Caregiver Leave in Canada: Compassionate Care, Family Caregiver and Critical Illness Leave by Province

Caregiver leave is job-protected time off to care for a seriously ill family member. There are three kinds:

• Compassionate care leave, when a family member has a serious medical condition with a significant risk of death, usually within 26 weeks: up to 28 weeks in a 52-week period for federally regulated employees, with each province’s length and certificate period in the table.
• Critical illness leave, when a child or adult family member is critically ill or injured, with a longer leave for a child than for an adult (lengths in the chooser table).
• Family caregiver leave, Ontario’s leave for a family member with a serious medical condition and no risk-of-death test: up to 8 weeks per calendar year for each family member.

Federal and Ontario law don’t require wages during these leaves; the EI caregiving benefits are a separate claim. Some people say “compassionate leave” for time off after a death: that is bereavement leave.

How long is caregiver leave in each province?

“Not stated” means the page we read doesn’t give that detail, not that the leave doesn’t exist; “None recorded” means our sources give no separate leave of that kind.

Nunavut’s row comes from its Labour Standards Act as consolidated on June 13, 2022; the territory’s labour standards page describes “up to 8 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a seriously ill family member”. Yukon’s row comes from the fact sheet on special leave without pay that its employment standards page links to.

Which caregiver leave fits your situation?

The leave depends on what the medical certificate says about your family member. The EI column is a separate benefit with a matching condition:

The age that divides child from adult is set by each law: under 18 federally, under 19 in British Columbia, and a minor child in Quebec. Prince Edward Island’s critical illness leave is for a child, and its row shows no adult leave.

For a serious condition without a risk of death or critical illness, Ontario and Quebec have a leave: Ontario’s family caregiver leave, and Quebec’s extended absence to care for a relative with a serious illness or accident of up to 16 weeks, which covers a family member or a person for whom you are a natural caregiver who has a serious illness or had a serious accident. Elsewhere the table records no such leave; short family leave days are in our sick leave guide.

You may qualify for more than one leave: Ontario’s guide says an employee “may be entitled to more than one leave for the same event,” and each leave is separate. Federally, you can’t take compassionate care leave while another employee is on critical illness leave for the same person, though you can take the two leaves one after the other.

What is compassionate care leave?

For federally regulated employees, compassionate care leave works like this:

• You can take up to 28 weeks within a 52-week period, in one or more periods of at least 1 week.
• A certificate must state that your family member has a serious medical condition with a significant risk of death within 26 weeks.
• Two or more employees caring for the same family member share the 28 weeks.
• The leave is unpaid; EI compassionate care benefits can replace part of your income.

Ontario calls this leave family medical leave. Its 28 weeks fall in a 52-week window starting the week the certificate’s 26-week period begins, where a week runs Sunday to Saturday and part of a week counts as a whole one. Ontario also allows it for someone who sees you as “like a family member”.

The leave stops when the family member dies: federally when they die or no longer need care or support, in Alberta on the last day of the work week in which they die, and in Ontario on the last day of that week at the latest. Federally regulated employees are then entitled to bereavement leave; when bereavement leave can be taken covers each jurisdiction.

What is critical illness leave?

For federally regulated employees, critical illness leave works like this:

• You can take up to 37 weeks in a 52-week period to care for or support a critically ill or injured child under 18, with a separate 37 weeks for each child.
• You can take up to 17 weeks in a 52-week period to care for or support a critically ill or injured adult family member.
• A health care practitioner's certificate must state that the person is critically ill or injured and needs the care or support of one or more family members.
• The leave is unpaid; EI family caregiver benefits can replace part of your income.

In Ontario, critically ill means the person’s usual health has changed sharply and an illness or injury puts their life at risk; a chronic condition doesn’t count. Ontario’s critical illness leave needs 6 consecutive months with your employer, while its family medical and family caregiver leaves have no service requirement.

In Ontario, if your child turns 18 after the leave starts, you don’t lose it, and if the person is still critically ill when the 52-week period ends, you can take another leave if you still qualify.

A federal leave ends at the end of the week in which the person dies.

