Statutory holiday pay by province (2026): the lists and the formulas

Canada has no national list of paid holidays and no national formula for paying them. British Columbia, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut each name 11 days; Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador name 6. Ontario, Quebec and federally regulated employers divide four weeks of wages by twenty; British Columbia averages the previous thirty days; Alberta uses an average daily wage; Nova Scotia and Manitoba pay a normal day's wage. The day counts and the arithmetic are both statutory, and both are below. 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 word your statute uses

Getting the term right matters, because the sections are indexed under it and because using the wrong one is how a search ends up on the wrong province's page.

• Public holiday: Ontario, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador, whose Act calls them paid public holidays.
• Statutory holiday: British Columbia and the Northwest Territories. Quebec's English text says statutory general holiday.
• General holiday: Alberta, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Yukon, Nunavut and federally regulated workplaces.
• Paid holiday: Prince Edward Island.

Two days that people expect to see are often missing. Remembrance Day is not in the Ontario or Quebec lists at all, and it is not in the Manitoba Code or the Nova Scotia Code either, because both of those provinces deal with it in a separate Remembrance Day Act. The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is in some lists and not others: British Columbia, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and the federal list have it; Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador do not.

Source: Employment Standards Act, 2000, s. 1 — Definitions. Reviewed on September 6, 2026. The statute names 9 holidays.

Source: Employment Standards Act (BC), s. 1 — Definitions. Reviewed on September 6, 2026. The statute names 11 holidays.

The pay formulas, in four families

One twentieth of four weeks

Ontario pays the regular wages you earned plus the vacation pay payable to you in the four work weeks before the work week the holiday fell in, divided by twenty (ESA s. 24). Regular wages there exclude overtime pay, premium pay, holiday pay, vacation pay, termination pay and severance pay, so the inputs are narrower than a payroll total.

Quebec pays an indemnity of one twentieth of the wages earned during the four complete pay weeks before the week of the holiday, overtime excluded, and one sixtieth of twelve weeks for anyone paid wholly or partly on commission (LSA s. 62). The National Holiday on June 24 uses the same two formulas.

Federally regulated workplaces use one twentieth of the wages, excluding overtime, earned in the four-week period immediately before the week of the holiday, with the same one sixtieth of twelve weeks for commission earners with at least twelve weeks of continuous employment (CLC s. 196).

Five per cent of four weeks

Saskatchewan pays five per cent of the wages you earned in the four weeks before the holiday, overtime excluded, and counts vacation pay for vacation actually taken in those weeks and any other public holiday pay that fell inside them (SEA s. 2-32). Prince Edward Island uses the same five per cent of four weeks, also excluding overtime and also counting vacation and holiday pay received in the window (PEI ESA s. 28). Five per cent of four weeks and one twentieth of four weeks are the same arithmetic written two ways; the difference between these provinces and the first group is what counts as wages going in.

An average of the recent past

British Columbia pays an average day's pay: everything paid or payable for work done and wages earned in the thirty calendar days before the holiday, including vacation pay for vacation days taken in that window, less anything paid for overtime, divided by the number of days you worked or earned wages in those thirty (BC ESA s. 45). It is owed whether or not the holiday falls on a day you would normally work.

Alberta pays the average daily wage: total wages over a four-week period divided by the days actually worked in it, with the employer choosing whether the four weeks are the ones immediately before the holiday or the ones ending on the last day of the pay period before it (ESC s. 24.1). Alberta stopped using a five per cent rule years ago, so any page that still quotes one for Alberta is out of date.

Newfoundland and Labrador multiplies your hourly rate by the average number of hours you worked in a day over the three weeks immediately before the holiday (NL LSA s. 15). The Northwest Territories and Nunavut pay the regular rate for normal hours where wages are worked out on a time basis, and otherwise a daily wage averaged over the four weeks worked before the week of the holiday (NWT ESA s. 23, Nunavut LSA s. 24). Yukon works by pay basis as well, and its rule for irregular or part-time hours is unusual: at least ten per cent of your wages, vacation pay excluded, for the hours worked in the two weeks before the week of the holiday (Yukon ESA s. 30).

