New Year, New Laws: 2026 Updates in Canadian Employment Standards

Quick Hits

• Leave: Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan have all increased the maximum limit of long-term illness leave to twenty-seven weeks. Saskatchewan has also increased access to other types of job-protected leave.
• Tip Collection: In Saskatchewan, employers are no longer permitted to deduct or withhold tips from employees who collect them.
• Transparency: Ontario enacted several amendments to pay transparency, AI disclosure, and employer “ghosting.”

Leave

Eligible employees in Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan may now take up to twenty-seven weeks of job-protected long-term illness or injury leave, bringing these provinces in line with standards for federally regulated employers.

In Saskatchewan, employees who have been working for the same employer for thirteen weeks can also access:

• nineteen weeks of maternity leave for those who have experienced a pregnancy loss, and
• sixteen weeks of leave for people who have experienced interpersonal violence.

Additionally, employers in Saskatchewan may substitute another day for any public holiday (other than Remembrance Day) if an employee agrees to the substitution. The substituted day must take place within four weeks of the public holiday.

Tips

Employers in Saskatchewan are now prohibited from withholding or deducting tips from employees’ earnings. Employers may establish tip pooling arrangements to distribute gratuities among their employees, but they cannot share in that pooling arrangement.

Employees who believe their tips have been wrongfully withheld may apply to the director of employment standards, who has the authority to order employers to repay any tips owed.

Transparency in the Hiring Process

In Ontario, employers with twenty-five or more employees must now include the expected salary range (within a $50,000 limit) in publicly advertised job postings. This requirement does not apply to jobs posted on internal company hiring pages, not does it apply if the expected compensation is greater than $200,000 per year.

Employers are now also required to disclose in publicly advertised job postings the use of artificial intelligence (AI) during the hiring process, and to disclose whether the job is for an existing vacancy.

Finally, employers must notify anyone who interviewed for a publicly posted job within forty-five days of the (last) interview whether a hiring decision has been made. The notice must be in person, in writing, or using technology.

Employers may want to review their policies and procedures to ensure compliance with these changes to Canada’s provincial legislative requirements.

Ogletree Deakins’ Calgary, Montréal, and Toronto offices will continue to monitor developments and provide updates on the Canada, Cross-Border, Cybersecurity and Privacy, Hospitality, Leaves of Absence, Pay Equity, and Wage and Hour blogs as additional information becomes available.

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