Sick Note Rules Changed Across Canada — What HR Teams Need to Know

Sick note rules have shifted significantly across Canada over the past two years. Here’s a summary of the key changes, followed by a province-by-province breakdown.

Key changes at a glance:

1. Multiple provinces now restrict or ban employer-required sick notes for short-term absences.
2. Alberta and Saskatchewan extended job-protected sick leave to 27 weeks, effective January 1, 2026.
3. BC counts each leave type separately under its sick note ban.
4. Ontario allows “evidence reasonable in the circumstances” under the ESA, but not a doctor’s note.
5. Quebec prohibits any document attesting to absence for the first three short-term absences in a rolling 12-month period.

If you work in HR, you already know; nobody gets into this field because they love chasing paperwork. Most HR professionals are motivated to pursue careers in human resources because of their shared passion in making the workplace an engaging experience for everyone.

Having a clear absence policy matters more than ever because both the rules around sick notes in Canada have shifted significantly and the associated costs of mismanagement have increased over the past couple of years. In this article, we’ll take a look at what’s changed province by province so you can understand how your business can remain compliant while still maintaining the records your organization needs.

The good news is your HR team doesn’t have to feel like “sick note police” anymore. You just need a consistent way to document what was communicated and when, and the right system to help you track it.

Province-by-province breakdown of sick notes in Canada

British Columbia

As of November 12, 2025,  BC prohibits employers from requesting a sick note for a worker’s first two health-related absences of five consecutive days or fewer in a calendar year.

Here’s where it gets a bit nuanced: each type of leave is counted separately. If an employee takes four days off for their own illness and then three days for a family member’s illness, the ban applies to both absences (even though the total is seven days) because they fall under different leave types. Employers can request reasonably sufficient proof after two short-term absences, or for any absence longer than five consecutive days.

BC has also introduced a new 27-week long-term medical leave under Bill 30.

The counting rules here are genuinely complex, but this is one of those areas where having a system that tracks leave banks by type can save your team from second-guessing the rules.

Alberta

Effective January 1, 2026, Alberta expanded job-protected long-term illness and injury leave from 16 weeks to 27 weeks per calendar year. Alberta has not introduced a sick note ban for short-term absences. The extension aligns Alberta with most other provinces and the federal EI sickness benefits period.

The basics haven’t changed: employees are eligible after 90 days of continuous employment, a medical certificate is still required to confirm the estimated duration, and employers must reinstate the employee to the same or a comparable role when they return. But tracking intermittent leave across a longer window takes a bit more attention, especially for leaves that started before the change took effect. As well, the extended leave window means your tracking systems need to keep up.

Saskatchewan

Effective January 1, 2026, Saskatchewan employers can no longer request a medical certificate unless the employee has been absent for more than five consecutive working days or has had two non-consecutive absences of two or more working days in the preceding 12 months.

Long-term sick leave has been extended from 12 weeks to 27 weeks, and a new 16-week interpersonal violence leave has been introduced. These significant changes create additional tracking needs and the threshold triggers require careful counting.

If you’re part of an HR team supporting employees through a difficult time, whether it’s an illness or a personal situation, the last thing you want is to get tripped up by a documentation misstep. Having a system that knows the rules helps you focus on the human side.

Ontario

As of October 28, 2024, Ontario employers cannot require a doctor’s note for any of the three Employment Standards Act (ESA)-protected sick days. Employers can request “evidence reasonable in the circumstances” under section 50(6) of the ESA.

What counts as reasonable depends on the situation, including how long the absence is, whether an absence pattern is present, and the cost of the evidence. In practice, that might be a signed statement from the employee confirming they were unwell, rather than a trip to the doctor’s office.

Ontario has also introduced a new long-term illness leave of up to 27 weeks in a 52-week period, effective June 19, 2025. It can be taken in non-consecutive blocks, which can make tracking a bit more complicated. Tracking time off, ensuring you’re compliant, and ensuring payroll is accurate is critical (and Payworks can help).

Quebec

Effective January 1, 2025, Quebec prohibits employers from requiring any document attesting to the reasons for an absence for the first three short-term absences (each of three consecutive days or less) within a rolling 12-month period. That covers absences due to sickness, accident, organ or tissue donation, domestic violence, and more. Non-medical evidence reasonably related to the absence may still be requested, but the bar for what you can ask for is lower than in most other provinces.

For HR teams in Quebec, the key takeaway is that your process needs to track absence counts and rolling windows automatically. No one wants to accidentally ask for documentation they’re not entitled to, especially when you’re just trying to keep things running smoothly for the team.

Atlantic Canada

New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador have all introduced sick note restrictions, with absence thresholds varying from three to five days by province.

Newfoundland and Labrador prohibits sick notes, but let’s employers set other documentation rules. Nova Scotia and PEI restrict medical certificate requests and New Brunswick prohibits doctor’s notes. The absence thresholds that trigger these restrictions vary from three to five days.

For organizations with employees across multiple Atlantic provinces, the variation can be tricky to manage. But the underlying intent is the same everywhere: reduce unnecessary trips to the doctor and build trust between employers and their teams.

