Bereavement Leave in Canada: Days, Pay and Who Counts by Province

Bereavement leave is time off after a death in your family that your employer has to allow, with your job kept for you when you come back. The days, and whether any are paid, are set by the law that covers your job. Federally regulated employees can take up to 10 days, and the first 3 are paid once you have 3 consecutive months of continuous employment. In Ontario it is 2 unpaid days a calendar year, after 2 consecutive weeks with the employer. The table has each province and territory.

What is bereavement leave?

It is a legal minimum, set by your province’s or territory’s employment standards law or, if your employer is federally regulated, the Canada Labour Code, and a contract can give more (see below). The workplace rights hub explains which law covers your job.

How many days of bereavement leave do you get?

Ontario and Alberta set a yearly allowance rather than days for each death: Ontario’s 2 days are per calendar year for full- and part-time employees alike, and Alberta’s 3 are “per calendar year, not per incident of bereavement”. Unused days don’t carry over in either province, and Ontario doesn’t pro-rate them for someone hired partway through a year.

Nunavut’s row is blank: the sources we read state no figures, and the consolidation of its Act we could read runs to an amendment in force June 13, 2022 (gov.nu.ca has the territory’s information). Yukon’s figures come from its fact sheet updated August 2021, on yukon.ca.

Is bereavement leave paid?

The table shows four jurisdictions that pay for some days:

• Federal: if your pay varies by day or isn’t hourly, you get your average daily earnings, without overtime, over the 20 days you worked before the leave.
• Quebec: what you would have earned had you worked.
• Prince Edward Island: your regular wage rate, for the death of an immediate family member.
• Newfoundland and Labrador: your hourly rate times your average daily hours over the 3 weeks before the leave.

Where the table says “None (unpaid)”, the law requires the time off but not wages; Alberta and Manitoba note that a contract, collective agreement or employer can give more. Employment Insurance is separate: canada.ca lists regular, sickness, maternity and parental, caregiving and fishing benefits, explained in the EI hub.

Who counts as family for bereavement leave?

The table’s last column shows whose death counts. Some laws add a clause beyond named relatives: someone like a close relative (Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, PEI, and the Employment Insurance definition the Northwest Territories and Yukon use), anyone living with you as family (B.C.), a relative living with you permanently (federal), or people who give each other the affection and support of family (New Brunswick). Someone outside the named relatives and these clauses isn’t covered by that law’s leave; see more time.

Grandparents are named on the federal, Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador lists, and in the Employment Insurance definition. In Quebec a grandparent’s death gives 1 unpaid day rather than 5 days. PEI’s tiers differ in pay, not length: immediate family (your spouse, or a child, parent or sibling of you or your spouse) brings 1 paid and two unpaid days, other family such as a grandparent 3 unpaid days.

When can you take bereavement leave, and can you split the days?

• Days in a row: New Brunswick’s start by the day of the funeral; Nova Scotia’s are working days in a row; PEI’s unpaid days are consecutive, and the paid day can come first.
• Within a set time: federal leave goes in one or 2 periods, ending 6 weeks after the latest of the funeral, burial or memorial service, unless your employer agrees to extend it. Saskatchewan allows six months from the death. Yukon’s week must include the funeral, the Northwest Territories’ leave is to attend the funeral or memorial, and Quebec’s runs from the death to the funeral.
• Split as needed: Ontario’s days needn’t be consecutive and can cover the death, a later funeral or estate matters; B.C.’s needn’t be consecutive, for a funeral or start at the death. Ontario and Manitoba employers can count a part day as a full day.

Federally, bereavement leave also follows when the family member you are on compassionate care or critical illness leave for dies. It can’t overlap compassionate care leave, so it starts the Sunday after that leave’s last week; the caregiver leave guide covers those leaves.

On notice and proof: Ontario accepts oral notice, and late notice doesn’t cost you the leave; an employer can ask for evidence “reasonable in the circumstances”, such as a death certificate or an obituary. Federally, written notice is the only document needed. Alberta’s law requires no proof.

What if you need more time?

In Ontario each leave is a separate right, and one absence counts against only one leave. Its guide lists family responsibility and sick leave among them, and the sick leave guide compares sick days by jurisdiction. Beyond that, more time is up to your employer, as Manitoba and Quebec note.

Is there leave for a pregnancy loss or stillbirth?

Several laws give days off after a pregnancy loss:

• Federal: 8 weeks after a stillbirth or 3 days otherwise, the first 3 paid after 3 months’ continuous employment, within 26 weeks; for the pregnant person, their spouse or common-law partner, or an intended legal parent.
• Alberta: the 3-day bereavement leave covers any pregnancy not ending in a live birth, for the pregnant person, their spouse or common-law partner, or another would-be parent.
• Manitoba: 5 days, separate from the days for a death.
• Saskatchewan: the 5 bereavement days, for a loss by you, an immediate family member, or someone whose child you would have parented.
• Prince Edward Island: 1 paid and two unpaid days for your own prenatal loss or stillbirth, or as the spouse or partner, a former one who would have been a biological parent, or a surrogacy intended parent.
• Quebec: both parents may get 5 days, the first 2 paid; a termination before the 20th week also gives up to 3 weeks without pay.
• Nova Scotia: 5 unpaid working days in a row if the pregnancy ends before completing week 19.

A later loss can open a longer leave: Ontario within 17 weeks of the due date, Alberta within 16, Saskatchewan up to 20 weeks before it, Quebec from the 20th week, and Nova Scotia after week 19. British Columbia gives up to 6 consecutive weeks of unpaid leave after a pregnancy ends, if you ask for it. The parental leave guide covers those leaves.

What leave is there after the death or disappearance of a child?

Federally, the death of your child, or your spouse’s or common-law partner’s, gives up to 8 weeks of bereavement leave, from the death until 12 weeks after the latest of the funeral, burial or memorial service; a child here is under 18, or someone you or your spouse or partner can claim the Canada caregiver credit for. A separate federal leave of up to 156 weeks applies when a child under 25 dies or disappears as the probable result of a crime; a person charged with the crime can’t take it, and “The Code does not provide for paid leave related to death or disappearance of a child”. Ontario’s two leaves, child death leave and crime-related child disappearance leave, are both unpaid.

What if your contract or collective agreement says something different?

The law is a floor. In Ontario a contract with a “greater right or benefit” applies instead; one giving a single paid day doesn’t, so you keep two days, and that paid day uses one of them. Federally, “the most favorable provisions apply”. In B.C., collective-agreement disputes go to the grievance procedure.

What if your employer refuses the leave or penalizes you?

Ontario employers “cannot threaten, fire or penalize in any way” an employee who takes or plans to take the leave. Alberta employers may not terminate or lay off an employee for requesting or taking it, and needn’t pay out unused days when a job ends. B.C. bars ending your job or changing its conditions without your written consent because of the leave. See the job-protected leave overview, complaints and wrongful dismissal.

Related pages

• Job-protected leave in Canada
• Employment standards complaints
• Caregiver leave in Canada