Statutory Holidays in Canada: Federal and Provincial Rules by Jurisdiction

There is no single Canadian statutory holiday list: the number of paid general holidays a worker is legally entitled to ranges from 6 to 11 depending on the province, territory, or federal jurisdiction that employs them, and the premium pay, qualifying, and vacation rules attached to those holidays differ just as sharply.

Information last verified on 2026-09-24. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

This article covers statutory (general) holiday entitlement, holiday pay, premium pay for working a holiday, and annual vacation entitlement and pay for employees across Canada: the 10 provinces, the 3 territories, and federally regulated employment under the Canada Labour Code. It is written for the employee asking whether a particular day off is legally required and paid, not as a compliance guide for employers. It does not cover the general employment standards rules that apply outside holidays and vacation; see Employment Standards Overview for that broader picture.

Why "Canada has X statutory holidays" is the wrong question

A reader searching for a single Canadian answer will not find one, because there is not one. Employment standards for most workers are set provincially, not federally, and each province and territory has written its own list of paid statutory holidays, its own qualifying rule for who gets paid for them, and its own formula for how much that pay is. Only employees in federally regulated sectors, roughly 6 percent of the Canadian workforce, follow one uniform Canada Labour Code list.

The result is that the same calendar day can be a paid statutory holiday in one province and an ordinary working day in the next. The tables below set out exactly where each major holiday stands, jurisdiction by jurisdiction, rather than compressing 14 different regimes into a single misleading rule.

How many statutory holidays each jurisdiction has

Manitoba and Nova Scotia both route Remembrance Day through a separate Act rather than their main holiday list, which affects how it should be described for those two provinces; see Is Remembrance Day a Stat Holiday for the detail.

Days commonly assumed to be statutory that often are not

These are the five days that generate the most confusion, because a reader's home province experience does not transfer to the next province.

For a full jurisdiction by jurisdiction answer on Easter Monday, Boxing Day, or Remembrance Day specifically, see Is Easter Monday a Stat Holiday, Is Boxing Day a Stat Holiday, and Is Remembrance Day a Stat Holiday.

Four different qualifying-rule shapes

Whether an employee has worked long enough, or recently enough, to be paid for a statutory holiday is not answered the same way twice. The jurisdictions researched cluster into at least four distinct shapes.

No tenure test, only a scheduled-day test. Ontario and Quebec each ask only whether the employee worked their last scheduled shift before the holiday and their first scheduled shift after it, without asking how long the employee has worked there at all. Prince Edward Island's new Act also has no tenure test; it denies holiday pay to an employee who, without the employer's direction or permission or any reasonable cause, "fails to work on both" their last work day before the holiday and their first work day after it. Ontario calls this the Last and First Rule, and it is one shape among several, not the Canadian default.

A calendar-day tenure and earnings test. British Columbia requires 30 calendar days of employment and wages earned or vacation taken on 15 of the 30 days before the holiday. Nova Scotia requires pay for at least 15 of the 30 calendar days before the holiday, plus its own scheduled-day test on top.

A fixed tenure test plus a scheduled-day test. Alberta requires 30 workdays with the same employer in the prior 12 months. New Brunswick requires 90 calendar days with the current employer in the previous 12 months. Yukon requires 30 calendar days of employment along with a 2-week earnings look-back. All three combine that tenure figure with a version of the scheduled-day test.

No qualifying test at all. Manitoba and Saskatchewan both pay every employee, regardless of how long they have worked there, and Saskatchewan's government states this directly: employees are paid no matter how they are paid or what hours they work.

Federally regulated employment does not fit neatly into these four shapes. The Canada Labour Code's entitlement section for general holidays does not state a separate minimum-tenure qualifying period the way every province does; every employee is entitled to a paid holiday on each general holiday falling within their period of employment.

Working the holiday: stacked pay, an election, or double time

Time and a half for working a statutory holiday is common, but it is not applied the same way everywhere, and the difference is a real legal distinction, not different wording for the same rule.

