Stat Holidays in Canada by Province (2026): Who Gets Paid

Thanksgiving, on Monday, October 12, 2026, is a paid stat holiday everywhere in Canada except New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador. Remembrance Day, on Wednesday, November 11, is paid in six provinces, the three territories and federally regulated jobs, but not in Ontario or Quebec. And Boxing Day is a stat only in Ontario and for federally regulated workers.

If you work the day, an eight-hour Thanksgiving shift at $20 an hour pays $400 in British Columbia, where you get time and a half plus holiday pay, and $160 in Nova Scotia, where it’s an ordinary Monday.

Which days are stat holidays in your province?

Every province and territory sets its own list, from 6 paid holidays in Nova Scotia and in Newfoundland and Labrador to 11 in British Columbia and the three territories. Federally regulated workplaces, like banks, airlines and telecom companies, follow the Canada Labour Code’s list of 10, whatever province they’re in. The lists differ most in the fall.

September 30 is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Alberta lists it and Boxing Day as optional, which means an employer can choose to give them and doesn’t have to. The first Monday in August is a paid holiday in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Yukon’s August holiday is Discovery Day, two weeks later.

Every stat holiday, province by province

• Alberta (9): New Year’s Day, Family Day, Good Friday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving, Remembrance Day and Christmas Day.
• British Columbia (11): New Year’s Day, Family Day, Good Friday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, British Columbia Day, Labour Day, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Thanksgiving, Remembrance Day and Christmas Day.
• Manitoba (9): New Year’s Day, Louis Riel Day, Good Friday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, Labour Day, Orange Shirt Day (National Day for Truth and Reconciliation), Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.
• New Brunswick (8): New Year’s Day, Family Day, Good Friday, Canada Day, New Brunswick Day, Labour Day, Remembrance Day and Christmas Day.
• Newfoundland and Labrador (6): New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day (July 1), Labour Day, Remembrance Day and Christmas Day.
• Nova Scotia (6): New Year’s Day, Nova Scotia Heritage Day, Good Friday, Canada Day, Labour Day and Christmas Day.
• Ontario (9): New Year’s Day, Family Day, Good Friday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
• Prince Edward Island (8): New Year’s Day, Islander Day, Good Friday, Canada Day, Labour Day, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Remembrance Day and Christmas Day.
• Quebec (8): New Year’s Day, Good Friday or Easter Monday (the employer chooses), National Patriots’ Day, the Fête nationale (June 24), Canada Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.
• Saskatchewan (10): New Year’s Day, Family Day, Good Friday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, Saskatchewan Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving, Remembrance Day and Christmas Day.
• Northwest Territories (11): New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Victoria Day, National Indigenous Peoples Day, Canada Day, the first Monday in August, Labour Day, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Thanksgiving, Remembrance Day and Christmas Day.
• Nunavut (11): New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, Nunavut Day, the first Monday in August, Labour Day, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Thanksgiving, Remembrance Day and Christmas Day.
• Yukon (11): New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Victoria Day, National Indigenous Peoples Day, Canada Day, Discovery Day, Labour Day, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Thanksgiving, Remembrance Day and Christmas Day.
• Federally regulated jobs (10): New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, Labour Day, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Thanksgiving, Remembrance Day, Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

Is Remembrance Day a stat holiday?

In most of Canada, yes. Remembrance Day is a paid stat holiday in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, all three territories and federally regulated workplaces. It isn’t one in Ontario or Quebec, and Manitoba and Nova Scotia handle it under separate Remembrance Day laws.

In Ontario, the province’s employment standards guide (opens in a new tab) says employers can give the day off but don’t have to. In Quebec, the CNESST says (opens in a new tab) November 11 is a holiday only for workers covered by the Canada Labour Code.

Manitoba and Nova Scotia limit who can open on November 11

Both provinces limit which businesses can open on November 11, and neither requires your employer to pay you for staying home. What their laws do is protect people who have to work.

• Manitoba: Stores can’t open to the public (opens in a new tab) from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and retail employees can refuse to work that day if they give their employer 14 days’ notice. If you do work, you get at least the holiday pay you’d get on a general holiday, plus time and a half for your hours, or for half a normal day if that’s more. If you don’t work, your employer doesn’t have to pay you.
• Nova Scotia: Under the province’s Remembrance Day Act (opens in a new tab), most businesses stay closed all day. If you’re required to work and you were paid for at least 15 of the 30 days before, you get another day off with pay later. There’s no time and a half, and if you have the day off, you aren’t paid for it unless your employer chooses to. Farming, fishing, forestry and some industrial work carry on as a normal day.

Is Thanksgiving a stat holiday?