A normal day's pay

Nova Scotia pays a normal day's pay and not an average. A salaried employee simply cannot be docked for the day; an hourly or daily employee gets the regular rate for normal hours (LSC s. 40).

Manitoba starts in the same place: your wage for the regular hours of a normal workday. Its five per cent of four weeks is a fallback, used only where that normal-day figure cannot be worked out because hours or rates move around (ESC s. 23). New Brunswick pays your regular wages, with an average of daily earnings over the days actually worked in the thirty calendar days before the holiday where daily wages vary (ESA s. 21).

Who qualifies

Six jurisdictions ask for nothing at all. Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island and the federal jurisdiction have no minimum length of service for holiday pay (ESA s. 26, LSA s. 65, SEA s. 2-32, ESC s. 22, PEI ESA s. 27, CLC s. 192). Federally the old thirty-day rule was repealed in 2019, which is worth knowing because it is still quoted in a lot of places.

The rest set a threshold. British Columbia asks for thirty calendar days of employment plus fifteen days worked or wages earned inside them (BC ESA s. 44). Alberta, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut all ask for thirty days worked in the previous twelve months (ESC s. 26, NWT ESA s. 23, Nunavut LSA s. 28). Nova Scotia asks that you were paid, or entitled to be paid, for at least fifteen of the thirty calendar days before the holiday (LSC s. 42). New Brunswick asks for ninety days of work in the previous twelve calendar months, the heaviest test in the country (ESA s. 18). Newfoundland and Labrador and Yukon both exclude the first thirty days of the job (NL LSA s. 19, Yukon ESA s. 34).

Almost everywhere there is also an attendance condition: show up for your scheduled shift before the holiday and the one after it, unless you had permission or a valid reason. Saskatchewan is the exception with no attendance test at all.

Holidays in your notice period, and after your last day

This is the part that belongs on a page about your job ending, and it is money people routinely leave behind.

During working notice you are still employed. A holiday that falls inside a notice period is a holiday that falls while you are employed, and it is paid on the ordinary rules. Several statutes reinforce it by freezing your terms during the notice, which is covered in working notice vs pay in lieu.

Manitoba pays for a holiday you never reached. If your employer terminates you less than four weeks before a general holiday, you are still owed that holiday, worked out as five per cent of your total wages, overtime excluded, for the four weeks before it (ESC s. 22). No other jurisdiction has a rule quite like it.

A substituted day you never took is paid out. Nova Scotia requires a general holiday still outstanding as a day off to be paid at a normal day's wages when the job ends (LSC s. 42). New Brunswick does the same for a substituted or designated day (ESA s. 18). The Northwest Territories and Nunavut require the substitute day to come no later than your next vacation or the end of the job (NWT ESA s. 23, Nunavut LSA s. 28). Ontario counts public holiday pay for a substitute day you never took among the wages due in the final pay (ESA s. 11).

All of it is due on your jurisdiction's ordinary final-pay deadline, which is in final pay deadlines by province.

Two worked examples

British Columbia. Ben's job ends in early January, and he wants to check what he was paid for Canada Day the previous summer. In the thirty calendar days before it he worked twenty days and was paid $3,300, with no overtime in the window. His statutory holiday pay for that day is $3,300 divided by twenty: $165.00 (BC ESA s. 45).

Ontario. Aisha is paid $1,100 a week. In the four work weeks before the week of a public holiday she earned $4,400 in regular wages, and $176 of vacation pay was payable to her in the same window. Ontario adds the two and divides by twenty: $228.80 (ESA s. 24).

Look at what the two examples have in common. Neither is your weekly wage divided by five. Both are built from a defined window of past earnings, which is why a slow month before a holiday lowers the payment in most of the country, and why the Nova Scotia and Manitoba approach of paying a normal day's wage is more generous for someone whose hours had dropped.