Statutory Holidays in Canada
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Stat holidays in Canada exist on the federal level - see list of Canadian national holidays - and there are additional holidays for each province and territory.
Statutory holidays are New Year's Day, Good Friday (Easter), Canada Day, Labour Day and Christmas Day - these days are celebrated nationwide and are paid days off for employees. Federally regulated employees also get Easter Monday, Victoria Day, Thanksgiving and Boxing Day off and it is common practice, however not required, for non-federal employees to get these holidays off as well. In addition to these Canadian statutory holidays businesses may choose to close on other holidays but they are not required to do so. Confused yet? Got an idea or a holiday story? Post it on the Canadian holiday forum.
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The next nationwide statutory holiday in Canada is Monday, July 1, Canada Day
We add a new holiday calendar for each year for national and provincial holidays - even provide printer friendly versions for some of the calendars. The annual update is generally in August or September. The 2013 dates have now been uploaded.
The chart below displays a list of national and provincial stat holidays observed in Canada.
What is a Canadian Statutory Holiday?
A national statutory holiday in Canada is basically a "paid-day-off". When
you create your employment contact you should always include that full salary
is to be paid on these days to avoid future disputes. There are several holidays
every year at the national level - these holidays are observed everywhere in
Canada. In addition to these days there are other stat holidays and civic holidays
on the provincial and territorial and municipal levels.
Additional Information about Holidays
Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Father's Day and Halloween are not official holidays but are celebrated nationwide, however, no paid vacation is given for these days. Visit our Canadian holiday forum to read and post messages related to Canadian statutory holidays.
On unofficial holidays - especially on Boxing Day and Remembrance day - most
businesses are closed with the exception of select retail stores.
You can find more resources and information about statutory holidays on the resources page.
Stat Holiday Long Weekend To-Do List
Every statutory holiday has some must-do activities. On New Year's Day you should either be on a cruise ship drinking champaign or have a snowball fight and party with your friends while on Canada Day its customary to rent a cottage if you don't have your own and travel "up north" for the long weekend.
Since we have plenty of snow in the winter most Canadians visit ski or snowboarding resorts on the Family Day long weekend. (Yup, the all-you-can-eat pancake breakfasts are hard to resist)
Victoria Day marks the unofficial start of the summer and that's when people usually pull out the barbie from the garage and keep it on the deck until Labour Day, which is the unofficial end of the summer. Many travel agencies and parks have special family weekend getaway packages for the long weekends for those who prefer to spend the days hiking, camping, birdwatching, canoeing, etc. What do you do during the holidays? Share your story with others at the stat holiday forum.
Thanksgiving, of course is turkey season, which we, the editors, don't like or understand. Why are millions of animals killed every year on the day we give thanks to what we have and bless the fall harvest? Please consider saving a turkey next year. You can buy a few beers from the price of a turkey.
Holiday Destinations
The majority of people travel during their time off from work. Popular travel destinations for Canadians include Mexico, Cuba, Jamaica and select European countries like France and Italy - it all depends of the season. During the winter people fly south to spend some time in hotels and beaches in Florida, Hawaii or Costa Rica for example, indeed a great alternative to snow shoveling.
In the summer there are countless travel deals to Italy, Spain, the UK, Japan and other not-so-warm countries and because of the relatively strong Canadian dollar it doesn't cost too much to rent a car and stay at nice hotels abroad. Well, except in the UK that is.
Statutoryholidays.com does not provide legal advice about holidays. Every effort is made to ensure that information displayed on this website is accurate. We do our best to keep the list of all holidays up-to-date and accurate but the sources we get the lists from may be wrong to begin with. If you wish to know more about statutory holidays in Canada in your province or municipality please contact the Ministry of Labour or the Human Resources department of your company regarding paid days off. If you would like us to make a correction on this website please send us the correction details via the contact form of this website.
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= Stat holiday | 
= Optional holiday |
