Ontario Statutory Holidays 2026: Civic Holiday and Boxing Day

The ordinary Ontario calculator excludes the nine 2026 public holidays in the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA). It counts Civic Holiday, Remembrance Day, Easter Monday and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation as working days.

That is an employment-standards calendar, not a list of every day an office or workplace may close. The source that governs the period may use a different calendar. Sources checked 3 August 2026.

The nine dates excluded in ordinary Ontario mode

Public holiday	2026 date
New Year's Day	Thursday 1 January
Family Day	Monday 16 February
Good Friday	Friday 3 April
Victoria Day	Monday 18 May
Canada Day	Wednesday 1 July
Labour Day	Monday 7 September
Thanksgiving Day	Monday 12 October
Christmas Day	Friday 25 December
Boxing Day	Saturday 26 December

This is the complete ESA list. A different Ontario statute, court rule, collective agreement or employer calendar may use additional dates for its own purpose.

Civic Holiday shows why the calendar matters

Ontario municipalities use names including Civic Holiday, Simcoe Day and Colonel By Day for the first Monday in August. Many offices close, but the date is not one of the ESA's nine public holidays.

The calculation below shows the effect. Start on Friday 31 July 2026, exclude the start date and count one Ontario working day:

Saturday 1 August: weekend
Sunday 2 August: weekend
Monday 3 August: day 1

The result is Monday 3 August 2026. Ordinary Ontario mode counts Civic Holiday because it is not on the ESA list. A workplace closure needs to be accounted for separately if it applies to the period being calculated.

Boxing Day does not create a universal Monday closure

Boxing Day falls on Saturday 26 December 2026. For an employee whose Saturday is not ordinarily a working day, section 29 of the ESA provides a substitute working day off with public holiday pay. With electronic or written agreement, public holiday pay can be provided without a substitute day. The substitute day may be scheduled up to three months after Boxing Day, or up to twelve months after it with electronic or written agreement.

The ESA therefore does not make Monday 28 December a substitute holiday for every Ontario calculation. Ordinary mode records Boxing Day on Saturday 26 December and counts Monday 28 December.

That produces the following result when counting three Ontario working days after Thursday 24 December 2026:

Date	Treatment
Friday 25 December	Christmas Day excluded
Saturday 26 December	Weekend and Boxing Day
Sunday 27 December	Weekend
Monday 28 December	Day 1
Tuesday 29 December	Day 2
Wednesday 30 December	Day 3

The calculator result is Wednesday 30 December 2026. Open the Ontario Boxing Day example.

If an organization has fixed Monday 28 December as its substitute day, include that closure in the calendar used for the calculation. Court registry closures belong to the applicable court profile, not the ESA list.

Other familiar dates are still working days in ordinary mode

Date	2026 date	In ordinary Ontario mode
Easter Monday	Monday 6 April	Counted
Civic Holiday	Monday 3 August	Counted
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation	Wednesday 30 September	Counted
Remembrance Day	Wednesday 11 November	Counted

The table describes Ontario's ordinary ESA calendar. Ontario's Legislation Act, 2006 and court rules use broader holiday definitions for some legal calculations. Use Court Rules Mode for those periods, rather than ordinary Ontario mode.

For a calculation, first identify the rule, agreement or workplace calendar that sets the excluded days. Then select the matching calendar in the tool. For a national comparison, see 2026 Canadian Statutory Holidays. For provincial comparisons, see Provincial Holiday Differences in Canada.