A practical guide to statutory leave and time-off rights in Canada — annual vacation, statutory holidays, sick leave, maternity and parental leave, and the Employment Insurance benefits that pay for most of them. Figures come from the Canada Labour Code, the Employment Insurance Act, and each province's and territory's own employment standards legislation.
Read this first: there is no single Canadian leave law. Employment standards are split between one federal regime and thirteen provincial and territorial ones, so the same question has fourteen possible answers.
- The Canada Labour Code (CLC) covers federally regulated employees only — banks, telecommunications, air, rail, marine and interprovincial road transport, federal Crown corporations and a few other sectors. This is a minority of the workforce, but it sets the most generous floor in the country.
- Everyone else is covered by the employment standards act of the province or territory they work in. Vacation, statutory holidays and paid sick days all differ, sometimes sharply.
- Employment Insurance (EI) sits above both layers. It is federal and applies to almost every employee in Canada, and it is what actually pays during maternity, parental, sickness and caregiving leave. Job-protected leave comes from employment standards; the money comes from EI. Quebec is the exception — it runs its own Quebec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP) instead of EI maternity and parental benefits.
At a Glance — The Federal Standard
| Leave type | Duration | Paid? |
|---|---|---|
| Annual vacation | 2 weeks (4%) → 3 weeks (6%) after 5 years → 4 weeks (8%) after 10 years | Yes |
| General holidays | 10 per year | Yes |
| Medical leave | 27 weeks unpaid + up to 10 paid days per calendar year | Partly |
| Personal leave | 5 days per calendar year | First 3 paid |
| Bereavement leave | Up to 10 days; up to 8 weeks on the death of a child | First 3 paid |
| Leave related to pregnancy loss | Up to 8 weeks (stillbirth) or 3 days | First 3 paid |
| Maternity leave | Up to 17 weeks | Via EI |
| Parental leave | Up to 63 weeks (71 weeks shared between two employees) | Via EI |
| Compassionate care leave | Up to 28 weeks | Via EI |
| Leave for critical illness | 37 weeks (child) / 17 weeks (adult) | Via EI |
| Death or disappearance of a child | Up to 104 weeks | Via federal grant |
| Family violence leave | Up to 10 days | First 5 paid |
| Traditional Aboriginal practices | Up to 5 days | No |
1. The Fourteen Jurisdictions Compared
This is the table most HR teams actually need. Vacation is the statutory minimum; holidays is the number of paid statutory holidays; paid sick days is what the employer must pay for, separate from unpaid job-protected sick leave.
| Jurisdiction | Vacation minimum | Paid statutory holidays | Statutory paid sick days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Federal (CLC) | 2 wk / 4% → 3 wk / 6% at 5 yr → 4 wk / 8% at 10 yr | 10 | Up to 10 |
| Alberta | 2 wk / 4% → 3 wk / 6% at 5 yr | 9 | None |
| British Columbia | 2 wk / 4% → 3 wk / 6% at 5 yr | 11 | 5 paid (+3 unpaid) |
| Manitoba | 2 wk / 4% → 3 wk / 6% at 5 yr | 9 | None |
| New Brunswick | 2 wk / 4% → 3 wk / 6% at 8 yr | 8 | None |
| Newfoundland & Labrador | 2 wk / 4% → 3 wk / 6% at 15 yr | 6 | None |
| Northwest Territories | 2 wk / 4% → 3 wk / 6% at 6 yr | 11 | None |
| Nova Scotia | 2 wk / 4% → 3 wk at 8 yr (6% pay at 7 yr) | 6 | None |
| Nunavut | 2 wk / 4% → 3 wk / 6% at 6 yr | 9 | None |
| Ontario | 2 wk / 4% → 3 wk / 6% at 5 yr | 9 | None (3 unpaid) |
| Prince Edward Island | 2 wk / 4% → 3 wk / 6% at 8 yr | 8 | 1 / 2 / 3 by service |
| Quebec | 2 wk / 4% → 3 wk / 6% at 3 yr | 8 | 2 paid |
| Saskatchewan | 3 wk (3/52) → 4 wk (4/52) at 10 yr | 10 | None |
| Yukon | 2 wk / 4% (no increase with service) | 11 | None |
Four things worth knowing from that table:
- Saskatchewan is the outlier on vacation — three weeks from the first year, and four weeks after ten. Everywhere else starts at two.