Yes, except in Atlantic Canada. Thanksgiving is a paid holiday in every province from Quebec west, in all three territories and in federally regulated workplaces. In New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador, it’s a regular day for pay, even though New Brunswick and Nova Scotia close most stores.

If your store is closed on Thanksgiving in Halifax or Moncton, your employer doesn’t owe you pay for the day under provincial law, unless your contract or union agreement says otherwise.

How is stat holiday pay calculated?

In most places, holiday pay works out to an ordinary day’s pay. Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island and federally regulated employers calculate it as a twentieth of what you earned in the four weeks before the holiday, which is one day’s pay for someone who works five days a week.

Where the table says “a day off”, you’re paid your regular rate for the shift and get a paid day off later instead of the premium. Where your hours change from week to week, a “normal day’s pay” is averaged over the weeks before the holiday.

Almost everywhere, you also have to work your last scheduled shift before the holiday and your first one after it, unless you had a good reason to miss them. British Columbia, Saskatchewan and federally regulated workplaces don’t have that rule. Prince Edward Island’s new Employment Standards Act, in force since June 30, 2026, dropped the province’s old 30-day service requirement.

Ontario’s formula, with an example

Ontario adds up your regular wages and any vacation pay from the four work weeks before the week of the holiday, then divides by 20 (opens in a new tab). Overtime and premium pay don’t count. Say you work 24 hours a week at $20 an hour and get your 4% vacation pay on every cheque. Four weeks is $1,920 in wages plus $76.80 in vacation pay, and $1,996.80 divided by 20 gives you $99.84 for the holiday.

You qualify however long you’ve worked there, and part-time and term-contract workers qualify the same way. A recent hire gets less, though, since fewer weeks of pay go into the total.

Quebec pays a twentieth, with no time and a half

Quebec’s holiday pay is a twentieth of what you earned in the four complete weeks of pay before the week of the holiday, not counting overtime. Tips count. Because it’s based on what you actually earned, someone who started recently gets less. The CNESST’s own example (opens in a new tab) is a worker hired two weeks earlier at $860 a week, who gets $86 for the holiday. After four full weeks, the same worker would get $172.

If you work a holiday in Quebec, you get your pay for the day plus the holiday pay, or your employer can give you a paid day off within three weeks before or after instead. There’s no time and a half. The Fête nationale on June 24 has its own law with the same twentieth, and any day off in lieu has to be the working day just before or after June 24.

What if a stat holiday falls on your day off?

In most provinces you still get the holiday, as a paid day off at another time or as holiday pay. British Columbia and Saskatchewan simply pay you for it. Alberta is the exception. Holiday pay there only applies to a day you’d normally work, so a holiday on your day off gets you nothing.

In 2026, Christmas falls on a Friday and Boxing Day on a Saturday. That matters in Ontario and in federally regulated jobs, the two places where Boxing Day is a stat. In Ontario, if you don’t normally work Saturdays, your employer has to give you another day off with holiday pay, or pay you for the holiday if you agree to that in writing. For federally regulated workers, the day off moves to the working day just before or after.

What do you get if you work on a stat holiday?

Usually time and a half for the hours you work, plus your holiday pay. Some provinces let your employer swap the premium for a paid day off later, Quebec pays your holiday pay without a premium, and Newfoundland and Labrador lets you choose between double pay and a day off. In British Columbia, it’s double time after 12 hours.

Here’s what an eight-hour Thanksgiving shift at $20 an hour pays, for someone who works five days a week and qualifies for holiday pay.

Where there are two options, your employer usually picks. Most Ontario jobs are the exception. The $400 version needs your agreement, and without it you get your regular pay and a paid day off later. Hotels, restaurants, hospitals and other workplaces that run around the clock can often give a paid day off instead of the premium, depending on the province.

Put the holiday premium where you won’t spend it

The premium from a holiday shift is money you probably didn’t budget for. In the British Columbia example above, working the holiday pays $240 more than an ordinary Monday, and extra money left in chequing is easy to spend without noticing.

Moving it into savings the day it arrives is the simplest way to keep it. Lodavo makes that a little more rewarding. It’s a free app that connects to the savings or chequing account you already use, and the bigger your balance, the more tickets you get in its weekly draw for cash prizes up to $10,000. On its own, $240 is worth nine tickets in every weekly draw for as long as it stays saved. Your money never leaves your account.

You can download Lodavo from the Apple App Store (opens in a new tab) or the Google Play Store (opens in a new tab) at no cost. Your balance at 8 p.m. ET each Sunday sets your tickets for the week ahead.

This article is general information, not legal advice. A union agreement or your employment contract can give you more than these minimums, so check yours too.

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