Canada General (Statutory) Holidays
Canada has 20 public holidays on the calendar held here, in force from 1 Jan 2026. Last checked against the official source on 9 Sep 2026.
The ten general holidays for employees of federally regulated employers under Part III of the Canada Labour Code, calendar year 2026.
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| Current value | 20 days held |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2026-01-01 |
| In force until | 2026-12-31 |
| Official source | Canada Labour Code, RSC 1985, c. L-2, Part III, s. 166 (definition of 'general holiday') and ss. 195-196 (holiday falling on a non-working day; substitution); National Day for Truth and Reconciliation added by SC 2021, c. 11. Dates cross-checked against the Canada Revenue Agency 'Public holidays' list for 2026 and ESDC's 'Annual vacations and general holidays for employees working for federally regulated employers' |
| Last verified | 2026-09-09 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
Canada has NO single nationwide statutory holiday list — this is the federal Canada Labour Code set of ten general holidays, which is the closest thing to a national standard and binds federally regulated employers in every province and territory. Every date was independently confirmed against the CRA's published 2026 public-holidays list. Fixed-date holidays in 2026: New Year's Day Thu 1 Jan; Canada Day Wed 1 Jul; National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Wed 30 Sep; Remembrance Day Wed 11 Nov; Christmas Day Fri 25 Dec; Boxing Day Sat 26 Dec. Moveable/computed: Good Friday Fri 3 Apr (Easter Sunday 2026 = 5 April); Labour Day Mon 7 Sep (first Monday in September); Thanksgiving Mon 12 Oct (second Monday in October). VICTORIA DAY EDGE CASE, applied deliberately: s. 166 defines it as 'the Monday preceding May 25'. In 2026, 25 May IS itself a Monday, so the Monday PRECEDING it is 18 May 2026 — not 25 May. This is the trap year for that rule and the date is confirmed by the CRA list. SUBSTITUTION: Boxing Day, 26 December 2026, falls on a Saturday. Canada's federal rule is employee-specific rather than a blanket national mondayisation — under CLC s. 196(2), where a general holiday falls on a day that is a NON-WORKING DAY for a particular employee, that employee is entitled to a holiday with pay on the working day immediately preceding or following the general holiday; s. 195 separately lets an employer substitute another day by agreement or by written notice. For most Monday-to-Friday employees this shifts Boxing Day observance to Monday 28 December 2026, but because entitlement depends on the individual's work schedule the statutory date 2026-12-26 is served unshifted rather than a substituted date that would be wrong for shift and continuous-operation workers. DELIBERATE EXCLUSIONS: Easter Monday (Mon 6 Apr 2026) and the August Civic Holiday (Mon 3 Aug 2026) are recognised by the CRA for filing-deadline purposes and are paid days for federal public servants, but are NOT general holidays under CLC s. 166 and are not statutory in most provinces — excluded. Saint-Jean-Baptiste / Fete nationale (Wed 24 Jun 2026) is excluded as Quebec-only. Also excluded as province-specific: Family Day / Louis Riel Day / Islander Day / Heritage Day (third Monday in February, 16 Feb 2026, in ON, AB, SK, BC, NB, MB, PE, NS), Quebec's 2 January, Newfoundland and Labrador's St. Patrick's Day, St. George's Day, Discovery Day and Orangemen's Day, Yukon's Discovery Day, and Nunavut Day. Provincial recognition of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (30 Sep) is uneven: it is a paid statutory holiday federally and in BC, PE, MB, NS, YT, NT and NU, but is NOT a general statutory holiday for provincially regulated employees in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick or Newfoundland and Labrador. Access quirk: canada.ca returns HTTP 403 to scripted fetchers (re-confirmed 2026-07-20); both source pages were read through a real browser session. 2027 EXTENSION (2026-07-30): the 10 general holidays of the Canada Labour Code s.166 (federally regulated workplaces), actual dates. Christmas Day (Sat) and Boxing Day (Sun) are not date-shifted in statute; under ss.193/195 employees receive a substituted working day off (the federal public service will observe Mon 27 / Tue 28 Dec). Easter Monday is a federal PUBLIC-SERVICE holiday but not a Labour Code general holiday, and is not listed. Provincial holiday sets differ substantially and are not modelled. canada.ca reference pages blocked automated reads - derived from the Labour Code and Holidays Act texts (laws-lois.justice.gc.ca, read directly). SUBDIVISIONS (2026-07-30): the national list is the FEDERAL jurisdiction - the 10 Canada Labour Code s.166 general holidays binding federally regulated workplaces in every province. Most employees are provincially regulated, and provincial sets differ in BOTH directions: each province/territory is a subdivision carrying its additions (Family Day and its provincial names, BC/SK/NB Day, St-Jean, Discovery Day, Nunavut Day...) and exclusions (Boxing Day is statutory only in Ontario; NDTR only in BC/MB/PE/YT/NT/NU; NS and NL have just 6 paid holidays). All values verified against official employment-standards pages or statute texts on 2026-07-30; QC, NB and YT read live in-browser after their sites blocked automated access. In-lieu/substitution treatment for weekend holidays varies by province and is described per subdivision where the rule is distinctive.
