cleaners who bring their own supplies. You can see how ours runs at Oak Bay Clean.
The way we set prices is to charge flat-rate packages by square footage and number of bathrooms, landing around 75 to 80% of the most expensive cleaner in your market. Canada's big metros support strong prices, and demand is steady year-round. Clients pay at the time of the clean, your contractors are paid out of that same money, and you keep the spread.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to start a cleaning business in Canada? A few hundred dollars on the contractor model. There is no "LLC" in Canada, so you register as a sole proprietor for usually under $100, or incorporate for about $200 to $500. Your Business Number from the CRA is free, and your main ongoing costs are insurance and booking software.
Do I need a licence to start a cleaning business in Canada? There is no national cleaning licence. You register your business name with your province, follow your province's name-approval process, and check whether your city requires a municipal business licence. This is general information, not legal advice.
Do I charge GST/HST on cleaning in Canada? Cleaning is taxable, but you only register for and charge GST/HST once you pass $30,000 in revenue over four consecutive quarters. Under that, you are a small supplier and can run without charging it. The rate runs from 5% to 15% by province.
Should I be a sole proprietor or incorporate in Canada? Most owners start as a sole proprietor because it is fast and cheap, then incorporate once the income and the risk make the added cost and paperwork worth it. Incorporation adds liability protection.
How do I get my first cleaning clients in Canada? Email Realtors and property managers about move-out cleans, set up your Google Business Profile, and put transparent prices and a booking widget on your site. One Realtor relationship was worth $16,718.34 to our business over time.
Do I need to buy supplies to start a cleaning business in Canada? No. On the contractor model, your cleaners bring their own supplies and equipment, which is the main reason Canadian startup costs stay low.
How much can a cleaning business make in Canada? There is no structural cap once you have a team. Our own Canadian business has done about $2.8M since July 2021 at a 28% margin. Canada's large metros give you a deep pool of clients to price against.
Should I start with residential or commercial cleaning in Canada? Residential. Clients pay at the time of the clean, so the money funds the business. Commercial pays slower, so add it later, once your cash flow can carry it.
Where to start
Starting in a specific province? We have a guide for each, with the local name-approval steps, the exact tax rate, and the cities where your first clients come from:
- How to start a cleaning business in Ontario
- How to start a cleaning business in BC
- How to start a cleaning business in Alberta
- How to start a cleaning business in Quebec
The steps are the easy part. Getting your first clients and keeping good cleaners is the work, and that is exactly what Jen and I walk through in the free 22-Day Cleaning Business Master Checklist and the 22-Day Blueprint ebook. A few guides that pair well with this one:
- How to start a cleaning business in 2026 (step-by-step guide)
- How to name a cleaning business
- How to get clients for a cleaning business
- How to find cleaners for a cleaning business
About the author
Victoria Westcott co-founded Cleaning Company Blueprint with her sister Jen. Together they built Oak Bay Clean, their cleaning company in Victoria, BC, to $2.8M in sales since 2021, running it with a team of contractors. Vic writes these guides from inside the business, sharing the model and the numbers behind it. More about Vic and Jen.
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