Severance Pay Canada 2026: ESA Minimums by Province

Ontario and federally regulated employers owe statutory severance on top of termination pay, while British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec and New Brunswick set notice rules only.

Severance Pay in Canada by Province: 2026 Table

Notice and severance sit in separate columns because only Ontario and the federal jurisdiction add a statutory severance payment on top of termination pay. Each row links to the official text. The table covers the six jurisdictions with register-backed figures.

These are floors for an individual termination. Group terminations, exemptions such as just cause, contracts, collective agreements and common law can change the result. To run the Ontario numbers for a specific tenure, use the Canada severance calculator, which models Ontario Employment Standards Act termination pay and severance.

Statutory floor versus common-law notice

Track 1: Statutory minimums. These come from your provincial or territorial employment standards legislation (the ESA in Ontario, the Employment Standards Code in Alberta, the Canada Labour Code for federally regulated employers). They set a hard floor. You cannot contract below them. They're calculable to the dollar.

Track 2: common-law reasonable notice. This is judge-made law that may apply in common-law provinces when a valid contract does not limit notice. It is not a national rule and does not replace Quebec civil-law, federal, statutory, or collective-agreement analysis.

How Much Is Severance Pay in Ontario?

Termination pay. Under Ontario's Employment Standards Act, an employee continuously employed for at least three months whose employment is terminated individually, and who is not disqualified by the Act's exemptions, is entitled to notice of termination, or termination pay instead of notice, of one week for less than one year of service, two weeks for one to three years, three weeks for three to four years, four weeks for four to five years, five weeks for five to six years, six weeks for six to seven years, seven weeks for seven to eight years, and eight weeks for eight or more years.

Severance pay. Under Ontario's Employment Standards Act, an employee whose employment is severed after five or more years of service is entitled to severance pay equal to regular wages for a regular work week multiplied by the sum of completed years of employment plus completed months divided by 12 for a year that is not completed, to a maximum of 26 weeks, if the employer has a global payroll of at least $2.5 million or severed 50 or more employees in a six-month period because all or part of the business permanently closed. Severance pay is separate from and additional to termination pay.

The severance test is about the employer as much as the employee: the payroll threshold is measured on global payroll, not Ontario payroll alone. The usual error is paying the 8 weeks of termination pay and stopping, or testing the $2.5 million threshold against Ontario payroll only. To check a specific tenure, use the Canada severance calculator, and read the Ontario guide to severance pay.

How Is Severance Pay Calculated in Ontario?

Calculate the two entitlements separately, then add them. Termination pay comes from the notice bands by completed service. Severance pay is regular weekly wages multiplied by completed years of service, with a part-year prorated by its completed months, up to the statutory maximum of 26 weeks.

Worked example, in weeks. Picture a hypothetical Ontario employee with 10 completed years of service at an employer that meets the payroll test. Termination pay is the top band, 8 weeks. Statutory severance adds 10 weeks, one week for each completed year. Together that is 18 weeks of wages under the statute. With 10 years and 6 months of service, severance pay counts 10.5 weeks. This is an estimate of the statutory floor for an illustration, not legal advice and not a prediction of what a court would award.

That assumes the 8 weeks of notice are worked. When required notice is not provided, Ontario ESA section 65(4) counts that notice period as continued employment for severance. This can change both the five-year eligibility test and the completed months used in the amount. The Canada severance calculator applies that rule.

How Much Severance After 10 Years?

For the same illustrative 10-year employee dismissed without cause, the statutory floors before any common-law award are:

• Ontario employers owe termination pay of 8 weeks plus 10 weeks of statutory severance where the employer meets the payroll test, 18 weeks in total.
• Federal: notice reaches its maximum of 8 weeks at 8 years, plus severance of 20 days of wages (2 days for each of 10 completed years), about 12 weeks of pay in total for a five-day-week employee (8 weeks of notice plus 20 days).
• British Columbia: the schedule reaches its maximum of 8 weeks of wages, with no separate severance.
• Alberta: 8 weeks of notice at 10 years or more, with no separate severance.
• Quebec: 8 weeks of notice at 10 years or more, with no separate severance.
• New Brunswick: 4 weeks of notice at 5 years or more, and no statutory severance.

