Laid Off or Fired in Canada: What to Do in the First Weeks

When a job ends, what you’re owed depends on how it ended and on the law that covers the job: your province’s or territory’s employment standards law, or the Canada Labour Code if your employer is federally regulated (which law covers you). The word used for it doesn’t settle the question. The laws separate a temporary layoff, during which B.C. says you’re still employed, a termination without cause, which brings notice or termination pay, and a dismissal for just cause, where the Canada Labour Code requires neither (laid off or fired). The sections follow the order things come up, each linking the page with the full rules; if you were dismissed for cause, each says where that changes things.

Laid off or fired: what’s the difference?

In the laws, a layoff and a termination differ. B.C.: “If an employee is temporarily laid off, they’re still considered to be employed.” Under the Canada Labour Code, a lay-off becomes a termination “when the conditions of temporary lay-off no longer apply”, and from then the rules for an individual termination apply. How long a temporary layoff can last before that happens differs by law (B.C. and Alberta, for example, set a maximum), and the limits are on cut hours and temporary layoffs. When many jobs end at once, the Code has separate requirements for a group termination; the notice and termination pay guide covers group termination notice.

“Fired” is not a separate legal category: Alberta lists quit, resigned, retired, fired, let go and dismissed among the words used for a termination. What counts is whether the employer ended the job without cause, which in Ontario, for an employee continuously employed for three months, in most cases means written notice of termination, termination pay or a mix, or for just cause, which the Code lists among the cases where no notice or pay in lieu is required. Ontario’s law doesn’t require an employer to give you a reason for ending your job. The wrongful dismissal guide explains just cause.

If you’re the one leaving, quitting your job covers notice, final pay and EI from that side. If your hours or pay were cut without your agreement, cut hours and temporary layoffs covers that case.

What should the termination letter or notice tell you?

Several laws say notice is given in writing: the Canada Labour Code, Alberta, Saskatchewan, B.C. and Quebec speak of written notice, and Ontario of written notice, termination pay or a combination. Quebec adds that the notice must include the date the job ends. Under the Code, an employer also has to give a terminated employee a statement of benefits setting out wages, vacation pay, severance pay and other pay from the job.

Beyond the letter, the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) suggests reviewing “any documents that outline your salary and terms of dismissal”, such as the offer letter from when you were hired and an employee handbook. If the letter comes with an offer and a release to sign, see a package or a release.

Do you get notice or termination pay?

An employer ending a job without cause gives working notice, pay instead of notice, or a combination of the two, and the minimum depends on how long you’ve worked there. The laws name the pay differently: termination pay in Ontario and Alberta, pay in lieu of notice under the Canada Labour Code, compensation for length of service in B.C., an indemnity in Quebec and pay instead of notice in Saskatchewan.

Each province’s and territory’s scale is on notice and termination pay by province, with an estimate from the termination and severance pay calculator. Common-law reasonable notice covers notice under a contract or the courts, and the notice guide compares working notice with pay.

Do you get severance if you’re laid off?

Ontario’s law and the Canada Labour Code both provide statutory severance pay. In Ontario, it goes to an employee with 5 or more years with the employer, if the employer meets a payroll or closure condition set out on statutory severance pay. Under the Canada Labour Code, an employee with 12 consecutive months of employment gets severance pay as well as notice, including one whose lay-off or dismissal for lack of work or the end of a work function ended in a termination.

Alberta says severance pay “is determined under common law and not required under the Employment Standards Code”. Common-law notice and what a package can hold are on severance pay in Canada, and the calculator estimates the statutory amounts.

Have you been offered a package or asked to sign a release?

If a package comes with a release to sign, Ontario’s and B.C.’s laws say their minimums can’t be signed away. Ontario’s guide says “No employee can agree to waive or give up their rights under the ESA”, and “Any such agreement is null and void.” B.C.’s Act says its requirements are minimum requirements, and an agreement to waive them, other than one its section 3 (2) allows, “has no effect”. The pages we read for other laws say nothing either way.

What a package can include, what a release gives up and the time to consider an offer are on negotiating a package.

When do you get your final pay and vacation pay?

Each law sets its own deadline for your final pay, counted from a different point: the last day of work in Saskatchewan, the end of a pay period in Nova Scotia, and in Ontario seven days after the job ends or the next regular pay day, whichever is later. My employer hasn’t paid me covers final pay in full.

