Severance Pay in Canada by Province (2026): What You're Owed

Nine years at the same job, and the letter offers eight weeks’ pay. At a large employer in Ontario, that’s less than half the legal minimum. In Newfoundland and Labrador, it’s more than double.

Severance pay in Canada depends on where you work and how long you’ve been there. Every province and territory sets a minimum of notice or pay, and only Ontario and federally regulated employers owe a separate severance payment on top. Above the minimum, a court can award months of pay.

How much severance pay does the law require in each province?

When your employer lets you go without cause, the law requires written notice or pay instead, from 1 week up to 8 depending on your years of service. Find your row, then the column for your completed years of service. Each number is weeks of notice or pay.

If your years fall between two columns, use the one on the left: 9 years uses the 8-year column, and 12 years uses the 10-year column. In Saskatchewan, each step starts the day after the anniversary, so exactly 5 years still means 4 weeks. In the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, the rule covers only people who work at least 25 hours a week.

Two rows changed recently. Prince Edward Island’s new Employment Standards Act (opens in a new tab) took effect on June 30, 2026, and moved the starting point from six months to 90 days, so someone with six months of service now gets 1 week rather than 2. The federal steps (opens in a new tab) took effect on February 1, 2024, replacing a flat 2 weeks.

What counts as a week’s pay?

Usually your regular wages for your regular hours, without overtime. If your pay varies, the law uses an average: your last 12 weeks in Ontario (opens in a new tab), 13 in Alberta (opens in a new tab) and Saskatchewan, and 8 in British Columbia (opens in a new tab). Newfoundland and Labrador also counts the overtime you worked in the month before you were let go.

Benefits vary too. Ontario makes your employer keep paying into your benefit plans through the notice period, even if it pays you instead of having you work. Quebec’s labour standards board, the CNESST, says benefits must be maintained during notice, and the Northwest Territories and Nunavut count benefits as part of the payment.

Who doesn’t get the minimum?

People fired for cause, people who quit, and people whose fixed-term contract simply reached its end date. In several places, including Alberta and Nova Scotia, that exception covers only contracts of 12 months or less. A fixed-term contract your employer ends early generally does count. Most provinces also leave out construction workers on site, and Quebec leaves out senior managers. If you’re in a union, your collective agreement and the grievance process take the place of a lawsuit (opens in a new tab).

Being fired doesn’t automatically mean you were fired for cause. Manitoba describes cause as conduct so serious that it “essentially breaks the employment relationship” (opens in a new tab), and your employer has to prove it. Ontario’s test for losing the minimum is stricter than ordinary just cause (opens in a new tab): “wilful misconduct, disobedience or wilful neglect of duty that is not trivial” (opens in a new tab). Quebec’s CNESST says a fault can justify firing you and still leave you owed notice (opens in a new tab), unless it’s a “serious fault”.

What’s the difference between termination pay and severance pay?

Termination pay, also called pay in lieu of notice, replaces the notice your employer didn’t give you. Severance pay is a separate amount for losing the job, and only Ontario and federal law require it. People also say “severance” for the whole package an employer offers, which can include money above the legal minimum.

The names change by province. British Columbia’s law says “compensation for length of service”, and Quebec’s says “indemnity”. Alberta’s government says severance pay “is determined under common law” (opens in a new tab), meaning by the courts, not by its Employment Standards Code.

How Ontario severance pay works

You qualify with five years or more at the employer, plus one of two things: a global payroll of at least $2.5 million (opens in a new tab), or 50 or more people losing their jobs within six months because all or part of the business is closing for good. A smaller business that doesn’t meet either test owes termination pay but not severance pay.

The amount is one week’s regular wages for each year, plus a twelfth of that for each extra full month, up to 26 weeks. It’s on top of termination pay, and your notice period counts as service even if you’re paid instead of working it. For example, someone earning $70,000 with 9 years and 4 months of service, counting the notice period, gets $12,564 in severance pay plus $10,769 for 8 weeks of termination pay. Your employer can pay severance in instalments only if you agree or the Director of Employment Standards approves.

How federal severance pay works

If you work for a bank, an airline, a telecom company, an interprovincial railway or trucking company, or another federally regulated employer (opens in a new tab), the Canada Labour Code covers you wherever you live. After 12 months, you’re owed severance pay (opens in a new tab) of 2 days’ wages for each completed year, or 5 days’ wages if that’s more, on top of notice. There’s no payroll test and no maximum. Nine years comes to 18 days’ wages.

What does the minimum come to in dollars?

On a $70,000 salary, or about $1,346 a week, nine years of service comes to anywhere from about $4,000 to about $23,000, depending on which law covers you. These amounts are before tax.

The Ontario row counts the notice period as part of the 9 or 17 years. If you’re let go on your ninth anniversary with pay instead of notice, Ontario’s guide (opens in a new tab) counts your 8 weeks of notice as 2 more months of service, which adds about $224.