Severance Pay in BC

Under the British Columbia Employment Standards Act, an employer's liability for compensation for length of service is 1 week's wages after 3 consecutive months of employment, 2 weeks' wages after 12 consecutive months of employment, and 3 weeks' wages after 3 consecutive years of employment, plus 1 additional week's wages for each additional year of employment, to a maximum of 8 weeks' wages. The liability is deemed discharged if the employer instead gives written notice on the same schedule, gives a combination of written notice and money, or if the employee quits, retires, or is dismissed for just cause.

BC adds no statutory severance on top of this schedule. For an individual termination, compensation for length of service is the whole statutory entitlement.

Severance Pay in Alberta

Under the Alberta Employment Standards Code, an employer terminating employment must give an employee written termination notice of at least 1 week if employed more than 90 days but less than 2 years, 2 weeks if employed 2 years or more but less than 4 years, 4 weeks if employed 4 years or more but less than 6 years, 5 weeks if employed 6 years or more but less than 8 years, 6 weeks if employed 8 years or more but less than 10 years, or 8 weeks if employed 10 years or more. The employer may give termination pay instead of notice, or a combination of the two. No notice is required where the employment is terminated for just cause, where the employee has been employed 90 days or less, where a definite term or task not exceeding 12 months is completed, or in the other circumstances the Code lists.

Canada Labour Code Severance Pay

Federally regulated employees (banks, telecoms, airlines, interprovincial transport) fall under the Canada Labour Code. Under the Canada Labour Code, an employee who has completed twelve consecutive months of continuous employment and is terminated other than for just cause is entitled to severance pay equal to the greater of two days' wages at their regular rate for each completed year of employment, or five days' wages at their regular rate.

Under the Canada Labour Code, an employer that terminates an employee's employment must give written notice, wages in lieu of notice, or a combination of the two, of two weeks once the employee has completed three consecutive months of continuous employment, three weeks at three consecutive years, and one additional week for each further completed year of service, to a maximum of eight weeks at eight consecutive years.

Severance Pay in Quebec

Under Quebec's Act respecting labour standards, art. 82, an employer must give an employee written notice before terminating their employment contract or laying them off for six months or more: one week if the employee has less than one year of uninterrupted service, two weeks from one to five years, four weeks from five to ten years, and eight weeks at ten years or more. Article 82.1 excludes an employee who has less than three months of uninterrupted service, whose contract for a fixed term or for a specific undertaking expires, who has committed a serious fault, or whose termination or layoff results from superior force.

Quebec civil law and the Act respecting labour standards run on their own rules, so the Ontario and common-law Bardal analysis does not transfer directly.

Severance Pay in New Brunswick

Under New Brunswick's Employment Standards Act, an employer must give an employee at least 2 weeks' written notice of termination or layoff after 6 months of employment and less than 5 years, and at least 4 weeks' written notice at 5 years of employment or more. An employee with less than 6 months of employment is not owed advance notice. The employer may instead pay the wages the employee would have earned during the applicable notice period. Dismissal for cause is handled separately: the employer must give the reasons in writing, and if it does not, the dismissal is treated as a termination. The province's guidance states that severance pay is not the same as pay in lieu of notice and is a common law matter that the Employment Standards Act does not include. Notice is not required in the circumstances the guidance lists, including (among others) completion of a definite assignment of not more than 12 months, retirement under an established plan, and normal seasonal reduction, closure or suspension of an operation. Source: Government of New Brunswick, employee rights on termination.

Common Law Severance: Where the Real Numbers Live

Common law severance is the reasonable notice a court awards when a non-union employee is dismissed without a valid, enforceable termination clause. It is not added on top of the statutory floors. Where it applies it generally replaces them, because Ontario termination pay and severance pay already paid are credited against the award, so the real exposure is whichever amount is larger, not the sum of the statutory and common-law amounts. Employers get into trouble because the statutory number is a lookup and the common-law number is a judgment call that runs to months.

For a non-union employee in a common-law province, reasonable notice may apply when a valid contract does not limit notice and no applicable exception removes that right. Courts assess the circumstances, including the Bardal factors. Quebec civil law, federal protections and collective agreements require their own analysis:

• Length of service (longer = more notice)
• Age of the employee (older = more notice, because re-employment is harder)
• Character of employment (senior roles = more notice)
• Availability of similar employment (niche roles or weak job markets = more notice)

There is no fixed formula for common law reasonable notice. Courts weigh the Bardal factors case by case, and awards for long-service, older employees can run well beyond what a simple per-year estimate would suggest. For the 10-year employee above, the statutory floor is a matter of weeks, while a common-law award is measured in months and turns on age, role and the job market.