What is family caregiver leave in Ontario?

Ontario’s family caregiver leave gives up to 8 weeks per calendar year for each specified family member with a serious medical condition. Unlike family medical leave, the family member doesn’t need a significant risk of death within 26 weeks. The weeks can be taken together or separately, there is no service requirement, and the family member doesn’t have to live in Ontario.

The certificate need not name the illness: in the guide’s words, “There is no requirement that the note specify what the medical condition is; it need only state that it is” serious, and the condition can be chronic or episodic.

The EI benefits with the same name are a different thing. Ontario’s family caregiver leave covers a serious medical condition, while the EI family caregiver benefits are for a child or adult who is critically ill or injured and pay for up to 35 and 15 weeks. The names match; the conditions and the weeks don’t.

What does the medical certificate have to say?

Who can sign depends on where the care is given; Ontario’s guide says: “Different types of health practitioners may be able to issue certificates in different jurisdictions; it will depend on the laws of the jurisdiction”.

Federally, the certificate comes from a health care practitioner; for compassionate care leave, if your employer asks in writing, it is due within 15 days of your return to work.

In Ontario, a family medical leave certificate comes from a medical doctor or nurse practitioner. For family caregiver and critical illness leave, a physician, registered nurse or psychologist where the care is given can sign, and in Ontario that includes psychiatrists and nurse practitioners. A critical illness certificate need only state that the person is critically ill or critically injured, and it sets out the period of care. You can start before you have it, but must obtain one eventually; your employer can ask for a copy, and you pay any cost.

Ontario has an optional form, the “Medical certificate to support entitlement to family caregiver leave, family medical leave, and/or critical illness leave”; the practitioner may use another certificate. A copy of a certificate sent to Employment and Social Development Canada for EI may also support Ontario’s family medical or critical illness leave.

For the EI benefits, Service Canada has its own forms: the medical certificate for compassionate care benefits and the one for family caregiver benefits; one certificate covers several caregivers.

Can family members share caregiver leave?

Federally, the compassionate care weeks are shared (see the rule above), and so are the critical illness weeks: family members can take them at the same time or one after the other, up to 37 weeks for a child and 17 for an adult within a 52-week period.

New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nunavut and Prince Edward Island also cap the compassionate care leave that two or more employees can take for the same family member. In the Northwest Territories the cap is for employees of the same employer.

In Ontario, the 28 weeks of family medical leave must be shared by all employees in Ontario caring for the same family member, and the critical illness weeks are a total for one or more employees caring for the same person. Family caregiver leave is set per specified family member.

Is caregiver leave paid?

The federal Code doesn’t provide paid compassionate care or critical illness leave, and Ontario’s guide says employers “do not have to pay wages” during family medical, family caregiver or critical illness leave.

EI benefits can be paid to eligible employees away from work to give care, through a separate claim; EI caregiving benefits covers eligibility and amounts:

• Compassionate care benefits: up to 26 weeks for caring for a person with a serious medical condition and a significant risk of death within 26 weeks.
• Family caregiver benefits: up to 35 weeks for a critically ill or injured child under 18, and up to 15 weeks for a critically ill or injured adult 18 or older.

Qualifying for the leave and for the benefit are separate tests: Ontario’s guide says the right to the leave “is not the same as” the right to EI benefits, and Alberta’s says the eligibility requirements “may be different”. Alberta’s compassionate care leave is one week longer than the EI benefit “in recognition of the waiting period”.

Is your job protected during caregiver leave?

Federally, your employer must give you back your former position or a comparable one when you return, and in Ontario an employer can’t threaten, fire or penalize you for taking the leave.

Federally, you give written notice as soon as possible, with the reason and the intended length. In Ontario you tell your employer in writing, before the leave or as soon as possible after it starts, and critical illness leave also needs a written plan of the weeks.

Other provinces’ notice rules are in our guide to job-protected leaves. If you’re let go, see wrongful dismissal and filing an employment standards complaint.

Related pages

• Job-protected leave in Canada
• Sick leave rights
• Bereavement leave
• Maternity and parental leave by province
• EI caregiving benefits
• Your rights at work