Final pay deadlines by province (2026): when your last cheque has to arrive

Every Canadian jurisdiction puts a deadline on your last payment, and they are nothing like each other. British Columbia gives your employer 2 days when it ends the job and 6 days when you quit. Ontario uses the later of 7 days and your next pay day. Federally regulated employers get 30 days. Quebec sets no special deadline at all beyond its ordinary pay interval. The table below has all fourteen, and the deadline covers everything you are owed, not just your last hours. This page is part of the severance pay hub.

Updated September 6, 2026 · Figures verified against the statutes of each jurisdiction · see all figures and their sources

The rule in each jurisdiction, in words

The table gives you the number. The wording behind it is what decides arguments, so here is each rule with the section that sets it.

The fast ones

British Columbia is the quickest in the country, and it is the only jurisdiction that treats a dismissal and a resignation differently on purpose.

"(1) An employer must pay all wages owing to an employee within 48 hours after the employer terminates the employment. (2) An employer must pay all wages owing to an employee within 6 days after the employee terminates the employment." (BC ESA s. 18)

Newfoundland and Labrador and Yukon both use 7 days from the termination date (NL LSA s. 33, Yukon ESA s. 65). Yukon carves out one item: termination pay itself may be spread over your usual pay days instead, provided the whole amount reaches you within the period the notice would have covered.

Ontario uses one deadline whichever way the job ended, and it is a "later of" rule, not a flat number.

"If an employee's employment ends, the employer shall pay any wages to which the employee is entitled to the employee not later than the later of, (a) seven days after the employment ends; and (b) the day that would have been the employee's next pay day." (ESA s. 11)

Seven days is the floor. If your next pay day falls after it, that later date governs. Ontario also requires a written statement of your gross termination pay and severance pay on or before the same day.

The middle of the pack

Manitoba gives 10 days, and the Code counts working days, so weekends and holidays do not run against the clock (ESC s. 86). The Northwest Territories and Nunavut both give 10 days for wages, with vacation pay owed without delay on top (NWT ESA s. 13, Nunavut LSA s. 50). Saskatchewan gives 14 days for total wages and the same period for vacation pay (SEA s. 2-33); money that was already due on an earlier pay day under the ordinary rules does not get to wait.

Prince Edward Island counts in pay periods rather than days: everything still owing is due no later than the last day of the next pay period after the termination, and a pay period on the Island can be no longer than 16 days (PEI ESA s. 36).

Nova Scotia runs two clocks at once, which is why people there get two different answers depending on who they ask. Vacation pay has to be paid within 10 days of your last day (LSC s. 34). Ordinary wages stay on the normal pay cycle, at least semi-monthly and within five working days after each pay period ends (LSC s. 79). Where notice was given, the Code requires everything you are owed to be paid when the notice expires (LSC s. 74), and pay in lieu is due when the job is ended on the spot.

The slow ones

New Brunswick gives 21 days as an outside limit, with an earlier deadline built in.

"Where an employee ceases to be employed by an employer the employer shall pay to the employee all outstanding pay not later than at the time the employee would have been paid had the employee continued to be employed, and in no case … beyond twenty-one days after the last day" (ESA s. 37)

So if your usual pay day falls sooner, that earlier date is the one that counts.

Alberta lets the employer choose between two deadlines, which is unique in Canada.

"When an employee's employment terminates, the employer must pay the employee's earnings within whichever of the following periods the employer chooses: (a) 10 consecutive days after the end of the pay period in which the termination of employment occurs; (b) 31 consecutive days after the last day" (ESC s. 8)

The outside limit is therefore 31 days from your last day, and the same two options apply whether you were dismissed or you quit. The sections that used to set a different rule for an employee who left without notice were repealed in 2020, so there is no shorter or harsher version.

Federally regulated workplaces split the payment. Ordinary wages go out on the employer's regular pay day. Everything else the Code entitles you to, including wages in lieu of notice and statutory severance pay, is due within 30 days of the day the entitlement arose, and vacation pay carries its own 30 days clock from the day you stop being employed (CLC s. 247, CLC s. 188).

