Statutory Holidays in Canada

The next holiday is Good Friday in 11 days.

Holidays in Canada exist on the federal level - see list of Canadian national holidays - and there are additional holidays for each province and territory.

Are you confused yet? Got an idea or a holiday story? Post it on the Canadian holiday forum.

We have a holiday calendar for each year for national and provincial holidays - click the menu to view holidays by year or by province or territory. You can also find information about long weekend 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.

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, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Thanksgiving and Boxing Day off and it is common practice, however not required, for non-federal employees to get these holidays off as well.

A new federal statutory holiday was added in 2021 for September 30 called National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

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.

The chart below displays a list of national and provincial stat holidays observed in Canada.

Holiday Day Observed Observance
New Year's Day January 1 Nationwide
Islander Day Third Monday in February PE
Family Day Third Monday in February BC, AB, SK, ON, NB
Heritage Day Third Monday in February NS
Louis Riel Day  Third Monday in February MB
St. Patrick's Day  March 17 NL
Good Friday Friday before Easter Sunday Nationwide except QC
Easter Monday Monday after Easter Sunday QC
St. George's Day   April 23 NL
Victoria Day
National Patriotes Day in QC
Monday preceding May 25th Nationwide except NB, NS, PE, NL
National Aboriginal Day  June 21 NT
Féte Nationale
St. Jean Baptiste Day
June 24 QC
Discovery Day  June 24 NL
Canada Day
Memorial Day in NFL
July 1 Nationwide
Nunavut Day July 9 NT
Civic Holiday First Monday in August AB, BC, SK, ON, NB, NU
Labour Day First Monday of September Nationwide
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation September 30 Nationwide
Thanksgiving Second Monday in October Nationwide except NB, NS, PE, NL
Remembrance Day November 11 Nationwide except ON, QC, NS, NL
Christmas Day December 25 Nationwide
Boxing Day December 26 ON

What is a Canadian Statutory Holiday?

A national statutory holiday in Canada is basically a "paid-day-off". When you create your employment contract 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.

Stat Holiday Long Weekends

Every statutory holiday has some must-do activities. On New Year's Day you should either be on a cruise ship drinking champagne 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 many Canadians visit ski or snowboarding resorts on the Family Day long weekend — 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 instead.

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.