Which row is yours depends on your employer’s industry as well as your province. A bank teller in Quebec is covered by the federal law, not Quebec’s.

Can you get more than the legal minimum?

Often, yes. Outside Quebec, unless your contract clearly says otherwise, you’re owed “reasonable notice” under the common law, the rules set by court decisions. In Quebec, the Civil Code requires something similar. Courts set it case by case, looking at (opens in a new tab) your job, your length of service, your age and how easily you could find similar work.

A court award isn’t added to the minimum. What your employer already paid you under the minimum normally comes off the award (opens in a new tab).

What courts have actually awarded

There’s no formula. Ontario’s Court of Appeal rejected “one month per year of service” (opens in a new tab) as a rule of thumb in 1999 and said so again in 2020 (opens in a new tab), although the figure is still widely quoted. These are real decisions:

With 16 or 17 years of service, three people got 12, 16 and 18 months, so length of service alone doesn’t set the amount.

Courts treat about 24 months as the usual maximum. Ontario’s Court of Appeal says only exceptional circumstances (opens in a new tab) support more, and it has upheld 26 (opens in a new tab) and 30 months for people with close to 40 years at one employer. British Columbia’s Supreme Court has used the same 24-month limit (opens in a new tab), and the Supreme Court of Canada notes that Quebec courts have accepted up to 24 months without calling it a maximum (opens in a new tab).

Going to court costs money and takes time, so these numbers are most useful as a reference when you negotiate.

When your contract limits you

A termination clause says what you get if you’re let go. If it gives you less than the legal minimum, it’s void (opens in a new tab), and reasonable notice applies instead. Outside Quebec, a clear clause that promises at least the minimum can limit you to it, so the wording of your contract can decide most of what you get. Newfoundland and Labrador is an exception to the rule on clauses below the minimum: its Act lets a written contract set a different notice period (opens in a new tab) if it’s the same whichever side ends the job.

Ontario courts read these clauses strictly. If any part of the termination terms breaks the law, all of them are thrown out (opens in a new tab), even if your employer never relied on that part. But in August 2026, Ontario’s Court of Appeal ruled (opens in a new tab) that saying your employer can end the job “at any time” doesn’t void a clause that otherwise gives you the legal minimum. In Quebec, article 2092 (opens in a new tab) of the Civil Code says you can’t give up your right to an indemnity for insufficient notice.

What happens to the money if you find a new job

To get the full amount a court could award, you have to make a reasonable effort to find work (opens in a new tab), though it’s up to your employer to show you didn’t try and that work was available. Money you earn at a new job during the notice period generally comes off a court award (opens in a new tab), even if the new job pays less (opens in a new tab).

The legal minimum is different. Ontario’s Court of Appeal says (opens in a new tab) you’re owed it even if you start a new full-time job the next day, and Manitoba’s Code (opens in a new tab) says it’s owed whether or not you’ve found other work.

Where you can challenge the firing itself

• Federally regulated jobs: after 12 months, if you aren’t a manager and aren’t in a union, you can file an unjust dismissal complaint within 90 days (opens in a new tab). The Supreme Court ruled in 2016 (opens in a new tab) that this protects you from dismissal without cause, even if your employer pays severance. A real layoff for lack of work doesn’t count.
• Quebec: after 2 years, you can file a complaint of dismissal without good and sufficient cause within 45 days. More on that in the next section.
• Nova Scotia: after 10 years, your employer can’t fire you without just cause (opens in a new tab), and a contract can’t change that. One employee with 14.5 years of service was awarded 12 months’ pay (opens in a new tab). A job eliminated in good faith doesn’t count (opens in a new tab).

How does severance work in Quebec?

Quebec’s labour standards law has no severance pay. It requires a notice of termination (opens in a new tab) of 1 to 8 weeks, or an indemnity in its place, paid when the job ends or on the next pay. A package above that comes from the Civil Code or from a contract.

Article 2091 (opens in a new tab) of the Civil Code says notice must be reasonable, given the nature of the job, the circumstances and how long you worked there. The Supreme Court has confirmed (opens in a new tab) that this can be longer than the labour standards minimum.

After 2 years of uninterrupted service, you can also file a complaint of dismissal without good and sufficient cause (opens in a new tab). You have 45 days. The Tribunal administratif du travail can order (opens in a new tab) your employer to give you your job back and pay compensation for lost wages, among other remedies, and the CNESST may represent you (opens in a new tab) if you aren’t unionized. This route doesn’t cover senior managers or a genuine layoff, though an employer can’t use a layoff as a pretext.

A release you sign the day you’re let go isn’t always final. A Quebec court threw one out in 2022 (in French) (opens in a new tab) because the manager who signed it had no chance to think it over or get advice. That isn’t something to count on.

What should you do before you sign a severance offer?

Don’t sign on the spot. The letter may ask you to sign a release, a document that normally ends your right to claim more. The minimum is owed whether or not you sign, so all you can gain by signing is what the offer adds above it.