- The jump to three weeks ranges from 3 years (Quebec) to 15 years (Newfoundland & Labrador). Yukon never increases it at all.
- Paid statutory holidays run from 6 to 11. Nova Scotia and Newfoundland & Labrador have six; British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and Yukon have eleven.
- Paid sick leave is the exception, not the rule. Only the federal jurisdiction, BC, PEI and Quebec require the employer to pay anything.
The Nova Scotia Split Worth Flagging
Nova Scotia is the one jurisdiction where vacation time and vacation pay step up at different moments: an employee receives three weeks of vacation time in their ninth year (having completed 8 years), but vacation pay rises to 6% at the start of their eighth year (after completing 7 years). Payroll set up on a single 8-year trigger will underpay for a year.
2. Annual Vacation
Canadian vacation entitlement always has two components: vacation time (job-protected days off) and vacation pay (a percentage of gross earnings). They are calculated separately, which is why part-time and variable-hours staff still accrue vacation pay even where they take little time.
- The near-universal formula is 2% of gross wages per week of vacation — so two weeks = 4%, three weeks = 6%, four weeks = 8%.
- Saskatchewan expresses it as a fraction instead: 3/52 of wages for three weeks (about 5.77%) and 4/52 for four weeks (about 7.69%).
- Most jurisdictions require vacation to be taken, not banked indefinitely, within a set window after it is earned — 10 months in Ontario, Manitoba and Nova Scotia, 12 months in BC and Alberta, 4 months in New Brunswick and PEI, 6 months in the Northwest Territories.
- Vacation pay is generally payable before the vacation begins, and any unused vacation pay must be paid out when employment ends.
Quebec's Four-Tier Structure
| Uninterrupted service | Vacation | Indemnity |
|---|---|---|
| Less than 1 year | 1 day per full month, max 2 weeks | 4% |
| 1 to 3 years | 2 consecutive weeks | 4% |
| 3 years | 3 consecutive weeks | 6% |
| From the 4th year | 3 consecutive weeks or more | 6% |
Quebec's vacation year — the "reference year" — usually runs 1 May to 30 April rather than by employment anniversary.
3. Statutory Holidays
Terminology varies — general holidays federally and in the Prairies and territories, statutory holidays in BC, public holidays in Ontario and New Brunswick, paid holidays in PEI — but the mechanism is the same: a qualifying employee gets the day off with holiday pay, and is owed premium pay or a substitute day for working it.
The ten federal general holidays are New Year's Day, Good Friday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, Labour Day, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (30 September), Thanksgiving Day, Remembrance Day, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Federal holiday pay is 1/20 of the wages earned in the four weeks before the holiday, excluding overtime.
Statutory Holidays 2026
| Date | Weekday | Holiday | Where it is a statutory holiday |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 January | Thursday | New Year's Day | Everywhere |
| 16 February | Monday | Family Day / Louis Riel Day (MB) / Islander Day (PEI) / Nova Scotia Heritage Day | AB, BC, MB, NB, NS, ON, PEI, SK |
| 3 April | Friday | Good Friday | Everywhere (Quebec: Good Friday or Easter Monday, at the employer's option) |
| 6 April | Monday | Easter Monday | Quebec option; optional elsewhere |
| 18 May | Monday | Victoria Day | Federal, AB, BC, MB, NT, NU, ON, SK, YT |
| 21 June | Sunday | National Indigenous Peoples Day | NT, YT |
| 24 June | Wednesday | National Holiday (St-Jean-Baptiste) | QC |
| 1 July | Wednesday | Canada Day | Everywhere |
| 3 August | Monday | Civic holiday — BC Day, New Brunswick Day, Saskatchewan Day | BC, NB, NT, NU, SK (unofficial in ON, AB, MB) |
| 17 August | Monday | Discovery Day | YT |
| 7 September | Monday | Labour Day | Everywhere |
| 30 September | Wednesday | National Day for Truth and Reconciliation | Federal, BC, MB (Orange Shirt Day), NT, NU, PEI, YT |
| 12 October | Monday | Thanksgiving Day | Federal, AB, BC, MB, NT, NU, ON, QC, SK, YT |
| 11 November | Wednesday | Remembrance Day | Federal, AB, BC, NB, NT, NU, PEI, SK, YT |
| 25 December | Friday | Christmas Day | Everywhere |
| 26 December | Saturday | Boxing Day | Federal, ON |
Notable gaps. Quebec does not observe Remembrance Day or the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation as statutory holidays — only federally regulated employees in Quebec get those. Boxing Day is statutory only federally and in Ontario. Easter Sunday, Easter Monday and Boxing Day are explicitly not statutory holidays in British Columbia. Nova Scotia and Manitoba both handle Remembrance Day under a separate act rather than their employment standards legislation.