Get it programmatically
curl https://usaref.dev/v1/ca/public-holidays
# Free.
# History: curl https://usaref.dev/v1/ca/public-holidays/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://usaref.dev/provenance/ca/public-holidaysBy subdivision
ISO 3166-2:CA — 13 subdivisions held. A subdivision that does not appear below has NOT been researched, and must not be read as having no value: where a subdivision genuinely has none, it is listed with an explained null and a citation for the absence.
| Code | Subdivision | Value | Official source | Last verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CA-ON | Ontario | 2 entries | Ontario — official employment-standards source | 2026-07-30 |
| Ontario's 9 ESA public holidays: the federal set plus Family Day, minus NDTR and Remembrance Day (neither is an ESA holiday). Ontario is the only province that keeps Boxing Day. | ||||
| CA-QC | Quebec | 2 entries | Quebec — official employment-standards source | 2026-07-30 |
| Quebec's 8 statutory holidays (read from CNESST 2026-07-30). Good Friday OR Easter Monday at the employer's option (the national Good Friday entry stands for this slot). Victoria Day is observed as National Patriots' Day (same date, different legal name). July 1 moves to July 2 only when it falls on a Sunday (not in 2026/2027); Fete nationale on a Sunday defers the day off to June 25 for non-Sunday workers. NDTR, Remembrance Day and Boxing Day are not Quebec statutory holidays. | ||||
| CA-BC | British Columbia | 4 entries | British Columbia — official employment-standards source | 2026-07-30 |
| BC's 11 statutory holidays: federal set plus Family Day and B.C. Day (first Monday of August), minus Boxing Day (not statutory; Easter Sunday/Monday also not statutory). | ||||
| CA-AB | Alberta | 2 entries | Alberta — official employment-standards source | 2026-07-30 |
| Alberta's 9 mandatory general holidays: federal set plus Family Day, minus NDTR and Boxing Day (both OPTIONAL general holidays in Alberta, along with Easter Monday and Heritage Day - employers may observe them but are not required to). | ||||
| CA-SK | Saskatchewan | 4 entries | Saskatchewan — official employment-standards source | 2026-07-30 |
| Saskatchewan's 10 public holidays (Saskatchewan Employment Act s.2-30, verified from the statute text): federal set plus Family Day and Saskatchewan Day (first Monday of August), minus NDTR and Boxing Day (not in the statutory list). | ||||
| CA-MB | Manitoba | 2 entries | Manitoba — official employment-standards source | 2026-07-30 |
| Manitoba's 9 general holidays: federal set plus Louis Riel Day (3rd Monday of February), minus Boxing Day. Remembrance Day is NOT a general holiday but carries business-closing restrictions and special pay rules under its own Act. NDTR/Orange Shirt Day became a Manitoba general holiday in 2023 (Bill 4) and is the only one that cannot be substituted. | ||||
| CA-NS | Nova Scotia | 2 entries | Nova Scotia — official employment-standards source | 2026-07-30 |
| Nova Scotia has only 6 paid holidays - the smallest set in Canada: New Year's, Heritage Day, Good Friday, Canada Day, Labour Day, Christmas. Victoria Day, Thanksgiving, NDTR and Boxing Day are not paid holidays; Remembrance Day is governed by the separate Remembrance Day Act (retail closing + conditional employee benefit), not the Labour Standards Code. | ||||
| CA-NB | New Brunswick | 4 entries | New Brunswick — official employment-standards source | 2026-07-30 |
| New Brunswick's 8 paid public holidays (read from gnb.ca 2026-07-30): New Year's, Family Day, Good Friday, Canada Day, New Brunswick Day, Labour Day, Remembrance Day, Christmas. Victoria Day, Thanksgiving, NDTR and Boxing Day are not paid public holidays (Thanksgiving is a retail day of rest without pay entitlement). A holiday on a non-working day yields another working day off in lieu. | ||||
| CA-PE | Prince Edward Island | 2 entries | Government of Prince Edward Island - 'Paid Holidays' (Workforce and Advanced Lea | 2026-08-05 |
| PEI's 8 paid holidays (verified from the Employment Standards Act text): New Year's, Islander Day, Good Friday, Canada Day, Labour Day, NDTR, Remembrance Day, Christmas. Victoria Day, Thanksgiving and Boxing Day are not statutory paid holidays. | ||||
| CA-NL | Newfoundland and Labrador | 0 entries | Newfoundland and Labrador — official employment-standards source | 2026-07-30 |
| Newfoundland and Labrador has 6 paid holidays (Labour Standards Act s.14): New Year's, Good Friday, Memorial Day (1 July - the same date as Canada Day, observed under its NL name), Labour Day, Remembrance Day, Christmas. Victoria Day, Thanksgiving, NDTR and Boxing Day are not paid statutory holidays. Traditional days (St. Patrick's, St. George's, Discovery, Orangemen's) are civic observances, not paid statutory holidays. | ||||
| CA-YT | Yukon | 4 entries | Yukon — official employment-standards source | 2026-07-30 |
| Yukon's 11 statutory holidays (read from yukon.ca 2026-07-30, which explicitly lists Heritage Day, Easter Monday and Boxing Day as NOT statutory): federal set plus National Indigenous Peoples Day (21 June) and Discovery Day (3rd Monday of August), minus Boxing Day. A holiday on a non-working day moves to the employee's next working day. | ||||
| CA-NT | Northwest Territories | 4 entries | Northwest Territories — official employment-standards source | 2026-07-30 |
| NWT's 11 statutory holidays: federal set plus National Aboriginal Day (21 June - the statutory name in the NWT Act) and the first-Monday-of-August Civic Holiday, minus Boxing Day. | ||||
| CA-NU | Nunavut | 4 entries | Nunavut — official employment-standards source | 2026-07-30 |
| Nunavut's 11 general holidays: federal set plus Nunavut Day (9 July) and the first-Monday-of-August civic holiday, minus Boxing Day. NDTR was added to the Labour Standards Act by Bill 5 (in force 2022-06-13); the Labour Standards Compliance Office fact sheet still shows the older 10-day list - the statute governs, but re-verify with the LSCO if NDTR treatment is contested. | ||||
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