In Ontario (opens in a new tab), for example, you can’t sign away the minimum. An Ontario court said in 2024 (opens in a new tab) that the obligation “is not contingent on the execution of a release or anything else”, and awarded $10,000 in punitive damages against an employer that didn’t pay. British Columbia’s Employment Standards Branch (opens in a new tab) says it would investigate an employer that holds back a final paycheque until a release is signed. It also says it wouldn’t normally investigate once you’ve signed a binding release that took the minimum into account, unless you were forced into signing.

1. Work out your minimum. Use the table above, plus Ontario or federal severance pay if it applies. If the offer is only the minimum, signing gets you nothing extra.
2. Read the termination clause in your contract. Outside Quebec, it decides whether you can ask for reasonable notice at all.
3. Ask for more time, in writing. The deadline in the letter is your employer’s, not the law’s. Your employer can withdraw the extra money once that date passes, but not the minimum.
4. Get the letter reviewed. Free or low-cost help includes Pro Bono Ontario (opens in a new tab) (1-855-255-7256), Ontario’s legal clinics (opens in a new tab) for people with low incomes, Access Pro Bono (opens in a new tab) in British Columbia and the Edmonton Community Legal Centre (opens in a new tab). In Quebec, Au bas de l’échelle (in French) (opens in a new tab) gives free information to non-union workers.
5. Look past the cash. Ask about your benefits, bonus, stock and a reference letter.

How the letter labels each payment also changes the tax. Our layoff money guide explains retiring allowances (the CRA’s term for money paid for losing your job, which doesn’t include pay in lieu of notice), RRSP transfers and the EI rules.

What if your employer doesn’t pay the minimum?

File a complaint with your employment standards office. In most of Canada you have 6 or 12 months, and these offices enforce the legal minimum, not a bigger amount under the common law. Some deadlines run from your last day and others from the date the pay was due, so count from your last day to be safe.

Filing can close the door on a lawsuit

In Ontario, a complaint for termination or severance pay stops you from suing (opens in a new tab) over the same termination, unless you withdraw it within two weeks. The Northwest Territories (opens in a new tab) warns about the same thing. A federal complaint doesn’t stop a civil action (opens in a new tab). So if your contract leaves room for reasonable notice, it could be worth getting advice before you file.

The deadline to sue

Two years in Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and three in Quebec (opens in a new tab). By our reading, the laws in Prince Edward Island and the territories allow six years, and Newfoundland and Labrador’s law is unclear, so treat two years as the safe date in all of these places. In Ontario, the clock starts the day you’re told your job is ending (opens in a new tab), not on your last day of work, and a claim filed six weeks late (opens in a new tab) was thrown out.

Do layoffs change what you’re owed?

A permanent layoff is a termination, so the tables above apply. A temporary layoff turns into one once it passes the limit in your province’s law. And when many people are let go at once, employers in some provinces owe each person more.

When a temporary layoff becomes a termination

Most of these limits have exceptions, such as union recall rights or an employer that keeps paying your benefits. Ontario’s limit can stretch to just under 35 weeks within 52, or just under 52 weeks within 78 with your written agreement and approval from the Director of Employment Standards.

What a mass layoff adds

In six provinces, a large enough group layoff raises what each person is owed. The weeks below depend on how many people are let go.

How that combines with the normal amount depends on where you are:

• British Columbia: it’s added on top.
• Ontario, Manitoba and Nova Scotia: it replaces the normal amount, and Ontario severance pay still comes on top. Ontario’s rule doesn’t apply if the layoff is 10% or less of the staff at the establishment and no part of the business is closing.
• Newfoundland and Labrador: your employer must keep you employed or pay your normal wages for the group notice period, and the Act says this doesn’t limit the normal notice.
• Quebec: the notice goes to the minister. You’re paid for it only if your employer gave the minister late or no notice, or couldn’t keep you employed for the full period, and you then get whichever is larger, this amount or the normal one.

Elsewhere, and in federally regulated jobs, a group layoff means more warning or a notice to the government, and the law doesn’t require a higher payment. In the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, though, the job can’t end until the group notice period is over.

Making the money last until the next job

A lump sum shrinks once tax comes off, and a job search can run longer than you planned. Keeping the money in an account you don’t spend from can help it last.

Lodavo can make that a little easier. Connect that account to the free app, and the more you leave in the account, the more tickets you get in a weekly cash draw. Every week a user wins at least $100, and you could win up to $10,000. The money stays in your own account, and you can spend it whenever you need to.

Download Lodavo free on the Apple App Store (opens in a new tab) or Google Play Store (opens in a new tab).

This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. An employment lawyer can tell you how these rules apply to your contract and your job.

Terms and conditions apply. No purchase necessary (alternate method of entry available). Skill-testing question required. Open to legal residents of Canada who are the age of majority. Odds depend on the number of eligible entries received. Full rules and odds at our contest rules.