2026 is an awkward year: Boxing Day falls on a Saturday and National Indigenous Peoples Day on a Sunday. Substitution rules differ by jurisdiction — most require a substitute day or holiday pay when a holiday falls on a non-working day, so check the local rule rather than assuming the day is lost.
4. Employment Insurance — The Layer That Actually Pays
Job-protected leave and paid benefits are two different systems in Canada. EI provides the income; employment standards protect the job. An employee normally needs 600 insured hours for special benefits, and there is a one-week unpaid waiting period.
2026 EI Figures
- Maximum insurable earnings (MIE): $68,900 for 2026, up $3,200 from 2025.
- Maximum weekly benefit: $729 at the standard 55% rate.
- Maximum weekly extended parental benefit: $437 at the 33% rate.
- Employee premium rate outside Quebec: $1.63 per $100 of insurable earnings, to an annual maximum of $1,123.07.
| EI benefit | Maximum weeks | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Maternity | 15 | 55% |
| Parental — standard | 35 per claimant, 40 if shared | 55% |
| Parental — extended | 61 per claimant, 69 if shared | 33% |
| Sickness | 26 | 55% |
| Compassionate care | 26 | 55% |
| Family caregiver — child | 35 | 55% |
| Family caregiver — adult | 15 | 55% |
Two rules that catch employers out: the standard and extended parental options cannot be mixed — both parents must take the same option, and the election is irrevocable once benefits are paid — and choosing extended parental leave does not increase the total money, it spreads a similar amount over more weeks at a lower rate.
Quebec: QPIP, Not EI
Quebec employees claim maternity, paternity, parental and adoption benefits from the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan instead of EI. QPIP is more generous than EI in several respects — notably a dedicated paternity benefit, higher replacement rates on some options, and no one-week waiting period — which is why Quebec EI premium rates are lower. Quebec employees still use EI for sickness and caregiving benefits.
5. Federal Leave Entitlements in Detail
These apply to federally regulated employees under Part III of the Canada Labour Code.
Medical Leave
- 27 weeks of unpaid, job-protected medical leave for personal illness or injury, organ or tissue donation, medical appointments, or quarantine.
- Up to 10 days of paid medical leave per calendar year, earned as 3 days after 30 days of continuous employment, then 1 day per month thereafter. Unused paid days carry forward to the next year.
Personal Leave
5 days per calendar year for family health or care responsibilities, a family member's education, an urgent matter, or attending a citizenship ceremony. The first 3 days are paid once the employee has three consecutive months of continuous employment.
Maternity and Parental Leave
- Maternity leave: up to 17 weeks, starting as early as 13 weeks before the expected date of birth, and extended to the date of birth if the birth happens later than expected.
- Parental leave: up to 63 weeks for one employee, or 71 weeks aggregate where two employees share it for the same birth or adoption, taken within a 78-week window. The window is extended if the child is hospitalised.
Bereavement and Pregnancy Loss
- Bereavement: up to 10 days on the death of an immediate family member, with the first 3 days paid, taken from the day of death until six weeks after the funeral, burial or memorial service.
- Death of a child: up to 8 weeks.
