Is Thanksgiving a statutory holiday in Canada?
Thanksgiving Day falls on Monday 11 October 2027, and it is a statutory holiday in nine of the thirteen provinces and territories, plus every federally regulated workplace. The four that leave it out are New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador, the whole Atlantic region. Work for a provincially regulated employer there and the day carries no holiday pay under the standards act.
Next date: October 11, 2027 · A statutory holiday in 9 of 13 provinces and territories.
Jurisdiction by jurisdiction
| Jurisdiction | Statutory holiday | |
|---|---|---|
| AlbertaThanksgiving Day | Yes | Thanksgiving Day |
| British ColumbiaThanksgiving Day | Yes | Thanksgiving Day |
| ManitobaThanksgiving Day | Yes | Thanksgiving Day |
| New Brunswick— | No | — |
| Newfoundland and Labrador— | No | — |
| Northwest TerritoriesThanksgiving Day | Yes | Thanksgiving Day |
| Nova Scotia— | No | — |
| NunavutThanksgiving Day | Yes | Thanksgiving Day |
| OntarioThanksgiving Day | Yes | Thanksgiving Day |
| Prince Edward Island— | No | — |
| QuebecThanksgiving | Yes | Thanksgiving |
| SaskatchewanThanksgiving Day | Yes | Thanksgiving Day |
| YukonThanksgiving Day | Yes | Thanksgiving Day |
Cite this table: Is Thanksgiving a statutory holiday in Canada? — Overtally, reviewed September 2, 2026. https://overtally.com/stat-holiday-pay/holidays/thanksgiving
Why the answer changes at the border
Each jurisdiction writes its own list, and the Atlantic four wrote short ones. Nova Scotia's Labour Standards Code names six general holidays; Newfoundland and Labrador's Labour Standards Act names six public holidays. Those are the two shortest lists in Canada. New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island name eight each. Length alone does not explain it, though, because Quebec's Act respecting labour standards names only seven — one fewer than either — and still includes the second Monday in October. The difference is which days each legislature chose.
The same four provinces also leave out Victoria Day, and three of them spend a slot on a day the rest of the country does not have: Nova Scotia Heritage Day, New Brunswick Day, Islander Day. Newfoundland and Labrador is the exception — its Memorial Day is the 1 July holiday under another name, so every day on its list is one the rest of the country keeps too. Three of the four name Remembrance Day in the standards act itself, which Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and Nova Scotia do not. The Atlantic lists are not trimmed versions of Ontario's. They are different lists, built around regional and commemorative days.
What the day is worth
In the nine that observe it, a qualifying employee who does not work Thanksgiving is paid for the day, and one who works it is owed more than ordinary wages, as premium pay or a substitute day off. What the paid day is worth is not uniform: Ontario and Quebec divide four weeks of wages by twenty, Alberta and British Columbia divide by the days actually worked, Saskatchewan takes five percent. The table above links each formula.
In the Atlantic four, what you get for Thanksgiving comes from your contract, your employer's policy or a collective agreement, not from the standards act. Work the day and ordinary wages are all that is owed: no premium, no substitute day off. Many employers close anyway, and in retail the law requires it, since all four provinces order most shops shut under separate closing legislation that says nothing about pay.
Work out your holiday pay
Only the provinces and territories where the day is a statutory holiday are listed. Pick yours and the calculator runs its own formula on your wages.
the formula
(regular wages in the 4 work weeks before the work week with the holiday + vacation pay payable over those 4 work weeks) ÷ 20
Ontario divides by twenty, so the two figures below are all it takes. Both come off the four work weeks before the work week the holiday falls in.
Every regular hour, before deductions — but with overtime pay left out.
Only if it was payable across those weeks. Leave it at zero if you take vacation pay on each cheque and none fell here.
Related
Questions people actually ask
Is Thanksgiving a stat holiday in Nova Scotia?
No. The Labour Standards Code gives six general holidays: New Year's Day, Nova Scotia Heritage Day, Good Friday, Canada Day, Labour Day and Christmas Day. Thanksgiving is not among them. It is a designated closing day under the Retail Business Designated Day Closing Act, so most large stores must shut, and the Code gives retail employees a right to refuse work on a closing day. Closed is not the same as paid.
Do I get paid for Thanksgiving in New Brunswick?
Not under the Employment Standards Act. Its eight paid public holidays are New Year's Day, Family Day, Good Friday, Canada Day, New Brunswick Day, Labour Day, Remembrance Day and Christmas Day. Thanksgiving is one of the eleven prescribed days of rest under the separate Days of Rest Act, which closes retail but creates no entitlement to pay. Victoria Day and Boxing Day sit in the same gap.
Is Thanksgiving a paid holiday in PEI or Newfoundland and Labrador?
In neither. Prince Edward Island's Employment Standards Act names eight paid holidays and Thanksgiving is not one, though the Retail Business Holidays Act does list it among the days retail must close. Newfoundland and Labrador names six public holidays in s. 14 of the Labour Standards Act, and the province's own Shops Closing Act notice for 2026 lists ten closing days while marking only six as paid holidays.
Is Thanksgiving a holiday for federally regulated workers in Atlantic Canada?
Yes. The Canada Labour Code counts Thanksgiving among its ten general holidays, and that list applies in every province. A bank teller in Halifax, an air crew member in Moncton or a driver for an interprovincial carrier in St. John's is entitled to the day, paid under s. 196(1) as wages in the four weeks before the week of the holiday, excluding overtime, divided by twenty.
Do I get time and a half if I work Thanksgiving?
In the nine provinces and territories that observe it, working the day earns more than ordinary wages, and the three largest set it out like this. Ontario: most employees who agree to work it get regular wages plus a substitute day off with public holiday pay, or, if they agree electronically or in writing, public holiday pay plus 1½ times their regular rate for every hour worked. British Columbia: a qualifying employee is paid 1½ times the regular wage for the first 12 hours and double after that, plus an average day's pay (Employment Standards Act s. 46). Alberta: a qualifying employee who works it on a normal work day gets the average daily wage plus 1½ times the wage rate for each hour, or regular wages plus a paid day off later; on a day they would not normally work, the hours are paid at 1½ times (Employment Standards Code ss. 29–30). In the four Atlantic provinces the standards acts owe no premium.
Overtally computes what you should be paid before taxes. It does not calculate take-home pay, withholding or deductions, and it is not legal advice — it is your own record and your own estimate.