Why is the court holiday list different from the statutory holiday list?

Because they are written in different instruments for different purposes. A court holiday list decides when time is computed under the rules of civil procedure. An employment-standards list decides when an employee is entitled to a paid day off. Neither was drafted with reference to the other, and there is no reason they would contain the same days.

What happens if a deadline is counted off the wrong holiday list?

It goes wrong twice, in the same direction. Counting business days off a list that is missing court holidays treats those days as working days, so the count runs out too early. And a rule that moves a period ending on a holiday to the next day that is not one has already moved a deadline the shorter list says lands on a working day. Neither error announces itself.

Is 26 December a court holiday in the Federal Courts?

No, although the registries do close. The words do not appear in the Federal Courts Rules or in the definition at s. 35(1) of the Interpretation Act that those Rules adopt, so 26 December is not a day that comes out of a federal computation of time. Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta each name it in their own instrument, which is why it appears on those four lists on this site and not on the federal one.

Court holidays

Court holidays are not statutory holidays

The two lists are written in different instruments for different purposes, and they do not contain the same days. A deadline counted on the wrong one is wrong by a day or more, in the direction that costs you.

The Ontario case

Ontario’s court holidays are the twelve days named in r. 1.03(1) of the Rules of Civil Procedure. Its employment-standards holidays are a separate list of nine, serving a separate purpose. The court list contains all nine and three more: Easter Monday, the Civic Holiday and Remembrance Day. Ontario’s own guide to the Act says so in as many words, noting that an employer who gives a holiday on Easter Monday, the first Monday in August or Remembrance Day is not required by the Act to do it. Both instruments are linked at the foot of this page.

Three extra holidays is enough to produce a wrong date twice over. Counting business days off the shorter list treats those days as working days, so the count runs out too early. Worse, r. 3.01(1)(c) moves a period that ends on a holiday to the next day that is not one, so a deadline that appears to land on Remembrance Day has in fact already moved. Neither error announces itself.

The rule also counts every Saturday and Sunday as a holiday, and any special day proclaimed by the Governor General or the Lieutenant Governor, which no published list can anticipate.

What each list on this site adds and drops

Computed against the federal list for 2026. This compares one court list with another, not with any jurisdiction’s employment-standards holidays.

Ontario

Adds Boxing Day, Civic Holiday, Family Day.

Does not include National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

Quebec

Adds 2 January, Boxing Day, National Patriots' Day, Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day.

Does not include National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Remembrance Day, Victoria Day.

British Columbia

Adds Boxing Day, British Columbia Day, Family Day.

Alberta

Adds Boxing Day, Family Day.

Does not include National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

Which list a deadline runs on

The one the rule you are working to points at, which is usually the court’s own. Then the courthouse itself: a local closure or a day proclaimed after any list was published binds you regardless of what the list says. Where a period is counted in business days rather than calendar days, the holidays come out of the count as well as off the end of it, and those are two different operations that a general holiday list will not do for you.

A shut office is not the same as a holiday

These are two questions, and they have different answers. A holiday is a day the rule takes out of the arithmetic. A closure is a day nobody is there. Most of the time they coincide, and where they do not, only one of them changes your date.

Federally, 26 December is the clean example. The Courts Administration Service lists it among the days the registries shut, and they do. But the words do not appear in the Federal Courts Rules or in the Interpretation Act definition the Rules adopt, so it is not a day that comes out of a computation. The lists on this site answer the computation question, which is why Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta all carry 26 December and the federal list does not. Each of those four instruments names it. The federal one does not.

Going the other way, rule 6(3) takes every day of the seasonal recess out of the computation of time for filing, amending, transmitting or serving a document, and rule 2 defines that recess as 21 December to 7 January. Eighteen consecutive days that no list of individual holidays can show you. Read its words closely, though: it reaches the time for filing, amending, transmitting and serving, and says nothing about a period fixed by a statute. A limitation period is fixed by a statute, so do not assume the recess extends one.

The year-end is where every divergence described on this page lands at once, and it has one of its own: court deadlines over Christmas and the New Year, day by day across all five jurisdictions.

Questions this page answers

Why is the court holiday list different from the statutory holiday list?: Because they are written in different instruments for different purposes. A court holiday list decides when time is computed under the rules of civil procedure. An employment-standards list decides when an employee is entitled to a paid day off. Neither was drafted with reference to the other, and there is no reason they would contain the same days.
What happens if a deadline is counted off the wrong holiday list?: It goes wrong twice, in the same direction. Counting business days off a list that is missing court holidays treats those days as working days, so the count runs out too early. And a rule that moves a period ending on a holiday to the next day that is not one has already moved a deadline the shorter list says lands on a working day. Neither error announces itself.
Is 26 December a court holiday in the Federal Courts?: No, although the registries do close. The words do not appear in the Federal Courts Rules or in the definition at s. 35(1) of the Interpretation Act that those Rules adopt, so 26 December is not a day that comes out of a federal computation of time. Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta each name it in their own instrument, which is why it appears on those four lists on this site and not on the federal one.
Does the Federal Courts' seasonal recess extend a limitation period?: Do not assume it does. Rule 6(3) takes every day of the recess -- 21 December to 7 January, as rule 2 defines it -- out of the computation of time for filing, amending, transmitting or serving a document. Read its words closely: it reaches those things and says nothing about a period fixed by a statute. A limitation period is fixed by a statute.

