Temporary layoff rules (2026): when a layoff becomes a termination

A temporary layoff is only temporary while it stays inside the limit your employment standards Act sets. Past that limit the job is over by force of the statute, whatever anyone intended, and the notice or the pay in lieu falls due. In several jurisdictions it is then measured from the first day of the layoff rather than the day the limit ran out, which is money most laid-off workers never ask for. And in four provinces there is no layoff window at all: a layoff of more than a few days needs the same written notice as a dismissal from the start. 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

Three ways the statutes handle it

Canadian layoff rules fall into three families, and knowing which one you are in tells you what question to ask.

1. A layoff clock. The layoff is allowed to run for a set period inside a set window. Go past it and the employment is deemed terminated. Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and federally regulated workplaces all work this way.
2. Notice from the start. There is no clock, because a layoff longer than a short grace period is treated as a termination immediately and needs the same notice. Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.
3. Quebec's approach. No fixed number of weeks at all. A long enough layoff is treated like a termination for the purposes of the section 82 notice, and the indemnity falls due either when a layoff expected to run past that point begins or when an open-ended one reaches it. Where a collective agreement gives longer recall rights, the indemnity is postponed (LSA s. 82).

Here is the whole country on one table: the basic limit each statute sets, the window it is counted in, and what the Act says happens once the limit runs out. The sections below walk through the three shapes those limits take.

Reviewed on September 6, 2026.

The clocks, in the statutes' own words

Where an Act sets a limit, it is worth reading the words rather than a summary of them, because the units are not the same.

Yukon: "not exceeding 13 weeks of layoff in a period of 20 consecutive weeks" (Yukon ESA s. 48).

Ontario, British Columbia and Newfoundland and Labrador all use that same window as their basic rule (ESA s. 56, BC ESA s. 1, NL LSA s. 49). The two territories that inherited the Northwest Territories' drafting count in days instead.

Northwest Territories: "Subject to section 43, a temporary layoff must not exceed 45 days during a period of 60 consecutive days" (NWT ESA s. 42). Nunavut uses the same words (Nunavut LSA s. 14.01).

Alberta and Manitoba each run their own clock, and both statutes say what happens at the end of it.

Alberta: "The employment of an employee who is laid off for one or more periods exceeding, in total, 90 days within a 120-day period terminates, and termination pay is payable" (ESC s. 63).

Manitoba: "The employment of an employee who is laid off for one or more periods exceeding, in total, … 8 weeks within a 16-week period … is deemed to have been terminated" (MB ES Reg s. 23).

Federally regulated workplaces have the shortest plain window of all, with a long list of exceptions that keep a longer layoff from counting as a termination: a written promise at or before the layoff to recall you on a fixed date or inside a fixed period, and then an actual recall; continued agreed payments, pension or group-insurance contributions or supplementary unemployment benefits; or recall rights under a collective agreement. A layoff caused by a strike or lockout never counts (CLSR s. 30).

What stops the clock

Most of the clock statutes let the employer keep the layoff temporary by continuing something for you. Alberta's clock does not run while the employer keeps paying wages or benefit-plan contributions by agreement, or while collective-agreement recall rights are alive; when those stop, the job ends and termination pay is owed. Manitoba does not treat the layoff as a dismissal where your workplace has regular, recurring layoffs you were told about when you were hired, or where the employer keeps paying wages or pension or insurance contributions by agreement. British Columbia measures a week of layoff by whether you earned less than half your usual weekly wages, averaged over the previous weeks, so a partial week may not count at all.

Ontario stretches its window in two further ways. The first is the same idea as Alberta's: a longer window where the employer keeps making substantial payments, keeps up benefit-plan contributions, pays supplementary unemployment benefits, or agrees on a recall date with you or one the Director approves. The second is new. Since November 27, 2025 a non-union employee and employer may agree to an extended layoff, valid only if the Director approves it, and you cannot withdraw the agreement once it is made. The exact periods are on the Ontario page. Any source describing Ontario layoffs without that second rule is out of date.

Two of the statutes stack more than one limit, and the difference matters: the basic clock, a longer one that only runs if certain conditions hold, and, in Ontario, an extension the employer and employee can agree to with the Director's approval.

Source: Employment Standards Act, 2000, s. 56 — What constitutes termination; temporary lay-off. Reviewed on September 6, 2026. Once the lay-off passes the limit that applies to you, the Act treats it as a termination and your employment is deemed to have ended on the first day of the lay-off. Notice or pay in lieu, and severance pay if you qualify, are counted from that first day.

