Canada Public Holidays
Discover upcoming public holiday dates for Canada and start planning to make the most of your time off. Scroll down to select a year or choose your province.
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Statutory holidays in Canada are also known as public holidays. Holidays are legislated by the federal, provincial and territorial government bodies. Canadians observe New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Canada Day, Labor Day and Christmas Day as nationwide statutory holidays. In addition to that, each province or territory observes its’ own provincial or territorial statutory holidays.
Employees may request and obtain time off for traditional religious observances practiced by the Jewish, Eastern Orthodox or Muslim faiths.
Under the Canadian Public Holiday Law, the majority of employees are entitled to take a statutory holiday off with full compensation. The law states that if an employee agrees to work on a statutory holiday, he or she must sign a written document agreeing to work and must be paid additional wages to compensate for holiday pay.
Employers in the private sector can determine the amount of extra compensation to be paid to employees who are required to work on a holiday. This usually includes essential care workers, such as medical professionals, law enforcement personnel and emergency services employees.
According to Part III of the Canada Labour Code, employees are entitled to nine paid holidays per year. Under the Code, a statutory holiday is defined as a day in which professionals, managers and employees are entitled to a day off with full compensation.