Federal

Under the Canada Labour Code, federally regulated employers cannot request a sick note until an employee has been absent for more than five consecutive working days.

The federal extension of EI sickness benefits to 26 weeks has been the benchmark driving most provincial alignment, including BC, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nova Scotia now provide corresponding job-protected leave; and Alberta and Saskatchewan joined them effective January 1, 2026.

What’s the overall direction for sick note rules in Canada?

The direction across Canada is clear: legislators are scaling back sick note requirements for short-term absences and extending leave protections for longer-term illness and injury leaves. The intent behind these changes is positive, keeping people out of the doctor’s office when they don’t need to be there, and helping build a culture of trust between employers and employees.

Building and maintaining trust between employers and employees doesn’t mean you stop tracking, but rather that your process needs to be fair, consistent, and easy to follow for everyone. You need to know which rules apply in which province, when you can (and can’t) ask for documentation, and how to track leave balances across rolling windows and intermittent periods.

Managing all of this on spreadsheets can be error-prone, especially when you’re tracking rolling windows and intermittent leave across multiple provinces. Most HR teams would rather focus on supporting their staff than on administrative tracking.

How Payworks Absence Management helps with provincial compliance

When sick note rules differ this much from one province to the next, the real risk isn’t that someone takes a sick day. It’s that your process can’t keep up with the legislation. That’s where Payworks Absence Management comes in. Tailor-made for Canadian businesses, it’s designed to take the guesswork out of tracking time away.

Here’s how it helps with the specific challenges these legislative changes create:

Single source of truth: Approved time off requests automatically flow through to Payroll and Time Management, with no rekeying necessary. When an employee’s absence is approved, it’s reflected across the board, which matters when you’re tracking leave balances against provincial thresholds.

Configurability: With configurable settings, unlimited time off types, and company default presets, you can set up your absence categories to match your province’s definitions, whether that’s Ontario’s three-day ESA sick leave, BC’s per-leave-type counting, Saskatchewan’s new interpersonal violence leave, or Quebec’s rolling 12-month absence windows.

Built-in analytics: Turn leave and entitlement data into easy-to-understand insights, helping you plan coverage, manage costs, and support employee wellbeing. When you can see absence trends clearly, you can have better conversations with your team and make better decisions about staffing and coverage.

Simple approval system: Managers are notified of employee requests and can approve or edit from any web-enabled device. No emails back and forth, and no sticky notes on the bulletin board.

Self Service for everyone: Through 24/7 access to Self Service, employees can request time off and view their accrual balances on their own. Managers can see who’s away, check the shared calendar, and approve requests from anywhere. It’s a win-win: your team gets autonomy, and you get visibility.

Shared calendar: Team members have real-time visibility to their colleagues’ time away, which reduces scheduling conflicts and helps everyone plan around absences without HR having to play referee.

Document retention: Whether through employee self-disclosure (for example, absence duration and relevant details), long-term illness, or workplace accommodation, you can deploy secure forms for employees to complete and sign confidentially. Supporting files can be stored in restricted, access-controlled folders, ensuring privacy and limiting visibility to only those with a legitimate need.

And because Absence Management is built on the same database as Payworks Payroll, HR, and Time Management, everything is connected. This means no duplicate data entry or reconciliation headaches, just one system that works together.

When the administrative side is handled by the system, your HR team can focus their energy where it matters most: being there for your people and supporting them with strategic, data-driven insights from emerging costs and patterns while reducing risk and liability.

Frequently asked questions

Can my employer still ask for a sick note in Ontario?

No. As of October 28, 2024, Ontario employers cannot require a doctor's note for the three ESA sick days. Employers can request "evidence reasonable in the circumstances" under section 50(6) of the ESA, but that cannot include a certificate from a qualified health practitioner.

How many weeks of sick leave are employees entitled to in Alberta?

As of January 1, 2026, Alberta employees are entitled to up to 27 weeks of job-protected long-term illness and injury leave per calendar year, up from 16 weeks previously. Employees are eligible after 90 days of continuous employment.

What does Quebec's sick note ban actually restrict?

Effective January 1, 2025, Quebec employers cannot require any document attesting to the reasons for an absence for the first three short-term absences (each of three consecutive days or less) within a rolling 12-month period.

How does BC count sick note exemptions?

BC counts each leave type separately. Employers cannot request a sick note for the first two health-related absences of five consecutive days or fewer in a calendar year. An absence for the employee's own illness and an absence for a family member's illness are counted as separate absences. After two short-term absences, or for any absence longer than five consecutive days, employers may request "reasonably sufficient proof" under section 49.1 of the ESA.

Can Payworks Absence Management help track sick leave by province?

Yes. Payworks Absence Management is configurable with unlimited time off types and company default presets, so you can set up absence categories to match each province's definitions. Approved time off requests automatically flow through to Payroll and Time Management with no rekeying.

Ready to learn more?

Curious what better absence management looks like in action (and how much time you could reclaim in your day-to-day)? Here's how to get started: https://www.payworks.ca/landing-pages/product/absence-management.