Source: Canada Labour Standards Regulations, s. 30 — Lay-offs that are not termination. Reviewed on September 6, 2026. Outside the cases the Regulations carve out, laying you off counts as terminating your employment. Notice or wages in lieu, group termination notice and severance pay are all owed, and they run from the lay-off itself.

The four provinces with no window

In Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island your employer cannot park you on an unpaid layoff and wait. A short interruption is allowed and anything longer needs the notice a dismissal would need.

Saskatchewan: "'layoff' means the temporary interruption by an employer of the services of an employee for a period exceeding six consecutive work days" (SEA s. 2-1), and section 2-60 then requires the same written notice, or the same pay instead of it, as for a dismissal.

New Brunswick: "an employer may lay off an employee without notice (a) where there is a lack of work, due to any reason unforeseen by the employer at the time notice would otherwise have been given … or (b) for any reason, for a period of up to six days" (ESA s. 31).

Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island use the same short grace period, after which the ordinary notice applies (LSC s. 76, PEI ESA s. 59). This is the least-known rule in this article and the one most likely to be worth money: a Saskatchewan or Nova Scotia worker sent home indefinitely with nothing in writing is very often owed notice already.

What happens when the limit runs out

Two things, and the second is the one people miss.

First, the employment is over as a matter of law. You do not have to resign, and your employer does not have to send a letter. Nothing turns on either side still hoping for a recall. What falls due is the notice your Act's schedule gives for your length of service, or the pay in lieu of it, plus your accrued vacation pay and any wages still owing.

Second, the date it is measured from. British Columbia backdates the termination to the first day of the layoff. Manitoba treats you as terminated without notice on that first day, so the notice pay is measured from there. Newfoundland and Labrador and Yukon do the same. Nova Scotia works out the pay as if you had been terminated without notice on the first day of the layoff. The Northwest Territories and Nunavut go the other way and deem the employment to have ended on the last day of the layoff. Where the first day governs, a layoff that ran for months can mean the final pay was already late before anyone said the word termination.

The Northwest Territories and Nunavut add a separate trap for employers: a temporary layoff has to be given to you in writing, saying when you are expected back, and an employer who lays someone off without that written notice is deemed to have terminated them immediately (NWT ESA s. 42, Nunavut LSA s. 14.05).

What you are then owed, in two jurisdictions

Source: Employment Standards Act, 2000, s. 57 — Employer notice period. Reviewed on September 6, 2026. Notice is owed once you have 3 months of continuous service.

Source: Employment Standards Code, s. 56 — Employer's termination notice. Reviewed on September 6, 2026. Notice is owed once you have 90 days of continuous service.

Every other jurisdiction's ladder is on its own page under severance and termination pay, and the calculator on each page has a setting for a layoff that went past the limit.

A worked example

Kai has completed four years and earns $1,050 for a regular work week. In March the employer sends everyone home on an unpaid layoff with no recall date and no continuing payments. The layoff runs past the statutory limit.

• In Alberta the employment terminates by force of the Code and termination pay falls due. At four completed years the schedule gives 4 weeks, or $4,200.00. On $21,000 of gross wages with no vacation pay yet paid on them, the vacation pay at 4% adds $840.00, for a floor of $5,040.00.
• In Manitoba the amount is similar, $4,200.00 of wages in lieu at 4 weeks, but the termination date is the first day of the layoff back in March. That is the date the final pay deadline runs from, and Manitoba's wages in lieu are owed even if Kai has already found another job (ESC s. 77).
• In Saskatchewan there was never a clock to run out. The notice was owed as soon as the interruption passed the few days the Act allows, so $4,200.00 was due at the start, not at the end.

The wage and the dates are invented; every week and percentage comes from the section named in the tables.

EI while you are laid off

A layoff is one of the clearest reasons to apply for Employment Insurance, and you do not have to wait for it to turn into a termination. Your employer issues a record of employment (ROE) and Service Canada decides the claim. Apply when the work stops rather than when the money runs out, because the date your benefit period begins affects how separation money is treated.

That treatment matters here, because the pay in lieu and vacation pay that fall due when a layoff crosses the limit are separation money in EI's eyes. Under the permanent rule they are allocated to the weeks after your last day and push the start of benefits back. A temporary measure switches that off right now, with an end date.

The hours you need, the number of weeks and the amount all depend on your economic region, which is on the EI section, and the allocation rules are set out in severance pay and EI.