Where this list comes from

Every instrument below was opened and the provision quoted from it read on 12 August 2026. Anything amended since that date is not reflected here, and the dates are generated from a table in this site's source code rather than read live from the statute.

Federal Courts Rules, SOR/98-106, rule 2Defines holiday as a Saturday, a holiday under s. 35(1) of the Interpretation Act, the Monday after a weekend New Year's Day, Canada Day or Remembrance Day, the Monday and Tuesday after a weekend Christmas, and the Monday after a Friday Christmas. Also defines the seasonal recess as 21 December to 7 January.
Federal Courts Rules, SOR/98-106, rule 6Computation of time. Rule 6(2) takes holidays out of a period of less than seven days; rule 6(3) takes every day of the seasonal recess out of the time for filing, amending, transmitting or serving a document.
Interpretation Act, RSC 1985, c I-21, s. 35(1)The list rule 2 adopts: Sunday, New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Christmas Day, the Sovereign's birthday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, Labour Day, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Remembrance Day, and any day proclaimed for general prayer, mourning, rejoicing or thanksgiving.
Courts Administration Service, registry holidaysThe days the registries are shut, which is a different list and is why 26 December is absent above. It closes on 26 December and on the Civic Holiday in most provinces; rule 2 names neither.
Rules of Civil Procedure, RRO 1990, Reg 194, r. 1.03(1)Defines holiday as any Saturday or Sunday, New Year's Day, Family Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, the Civic Holiday, Labour Day, Thanksgiving Day, Remembrance Day, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and any special holiday proclaimed by the Governor General or the Lieutenant Governor, with the Monday substitution for a weekend New Year's Day, Canada Day or Remembrance Day and the Monday and Tuesday after a weekend Christmas.
Rules of Civil Procedure, RRO 1990, Reg 194, r. 3.01Computation of time. Holidays are not counted where a period of seven days or less is prescribed, and a period ending on a holiday runs to the next day that is not one.
Your guide to the Employment Standards Act: public holidays (Ontario)The nine employment-standards holidays, and the statement that an employer giving a holiday on Easter Monday, the first Monday in August or Remembrance Day is not required by the Act to do it. This is the list r. 1.03(1) is not.
Code of Civil Procedure, CQLR c C-25.01, art. 82The courts do not sit on Saturdays or on holidays within the meaning of s. 61 of the Interpretation Act, nor on 26 December or 2 January, which that article makes holidays for civil procedure.
Interpretation Act, CQLR c I-16, s. 61(23)The holidays art. 82 adopts: Sundays, 1 January, Good Friday, Easter Monday, 24 June, 1 July or 2 July when 1 July is a Sunday, Labour Day, the second Monday of October, 25 December, the day proclaimed for the Sovereign's birthday, and any other proclaimed public holiday or day of thanksgiving. Paragraph (f) is the only substitution in the list.
Interpretation Act, RSBC 1996, c 238, s. 29The definition of holiday, in the general list of expressions defined. Note that Saturday is not in it, and that no paragraph grants a substitute day.
Supreme Court Civil Rules, BC Reg 168/2009Cited for what it does not say. The Rules use the word holiday but Rule 1-1 defines no list of their own, so s. 29 governs. They do separately define a business day as a day the registries are open, which is a different question again.
Interpretation Act, RSA 2000, c I-8, s. 28(1)(x)The definition of holiday. Sub-paragraph (iv) is the one that catches people out: 26 December, or when that date falls on a Sunday or a Monday, then 27 December. The day moves; it is not doubled.
Interpretation Act, RSA 2000, c I-8, s. 22(1)Computation of time: where the time limited by an enactment for doing a thing expires or falls on a holiday, the thing may be done on the next day that is not one.
Alberta Rules of Court, Alta Reg 124/2010Cited for what it does not say. The word holiday does not appear anywhere in the consolidated Rules, which is why the Interpretation Act definition is the operative one.

The table cannot know about a day proclaimed after it was written, a closure at your own courthouse, or an amendment to the underlying rules. Confirm any date that a limitation period or a filing deadline depends on.

This page is published for general information. It is not legal advice, it does not create a solicitor-client relationship, and no retainer arises from reading it. To the fullest extent the law allows, Yehuda Levy accepts no liability for any loss arising from reliance on it. You are responsible for verifying every date against the rules and the court in question.

Counting it properly

The deadline calculator takes a triggering date and an offset and counts around the jurisdiction’s holidays, telling you which holiday moved a date and why. Freeboard runs the same calculation inside the matter, keeps each firm’s own list, and locks the result so a limitation date cannot be changed quietly afterwards.

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