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Annual leave ranges from a minimum of two weeks to between 3 and 4 weeks. A number of factors affect the length of annual leave including; time employed with the same company and the type of industry, i.e. federally regulated or not.
Employees are usually able to transfer over a certain number of days’ accrued leave that they have not used in an annual period. In addition to annual leave, employees have statutory public holidays on both a national and provincial level.
Parental benefits are available to both parents of a newborn or adopted child. Parental Benefit is part of Canada’s Employment Insurance (EI) system. To qualify, either parent must have at least 600 hours of work towards EI within the past 52 weeks.
There are 2 types of Parental Benefit:
Standard Parental
Up to 40 weeks can be shared between parents, one parent cannot receive more than 35 weeks. The value of the weekly benefit is capped at CAD$638.
Extended Parental
Up to 69 weeks can be shared between parents, but one parent cannot receive more than 61 weeks. The value of the weekly benefit is capped at CAD$383.
Maternity leave is limited to 15 weeks, but can be combined with parental benefits. For example, a new mother could take 15 weeks of maternity leave followed by 35 weeks of Standard Parental leave.
Provided they meet the eligibility criteria, all new dads are entitled to paternity leave. Standard Parental benefit grants 5 weeks of paternity leave whilst Extended Parental benefit grants 8 weeks of paternity leave.
Canada’s federal government and provincial governments have measures in place that protect an employee’s income if they are incapable of performing their duties, due to non-occupational illness or injury.
Sick leave varies between federally-regulated industries and provinces but, generally, the entitlement is between 3 and 5 days each year. Taking Ontario as an example, under the Employment Standards Act, employees are entitled to 3 days of unpaid sick leave each year, only after they have completed two consecutive weeks of work for an employer.
Note that, if an employment agreement provides for something similar to sick leave (e.g. paid “sick days”), and the employee takes the leave under the employment contract, the employee is considered to have used up their provincial entitlement to sick leave.
Under federal law, bereavement and compassionate leave is available to employees who have suffered the death of a family member or dependent relative.
Eligible individuals are entitled to up to five days which may be taken during the period beginning on the date of death and ending six weeks after the date of the funeral, burial or memorial service, whichever comes later.
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5 days is the standard amount of annual leave in Canada. National holidays also apply, including New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving Day, Remembrance Day, Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
The standard amount of paid time off or vacation pay in Canada is 2 weeks. This figure increases based on the length of employment.
3 days of unpaid leave per year is the minimum amount of sick leave in Canada.