Stacking as the general rule. Federal, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick all require holiday pay AND a time and a half premium for hours actually worked, together, as the general rule. Some employers may instead pay regular wages plus a paid day off at another time: federal continuous operations, Manitoba employers in listed industries such as gas stations, hospitals, hotels, restaurants, and continuously operating businesses, Nova Scotia continuous operations, and New Brunswick hotels, motels, tourist resorts, restaurants, taverns, and continuous operations. Saskatchewan's Employment Standards Regulations, 2025 also set their own rules for some industries: hourly construction employees receive 4 percent of their calendar-year wages (excluding overtime and vacation pay) as holiday pay, plus time and a half for hours worked on the holiday; well drilling rig operators who work the holiday get holiday pay plus their regular wages, with no premium; and commercial hog operation employees may elect in writing to take regular wages plus another day off designated by the employer within a year. British Columbia works similarly in substance: statutory holiday pay is paid automatically, with time and a half for hours worked layered on top, moving to double time only for hours worked beyond 12 in the day.

A choice between two structures. Ontario and Alberta instead offer two different structures: holiday pay plus premium pay for the hours worked with no extra day off, or regular wages for the hours worked plus a substitute day off paid at holiday pay. In Alberta the employer chooses between them. In Ontario the substitute day is the default, and public holiday pay plus premium pay applies only if the employee agrees electronically or in writing. These are two different legal options, not the same rule described two ways.

Double time as an option. In Newfoundland and Labrador, when the employer and employee agree that a public holiday will be a working day, the employee chooses between twice the wages earned for that day, one full day's holiday with pay within 30 days, or one extra paid day added to their annual vacation.

Quebec's own structure. An employee who works a Quebec statutory holiday is paid their normal wages for the hours worked, plus either the standard holiday indemnity or a compensatory day off; LNT art. 63 does not say whose choice that is. This article did not find a separate 1.5 times premium stated in the Quebec holiday provisions researched, so a holiday premium beyond that choice should not be assumed for Quebec without checking the province's general overtime rules.

Vacation entitlement across Canada

Most jurisdictions researched use a 4 percent and 6 percent vacation pay structure at their core (Saskatchewan instead uses 3/52 and 4/52 of annual wages, and Yukon sets 4 percent only), but the number of years it takes to move from the first tier to the second is genuinely different across the country, and only one jurisdiction has a third tier at all.

In Nova Scotia's Labour Standards Code, the vacation pay rate and the vacation time entitlement move together: both the 6% rate and the third week apply to employees employed for more than eight years (s.32(1) and s.34). The province's own guidance page describes the 6% rate as starting after seven years; the Code's wording is the rule quoted here. Do not assume they change together there.

Vacation pay owed when employment ends is calculated and paid on its own timeline in each jurisdiction; see Vacation Pay in Ontario for a worked Ontario example, and Final Paycheck Deadlines in Canada for how vacation pay fits into what an employer owes on a last paycheque generally.

Federally regulated employees: the Canada Labour Code layer

A minority of Canadian workers, in sectors such as banking, telecommunications and broadcasting, interprovincial and international transportation, ports, federal Crown corporations, and First Nations band councils, are not covered by their province's employment standards act at all. They fall under Part III of the Canada Labour Code instead, regardless of which province they physically work in.

The Code sets its own list of 10 general holidays, its own three-tier vacation structure (2 weeks and 4% at 1 year, 3 weeks and 6% at 5 years, 4 weeks and 8% at 10 years), and its own stacking rule for working a holiday, holiday pay plus time and a half, with a paid-holiday-at-another-time alternative only for employees in continuous operations rather than the general choice Ontario and Alberta allow. The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation has been on the federal list since it was added in 2021, which means it binds a federally regulated employer everywhere in Canada even in a province, such as Alberta or Saskatchewan, where it is not a provincial statutory holiday. For the full detail on who this layer covers and how it interacts with provincial rules, see Federally Regulated Employees and the Canada Labour Code.

