Mass termination and group layoffs (2026): the rules in all 14 jurisdictions

When an employer lets a group of people go at once, a second set of rules switches on beside the individual notice schedule. Every Canadian jurisdiction has them, the trigger runs from 10 employees in Quebec, matched by Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, up to 50 employees in Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador and federally regulated workplaces, and the notice periods are far longer than anything the individual ladder gives. The catch is that the rules do three different jobs in three different groups of statutes: sometimes the group notice is yours, sometimes it is added to yours, and in Alberta it is only a filing with the government. 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

What triggers the rules, jurisdiction by jurisdiction

Two numbers matter: how many people, and within what window. Both are set by each Act.

• 10 employees is the trigger in Quebec, within 2 months (LSA s. 84.0.1); Nova Scotia, within 4 weeks (LSC s. 72); New Brunswick, within 4 weeks (ESA s. 32); and Prince Edward Island, within 2 months (PEI ESA s. 61). These four share the lowest threshold in Canada, a fifth of the headcount Ontario and the federal Code require.
• 25 employees is the trigger in Saskatchewan, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, in each case within 4 weeks (SEA s. 2-62, Yukon ESA s. 58, NWT ESA s. 41, Nunavut LSA s. 14.07). Saskatchewan raised its threshold to that level for 2026; anything written earlier gives a lower figure.
• 50 employees is the trigger in Ontario (ESA s. 58), Alberta (ESC s. 137), Manitoba (ESC s. 67), Newfoundland and Labrador (NL LSA s. 57) and federally regulated workplaces (CLC s. 212), all within 4 weeks, and in British Columbia within 2 months (BC ESA s. 64).

Two of those triggers have a second condition on top of the headcount, and it changes who is caught. New Brunswick's section takes the two together: more than 10 employees and at least a quarter of the employer's workforce, so a large New Brunswick employer can let a great many people go without the section ever applying. Prince Edward Island writes the same idea into its new Act: 10 employees and at least a quarter of the workplace.

Ontario runs the proportion test the other way around, as an escape hatch. Where the terminations are a small enough share of the employees who have worked at that establishment for the qualifying period, and are not caused by a permanent shutdown of part of the business, section 58 does not apply at all. The exact proportion is in the note under the table below. Any calculation that applies group notice on headcount alone is wrong in Ontario.

Ontario: the group notice replaces your own

Source: O. Reg. 288/01, s. 3 — Notice, 50 or more employees. Reviewed on September 6, 2026. In a mass termination the group notice replaces the individual notice in section 57, and the clock does not start until the Director has received the employer's information form. The employer must also post the same information at the workplace on the first day of the notice period and give it to each affected employee. Group notice does not apply where the terminations are 10 per cent or less of the employees who have worked at that establishment for at least three months and are not caused by a permanent shutdown of part of the business.

Two features are unique to Ontario here. The clock does not start until the Director has received the employer's information form, so an employer that files late has not started the notice at all; and the same information must be posted at the workplace on the first day of the notice period and given to each affected employee. The Ontario page sets out how this interacts with statutory severance pay, which has a mass-termination branch of its own at 50 employees severed in a permanent shutdown.

Ontario is also the only jurisdiction that puts a notice obligation on the employee in a mass termination. Once you have been given notice under section 58 you cannot simply walk: you must give the employer written notice first, and how much depends on how long you have been employed there. That duty falls away if the employer constructively dismissed you or broke a term of your contract (ESA s. 58). The amounts, and the employee notice every other jurisdiction does or does not impose, are in how much notice you owe when you quit.

Manitoba: the longest group notice in Canada, and it is yours

Source: The Employment Standards Code, s. 67 — Notice of intent to terminate employment of 50 or more employees. Reviewed on September 6, 2026. When 50 or more employees who are entitled to notice lose their jobs inside a four-week span, the employer has to give the minister written notice first: ten weeks for up to 100 people, fourteen weeks for more than 100 and fewer than 300, eighteen weeks for 300 or more. Manitoba is unusual here, because that longer period becomes your own notice period too. The employer must immediately copy the notice to the union, or give it to each affected employee or post it at the workplace, and it must say when the terminations take effect, why they are happening and how many people are affected in each job classification. A joint planning committee may then be set up to look for alternatives. The minister can waive the requirement on application.

Manitoba's periods are the longest in the country, and section 61 makes the group period the employee's own notice period. A Manitoba employee with a few months of service caught in a large group termination is owed the group figure, not the 1 week the individual schedule would give. Nova Scotia works the same way: the group notice is served on each person and it overrides the individual schedule, so short-service employees gain the most.

Replaces, adds, or goes only to the government

This is the distinction that decides whether the group rules put money in your pocket, and each Act answers it in its own words.

• It becomes your notice. Manitoba and Nova Scotia. Ontario too: the section 58 notice stands in place of the individual notice in section 57.
• It is added to your notice. British Columbia says so expressly, and so do Saskatchewan, Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and the Canada Labour Code. Saskatchewan's and the Northwest Territories' Acts allow the two to run at the same time as long as both periods are satisfied.
• It is served on you as well as the government. New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador all require the notice to go to each affected employee, so it is a document you personally receive. Newfoundland and Labrador goes further and requires the employer either to keep employing you through the period or to pay your normal wages for it.
• It goes to the government only. Alberta. One flat 4 weeks to the Minister, whatever the size of the layoff, and it adds nothing at all to your own notice under ESC s. 56. Alberta also dropped its sliding scale, so any source showing tiered Alberta periods is out of date.

Quebec: the notices stack, the money does not

Quebec is the exception that trips people up. Before a collective dismissal for technological or economic reasons the employer must notify the Minister, copy any certified union and post the notice at the workplace, and giving that notice does not excuse the employer from the individual notice under section 82. So far, so ordinary.

The money is different. If the Minister's notice is missing or short, each dismissed employee is owed an indemnity for the missing weeks, but section 84.0.14 forbids adding it to the section 83 indemnity: you receive the greater of the two, never both (LSA s. 84.0.13). Quebec is the only jurisdiction in Canada where the group and individual money entitlements do not stack, and any calculation that adds them is wrong.

A worked example: 120 jobs cut in four weeks

An employer ends 120 jobs at one establishment inside a four-week period. Sam has completed three years and earns $1,100 for a regular work week. No working notice is given, so everything is paid in lieu.

• Ontario. The group period at that headcount is 8 weeks, and it replaces the individual schedule, so Sam is owed $8,800.00 instead of the $3,300.00 the ladder alone would give. Statutory severance may also be triggered on the mass-termination branch if the shutdown was permanent.
• Manitoba. The group period is 14 weeks and it becomes Sam's own notice: $15,400.00, the largest figure of the three.
• Alberta. The employer owes the Minister 4 weeks of warning and Sam nothing extra at all: the entitlement stays at the individual schedule, $2,200.00.

Accrued vacation pay is owed on top in all three. The wage and the headcount are invented; every week comes from the section named in the tables. Your own case goes into the tool on your jurisdiction's page, which asks how many people were let go in the same period.