Here Are The Remaining Stat Holidays In Ontario & How To Optimize Your Time Off With Them
Get out and enjoy your vacation time!
People downtown in Toronto. Right: Person in a canoe.
Ontario has nine statutory holidays throughout 2023, and only five are left for the rest of the year, which means you have a few more opportunities to optimize these days with your paid time off to get the perfect four-day weekends or extended holidays, without burning through your PTO.
Ontario has plenty of dreamy weekend getaways to enjoy, from a quick trip up to wine country — where you can sip endless glasses of chardonnay under the sun — or a quaint cottage up north where you can disconnect from the hustle and bustle and plug in with nature.
But considering the minimum vacation time required for full-time workers in Ontario is only two weeks, it can be hard to find the time to enjoy all the gorgeous weekend trips Ontario has to offer, but this is where using your stat holiday to your advantage comes into play.
If you take off the work day before and after a stat holiday, you can take a vacation using way less of your paid time off.
For example, if the holiday falls on a Monday, taking a Friday or Tuesday off will give you a four-day vacation for the cost of one paid day off.
Here are the five stat holidays left in 2023:
- July 1, Saturday, Canada Day
- September 4, Monday, Labour Day
- October 9, Monday, Thanksgiving
- December 25, Monday, Christmas Day
- December 26, Tuesday, Boxing Day
The next upcoming stat holiday is Canada Day on Saturday, July 1, and public workers will have the day off, and since it does fall on the weekend, some workplaces may give their employees the following Monday off.
If you happen to be so lucky, you can take Friday, June 30, off and score a four-day vacation for the cost of one paid day off.
The next statutory holiday in Ontario will be Labour Day, September 4, Monday, and this weekend will be your last chance to take an extended weekend vacation while saving your days off this summer.
Since the holiday falls on a Monday, you can use your paid time off to take September 1 and September 5 off to get a five-day vacation while only using two of your paid days off.
Although Ontario does have a Civic holiday on August 7, so depending on your employer, you may also get to take this day off.
Otherwise, you'll have to wait until Thanksgiving to try this hack out again.