- Pregnancy loss: up to 8 weeks where the pregnancy ends in stillbirth, or 3 days for other pregnancy loss, with the first 3 days paid after three months' continuous employment. Available to the person who was pregnant, their spouse or common-law partner, and intended parents in a surrogacy arrangement.
Caregiving Leaves
- Compassionate care: up to 28 weeks to care for a family member with a serious medical condition and a significant risk of death within 26 weeks.
- Critical illness: up to 37 weeks for a critically ill child, 17 weeks for a critically ill adult.
- Death or disappearance of a child as a result of a crime: up to 104 weeks (death) or 52 weeks (disappearance).
Other Federal Leaves
- Family violence leave: up to 10 days per calendar year, first 5 paid.
- Leave for traditional Aboriginal practices: up to 5 days per calendar year, unpaid, for Aboriginal employees with three months' service — for hunting, fishing, harvesting and prescribed practices.
- Court or jury duty leave, and reservist leave.
6. Sick Leave Outside the Federal Jurisdiction
Only four of the fourteen jurisdictions require paid sick days:
- Federal — up to 10 paid days per calendar year, accrued monthly and carried forward.
- British Columbia — 5 paid days plus 3 unpaid days per calendar year after 90 days of employment. Unused days do not carry over.
- Quebec — 2 paid days per calendar year after three months of service, followed by up to 26 weeks of unpaid job-protected leave.
- Prince Edward Island — graduated by service: 1 paid day after 12 months, 2 after 24 months, 3 after 36 months, plus 3 unpaid days after three months. Paid days are used before unpaid ones.
Everywhere else, statutory sick leave is unpaid but job-protected — Ontario, for example, provides 3 unpaid sick days per calendar year after two consecutive weeks of employment. Employer-provided sick pay, short-term disability plans and absence tracking alongside EI sickness benefits (26 weeks) fill the gap.
7. Recent Changes and What to Watch
- 12 December 2025 — new federal leaves in force. Leave related to pregnancy loss (8 weeks for stillbirth, 3 days otherwise, first 3 days paid) and an extended bereavement leave of up to 8 weeks on the death of a child were added to the Canada Labour Code.
- Leave for the placement of a child — up to 16 weeks for adoption and surrogacy has been enacted federally but its coming-into-force date is still to be fixed, pending the matching EI amendments that would provide the income support.
- 1 October 2024 — PEI paid sick leave became graduated by length of service.
- 2026 EI figures took effect 1 January 2026: MIE $68,900, maximum weekly benefit $729, premium rate cut by one cent to $1.63 per $100.
- Paid sick leave keeps moving provincially. BC and PEI both introduced or expanded paid sick days in recent years; expect further provincial change rather than a national standard.
Sources
All figures are taken from Canadian federal, provincial and territorial legislation and official government guidance:
- Canada Labour Code (R.S.C. 1985, c. L-2) — vacation (ss. 183–184.01), general holidays (ss. 166, 191–196), Division XIII leaves (ss. 206–210), medical leave (s. 239)
- Employment Insurance Act (S.C. 1996, c. 23) — ss. 12(3)–(4), 22, 23, 23.1–23.3, 152.14
- SOR/2025-240 — Leave Related to Pregnancy Loss, Bereavement Leave and Leave for Placement of Child
- Ontario — Your guide to the Employment Standards Act
- Alberta — Vacation pay and General holidays and general holiday pay
- British Columbia — Employment Standards
- Manitoba — Employment Standards
- Saskatchewan — Annual Vacation and Vacation Pay, and The Saskatchewan Employment Act ss. 2-24, 2-27, 2-30
- Quebec — CNESST, Leave
- Nova Scotia — Employment Rights
- New Brunswick — Paid public holidays, vacation time and pay
- Prince Edward Island — Employment Standards
- Newfoundland & Labrador — Labour Standards Act
- Northwest Territories — Employment Standards Act
- Nunavut — Labour Standards Act
- Yukon — Employment Standards
This guide is for general information only and is not legal advice. Which regime applies depends on whether the employer is federally or provincially regulated, and many entitlements depend on length of service, collective agreements and individual circumstances. Always confirm the current rules with the relevant employment standards authority.
