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It depends who your employer answers to. Under the Canada Labour Code it is a paid general holiday for every federally regulated employee, in every province. As a provincial statutory holiday it exists in six of thirteen provinces and territories: British Columbia, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. The other seven leave 30 September out of their employment standards legislation.
A statutory holiday in 6 of 13 provinces and territories.
Last reviewed · maintained by Ihor Bezrukavnyk · how we calculate
| Jurisdiction | Statutory holiday | |
|---|---|---|
| Alberta—pay formula → | No | — |
| British ColumbiaNational Day for Truth and Reconciliationpay formula → | Yes | National Day for Truth and Reconciliation |
| ManitobaOrange Shirt Day (National Day for Truth and Reconciliation)Manitoba legislates the same day as Orange Shirt Day, and it is a general holiday under the Employment Standards Code.pay formula → | Yes | Orange Shirt Day (National Day for Truth and Reconciliation)Manitoba legislates the same day as Orange Shirt Day, and it is a general holiday under the Employment Standards Code. |
| New Brunswick—pay formula → | No | — |
| Newfoundland and Labrador—pay formula → | No | — |
| Northwest TerritoriesNational Day for Truth and Reconciliationpay formula → | Yes | National Day for Truth and Reconciliation |
| Nova Scotia—pay formula → | No | — |
| NunavutNational Day for Truth and Reconciliationpay formula → | Yes | National Day for Truth and Reconciliation |
| Ontario—pay formula → | No | — |
| Prince Edward IslandNational Day for Truth and Reconciliationpay formula → | Yes | National Day for Truth and Reconciliation |
| Quebec—pay formula → | No | — |
| Saskatchewan—pay formula → | No | — |
| YukonNational Day for Truth and Reconciliationpay formula → | Yes | National Day for Truth and Reconciliation |
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Call to Action 80 asked for a statutory day, and no single legislature in Canada can make one. Employment standards belong to the provinces under s. 92(13) of the Constitution Act, 1867, so Parliament could reach only the works and undertakings named in the Canada Labour Code: banks, airlines, railways, interprovincial trucking, telecommunications, broadcasting. That is about 910,000 employees, close to six percent of Canadian workers. Bill C-5 added the day to the Code in 2021; the other thirteen legislatures were each left to decide on their own.
The split runs down the middle of a street rather than along a provincial border. A teller at a bank branch in Toronto gets the day off with pay, because the bank is federally regulated. The shop assistant next door has no entitlement: the Employment Standards Act, 2000 lists nine public holidays and 30 September is not one of them. Manitoba took the same date under a different name, legislating it as Orange Shirt Day in the Employment Standards Code, where it is the one general holiday an employer may not substitute another day for.
Where the day is statutory, qualifying employees are owed holiday pay whether they work it or not, and premium pay or a paid day off in lieu if they do. What it is worth depends on the jurisdiction. The Canada Labour Code pays one twentieth of the wages, overtime excluded, that you earned in the four weeks before the holiday week. British Columbia pays an average day's pay: the 30 calendar days before the holiday, divided by the days you worked or earned wages.
Where it is not statutory, 30 September is an ordinary Wednesday in 2026 and working it pays ordinary wages, with no premium and no day in lieu. Several of those governments still close their own offices and schools while leaving private workplaces alone, which is not the same as an entitlement. Where an employer gives the day anyway, the terms come from the policy, the contract or the collective agreement.
Questions people actually ask
The nature of your employer's business decides, not where you live or where the workplace sits. If the business is a bank, an airline, a railway, an interprovincial trucking or bus line, a telecom or a broadcaster, it falls under the Canada Labour Code and 30 September is a paid general holiday no matter which province the building is in. Everyone else is on their province's employment standards legislation, and six of thirteen put the day there.
No. The Employment Standards Act, 2000 lists nine public holidays and 30 September is not among them, so a provincially regulated Ontario employer owes nothing for the day under the Act. Ontario is one of seven provinces and territories that left the date out of their employment standards legislation. A bank, airline or telecom employee working in Toronto still gets it, because the employer is federally regulated.
Banks close. Bill C-5 amended three statutes at once: the Canada Labour Code, so bank staff get the paid holiday; the Interpretation Act, so the date counts as a holiday when a federal deadline is calculated; and the Bills of Exchange Act, so a bill is not presented for payment that day. Federal offices close. Provincial offices and schools close in several provinces that have not made the day a statutory holiday for anyone else.
Whatever the policy, the contract or the collective agreement says, which may be a full day's pay, an unpaid day, or a floating day taken later. The statute is silent, so nothing sets a floor. Alberta is the one province that addresses it directly: the Employment Standards Code treats 30 September as an optional general holiday, and an employer who observes it is expected to apply the Code's general holiday rules to the day.
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