Find your jurisdiction's full rules

This hub sets out the national picture. For the complete, jurisdiction-specific detail on holidays, qualifying rules, pay formulas, and vacation entitlement, see:

• Statutory Holidays in Ontario
• Vacation Pay in Ontario
• Statutory Holidays in British Columbia
• Statutory Holidays in Alberta
• Statutory Holidays in Quebec
• Statutory Holidays in Manitoba
• Statutory Holidays in Saskatchewan
• Statutory Holidays in Nova Scotia
• Is Easter Monday a Stat Holiday
• Is Boxing Day a Stat Holiday
• Is Remembrance Day a Stat Holiday

For the general employment standards picture beyond holidays and vacation, see Employment Standards Overview, Overtime and Hours of Work, and Termination Pay in Ontario.

Disclaimer: This article provides general information about statutory holiday and vacation entitlement across Canadian provinces, territories, and federally regulated employment, current as of September 2026. It is not legal advice, and it does not cover every jurisdiction's exceptions, industry carve-outs, or collective agreement variations. Confirm the current rules for your specific jurisdiction and employer with that jurisdiction's employment standards office, or consult a lawyer licensed in your province or territory for advice on your specific situation.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many statutory holidays does Canada have?

There is no single national answer for provincially regulated employees, because each province and territory sets its own list. The count ranges from 6 in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador to 11 in British Columbia, Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut. Only federally regulated employees, covered by the Canada Labour Code, follow one uniform federal list of 10 general holidays.

Is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation a paid statutory holiday where I work?

It depends on your province. It is a statutory holiday in British Columbia, Manitoba (as Orange Shirt Day), Prince Edward Island under its new Act, Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, and it is always a statutory holiday for federally regulated employees regardless of province. It is an optional day an employer may choose to recognize in Alberta, and Saskatchewan's government has stated directly that it is a statutory holiday only for federally regulated workplaces there, not under the provincial Act. It does not appear on the statutory list in Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, or Ontario.

Do I get extra pay for working on a statutory holiday?

Most jurisdictions require it, but the structure varies. Federal, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick make holiday pay and a time and a half premium for hours worked the general rule, though some employers, such as continuous operations, may pay regular wages plus a paid day off at another time instead, and Saskatchewan sets separate rules for well drilling rig and commercial hog operation employees. Alberta lets the employer choose between holiday pay plus premium pay with no extra day off, or regular wages plus a substitute day off. In Ontario the substitute day is the default, and premium pay applies only if the employee agrees electronically or in writing. In Newfoundland and Labrador the employee can choose double wages for the day, a paid day off within 30 days, or an extra vacation day. Check your jurisdiction's page in the links below for the exact rule that applies to you.

How much vacation time and vacation pay am I owed?

Most jurisdictions researched use a 4 percent and 6 percent structure, but the number of years it takes to reach 6 percent is different almost everywhere: 3 years in Quebec, 5 years in most provinces, after the sixth year in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, more than 8 years in Nova Scotia under its Labour Standards Code, the same point as the third week (the province's guidance page describes 6 percent as starting after 7 years), 8 years in New Brunswick, and 15 years in Newfoundland and Labrador. Yukon stays at 2 weeks and 4 percent. Saskatchewan reaches 3 weeks from an employee's first year and adds a fourth week at 10 years. Federally regulated employees have a third tier, 8 percent and 4 weeks, at 10 years.

Where do I complain if my employer will not pay me correctly for a statutory holiday or vacation?

Each jurisdiction has its own employment standards office. Your province's or territory's employment standards branch, or Employment and Social Development Canada for federally regulated employment, is the government body that handles a complaint. This article does not state a specific complaint deadline, since that figure differs by jurisdiction and was not the focus of the research behind this page; confirm the current process directly with your jurisdiction's employment standards office.