The one with no deadline

Quebec is the exception. The Act respecting labour standards sets no general deadline for the final pay. Two rules do the work instead. The compensatory indemnity in lieu of notice is payable at the time the employment ends, or when a layoff expected to run past six months begins, or six months into an open-ended layoff (LSA s. 83). Everything else falls under the ordinary pay rule: wages at intervals no longer than sixteen days, or one month for managerial staff (LSA s. 43). In practice your last wages and your vacation indemnity land on the next regular pay day.

What the final pay has to include

The deadline is not just for the hours you worked in your last week. In every jurisdiction the statute's definition of what must be paid reaches further than that, and the list is roughly the same everywhere:

• Unpaid regular wages and any overtime already worked.
• All accrued, unpaid vacation pay, whether or not you completed a full vacation year. Vacation pay when your job ends works through the percentages.
• Holiday pay you had earned, including a substituted day off that was still outstanding when the job ended. See statutory holiday pay by province.
• Termination pay, where the employer paid instead of giving working notice.
• Statutory severance pay, in the two jurisdictions that have one: Ontario and the federal jurisdiction. Everywhere else the word "severance" means the pay in lieu, which is covered in termination pay vs severance pay.

Several statutes say this in their definitions rather than in the termination sections. Alberta's word is "earnings", and it is defined to take in wages, overtime pay, vacation pay, general holiday pay and termination pay (ESC s. 1). Saskatchewan's definition of wages expressly includes public holiday pay, vacation pay and pay instead of notice (SEA s. 2-1). Nova Scotia and New Brunswick both use the word "pay" and define it to include vacation and holiday entitlements, less only the deductions an employer may lawfully make (LSC s. 2, ESA s. 1). Nunavut goes further and deems vacation pay, holiday pay and termination pay to be wages for every purpose of the Act, which is why they become a lien against the employer's property (Nunavut LSA s. 50).

A timeline you can follow

Dev works in Ontario and is paid $1,100 a week. He has six years in. His employer ends the job without cause on Friday, March 6, and pays every second Friday, so his next pay day would have been March 20.

• Notice. Ontario's schedule gives him 6 weeks at six years (ESA s. 57). He is sent home the same day, so it is paid out: $6,600.00.
• Vacation pay. He has earned $28,600 since his last vacation payout, at 6%: $1,716.00.
• The minimum on the cheque, before his final unpaid regular wages: $8,316.00.
• The deadline. Seven days after March 6 is March 13. His next pay day is March 20. Ontario's rule is the later of the two, so March 20 is the day the whole amount is due, not just the wages.

Move Dev to Vancouver and the same money is due within 2 days of his last day. Move him to Fredericton and the outside limit is 21 days. Nothing about what he is owed changes; only the date changes.

If the money is late

A missed deadline is a contravention of the Act, and the route is the same everywhere: a free complaint to the employment standards body of your jurisdiction, which investigates and can order the employer to pay. What differs, and differs a lot, is how long you have.

• Two years: Ontario (2 years, ESA s. 96) and Prince Edward Island (2 years, PEI ESA s. 64).
• Twelve months: Saskatchewan (12 months), New Brunswick (12 months) and the Northwest Territories (12 months).
• Six months: British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon and the federal jurisdiction. Quebec runs 1 year from each due date, so an old amount can expire while a recent one is still live (LSA s. 115).
• No deadline at all: Nunavut. The Labour Standards Officer may act at any time (Nunavut LSA s. 53).

Two traps are worth knowing before you file. In Ontario, filing a claim for termination pay or severance pay closes the door on a wrongful dismissal action about the same termination unless you withdraw it within two weeks (ESA s. 96), which matters if a lawyer has told you the statutory floor is not the whole story. And in several provinces an order can only reach back so far, whatever the filing deadline says: Saskatchewan caps recovery at the last twelve months of wages, New Brunswick at the twelve months before the complaint, Manitoba at six months of ordinary wages but twenty-two months of vacation allowance and general holiday pay. Waiting costs money as well as time.

If you are covered by a collective agreement, check before you file. Manitoba shuts unionized employees out of the complaint route entirely, and New Brunswick's Director will not act where the same thing could be grieved.