In the table, “Not stated” marks a case the source we read is silent on. If the money doesn’t come, my employer hasn’t paid me explains how to claim it and what your employer can’t take out of your pay, and my employer owes me vacation pay covers vacation pay that wasn’t paid.

When do you get your Record of Employment?

Your employer completes a Record of Employment (ROE) when you stop working and your insurable earnings are interrupted, and the federal ROE guide for employers calls it “the single most important document” in the EI program. Its guide for employers tells them to let employees know they can apply for EI as soon as their earnings stop, even if they haven’t received all their ROEs. My employer won’t give me an ROE is for a late, missing or wrong one; your Record of Employment and reason codes on your ROE cover the EI side.

When can you apply for EI, and does severance delay it?

FCAC puts it this way: “Apply for EI as soon as you stop working because it can take time for benefits to start.” How to apply for EI has the steps, applying late what happens if you wait, and your first EI payment the timing.

Money paid because a job ended, including vacation pay, pay in lieu of notice and severance pay, is normally “allocated from the week of the separation”. Under a temporary measure, for claims or allocations that start between March 30, 2025 and October 9, 2027, earnings from separation “are not deducted from your benefits”. How that money is treated outside that window is under money paid when you leave, and the measure’s dates under temporary measures.

Regular benefits are for people who lost their job “through no fault of your own”, in canada.ca’s words. How a dismissal for misconduct affects a claim is under misconduct, and the conditions under who qualifies for regular benefits.

What happens to your group benefits?

In Ontario, the employer has to keep making the contributions needed to maintain your benefit plans through the statutory notice period, whether you work the notice or are paid termination pay instead. In Nova Scotia, once the employer has given proper notice, it may not change your rate of pay or any other condition of employment, “such as benefits”. In Alberta, once notice is given the employer can’t reduce earnings or other terms or conditions of employment, and in B.C., once written notice is given, the job can’t be changed unless you agree in writing. The Nova Scotia, Alberta and B.C. rules are about a notice period being worked; for pay instead of notice there, and for the other laws, the pages we read don’t say.

When cover ends after that, and converting life, health or dental cover to a personal policy, are on continuing benefits after leaving a job and its section on conversion and portability.

What happens to your pension or group RRSP?

Under the federal Pension Benefits Standards Act, a plan’s administrator has to give a member who leaves the plan a written statement of their pension and other benefits within 30 days, or a longer period the Superintendent allows. Keeping a pension or taking its value out is on pension or lump sum, the two kinds of plan on defined benefit vs defined contribution, and the rest on workplace pensions. For a group RRSP, what happens when you leave covers your contributions and your employer’s.

How long do you have to complain or sue?

An employment standards complaint about money owed has a deadline that differs by law, counted from your last day of work or of a temporary layoff in B.C., from the last day your employer had to pay you under the federal Code, and from the violation in Ontario. In B.C. it’s 6 months after your last day of work or temporary layoff, and in Ontario generally 2 years from the violation. Employment standards complaint deadlines lists them by jurisdiction.

A complaint about the dismissal itself runs on another clock: a federally regulated worker who qualifies has 90 days from the dismissal to file an unjust dismissal complaint. At least 12 consecutive months with the same employer is one of the Code’s conditions, and the others, such as not being a manager, are under unjust dismissal. In Quebec, a worker with at least 2 years with the same employer has 45 days from the dismissal to file a complaint concerning dismissal without just and sufficient cause with the CNESST.

Going to court for wrongful dismissal is a separate route, and the federal page says a Canada Labour Code complaint doesn’t stop you from filing a civil action. Your three options compares the routes.

How do you cover the bills until money comes in?

• A budget on less income: budgeting.
• Overdue bills: what to do when you can’t pay your bills.
• Debts and loans: debt guides.
• Help besides EI: financial help for low-income Canadians.
• Tax: tax on severance, repaying EI at tax time and the tax guides.
• Payment insurance: if you have credit card balance, mortgage payment protection or loan insurance, FCAC notes “You can file a claim with your insurer to cover your payments temporarily”, job loss being one of the cases.

Related pages

• Notice and termination pay by province
• Severance pay in Canada and the termination and severance pay calculator
• Cut hours and temporary layoffs
• Wrongful dismissal
• My employer won’t give me an ROE
• My employer hasn’t paid me
• How to apply for EI
• Continuing benefits after leaving a job
• Workplace rights in Canada