In Currie v. Nylene Canada Inc., 2022 ONCA 209, the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld a trial award of 26 months' reasonable notice for a 58-year-old employee terminated after 40 years of service, on the basis of exceptional circumstances. In upholding the award, the Court of Appeal noted that its earlier decisions state that exceptional circumstances should exist to support more than 24 months of notice.

The statutory minimum and common law reasonable notice are two different numbers, and only the first can be looked up. Model both before a termination, not after.

Working Notice vs. Pay in Lieu

Where the governing rules permit it, notice can be working notice, pay in lieu or a combination. Ontario statutory severance remains a separate payment obligation and cannot be satisfied by working notice.

Working notice reduces the cash paid at the end, because only the unworked part of the notice period is paid out. But the notice has to be real. The employee must continue doing their actual job, with their actual responsibilities, at their actual compensation.

Working notice is at risk of failing, which can leave the employer owing the full amount, when the employee is moved to make-work, stripped of real duties or pay, or walked out and told it is garden leave without a garden leave clause.

Pay in lieu is cleaner but more expensive upfront. The employer pays the full notice period as a lump sum (or salary continuance) and the employment relationship ends immediately. The advantage: certainty. No risk of the employee claiming the working notice was a sham.

Constructive Dismissal: The Termination You Didn't Know You Made

In Potter v. New Brunswick Legal Aid Services Commission, 2015 SCC 10, the Supreme Court of Canada held that constructive dismissal can take two forms: a single unilateral act that breaches an essential term of the contract, or a series of acts that, taken together, show that the employer intended to no longer be bound by the contract. That second category, a series of smaller changes, is the one that catches employers off guard. No single decision felt like a big deal. But the cumulative effect was a termination.

Constructive dismissal can arise from a fundamental unilateral change or conduct showing the employer no longer intends to honour the employment contract. Whether it occurred and which remedies follow depend on the facts, contract and governing legal regime.

Typical triggers:

• A significant, unilateral reduction in compensation (courts weigh substance and context, not a fixed percentage)
• Demotion or removal of key responsibilities
• Forced relocation to a different city
• Changing someone from salary to commission-heavy without consent
• Creating or tolerating a toxic or hostile work environment

Why Termination Clauses Fail More Often Than Employers Expect

Ontario courts void termination clauses that breach the ESA, and one defective provision can void the whole clause.

Here's the Case That Voided the Clause

In Waksdale v. Swegon North America Inc., 2020 ONCA 391, the Ontario Court of Appeal held that a severability clause cannot have any effect on clauses of a contract that have been made void by statute, and that termination provisions in an employment agreement must be interpreted as a whole rather than piecemeal, so that a provision violating the Employment Standards Act voids the entire termination clause even if the provision relied on to terminate the employee was itself compliant.

That means a perfectly drafted "without cause" clause can be killed by a flawed "with cause" clause sitting in the same contract. The court doesn't sever them. It throws out both.

What Waksdale Actually Changed

For Ontario contracts, Waksdale concerns the enforceability of termination provisions that fail to meet ESA minimums. Have Ontario counsel assess the actual wording and current law. Common-law just cause is different from the ESA exemption for wilful misconduct, disobedience or wilful neglect of duty that is not trivial and has not been condoned. See Ontario's termination guide.

If you haven't had your employment contracts reviewed since Waksdale, you don't actually know what your termination obligations are.

How to Calculate What You Actually Owe

There is no single formula for the total, but the order of operations is fixed.

1. Calculate the statutory minimum for the jurisdiction. In Ontario, check both termination pay AND severance pay eligibility. This is your absolute floor.
2. Assess common law exposure. There's no fixed formula. Courts weigh the Bardal factors case by case. Adjust your expectations upward for age, seniority, specialization, and local job market conditions, and downward for junior roles, short tenure, or highly transferable skills.
3. Check the contract. Is there a termination clause? Has it been reviewed post-Waksdale? Does it comply with current ESA requirements? If the answer is uncertain, obtain advice on the governing regime and clause before calculating additional notice.
4. Factor in the full compensation package. Assess salary, benefits continuation, potential bonus entitlements, car allowances, stock options, and pension contributions. Courts can add compensation for lost benefits on top of salary when calculating damages for the notice period.