‘My job is to provide health care to Islanders. My job is not to fill out forms for employers,' says doctor
Prince Edward Island’s policy around sick notes is making headlines, as doctors and labour experts call for limits on employers’ ability to demand medical notes for short‑term illness.
Emergency physician Kay Dingwell of Prince County Hospital in Summerside told CBC that every shift now includes patients who wait hours in the emergency department solely to obtain a sick note for work, rather than medical treatment. She said that has become a routine part of her workload despite having little to do with direct patient care.
“That person has been sitting beside chemo patients, newborn babies and frail elderly people in my waiting room for 12 hours because they know that they don’t actually require medical care, but just need someone to say this person is sick and shouldn’t go to work,” Dingwell said in an interview with CBC. “It’s common sense. It shouldn’t require me.”
Under Prince Edward Island’s current Employment Standards Act, employers may require a note from a medical practitioner after three consecutive days of absence. Dingwell said that rule is frustrating for health‑care workers and patients, and may lead some employees to give up and go to work sick, exposing colleagues and vulnerable people to illness.
“My job is to provide health care to Islanders. My job is not to fill out forms for employers,” she told CBC. “This is public dollars being put into policing employee attendance.”
Competing proposals to change P.E.I.’s sick‑leave rules
The Green Party of P.E.I. has introduced a bill that would remove the section of the Employment Standards Act allowing employers to demand sick notes after three consecutive absences. Dingwell appeared in the provincial legislature with Green Leader Matt MacFarlane to advocate for eliminating the requirement, CBC reported.
Separately, a new Employment Standards Act backed by the provincial government was passed in fall 2024 but has not yet been proclaimed into law. That legislation would raise the threshold for notes from three days to five and allow documentation from other regulated professionals, such as pharmacists and physiotherapists, with the stated aim of reducing pressure on emergency rooms. Workforce Minister Zack Bell has said he expects the updated law to be proclaimed this summer, according to the publication.
Dingwell said any model that still obliges workers to attend a health‑care setting solely for documentation misses the point. “It’s still going to require them to present to health‑care settings to make a request. That’s not the job of the health‑care system,” she told CBC.
National trend away from routine notes
Labour law expert Liam McHugh‑Russell, an associate professor at Dalhousie University’s Schulich School of Law and the Innis Christie chair in labour and employment law, said P.E.I. may be lagging a broader shift away from routine sick notes. “There’s been a real trend across the country over the last five years to really push back against this practice of requiring sick notes for short‑term absences,” he told CBC.
Since December 2022, federally regulated employers have been permitted to request a medical certificate only after an employee has taken five or more consecutive days of sick leave. Nova Scotia adopted similar rules in 2023, Ontario followed in 2024, and Quebec also limits when employers can demand documentation.
He said the traditional rationale for sick notes is concern about “malingering and employees not being honest,” but described the practice as a form of workplace surveillance. “There’s just a limit to the degree to which we can discipline, control, survey and… spy on employees,” he told CBC. “Eventually, employers just have to trust that their employees are… doing what they say that they’re doing, and that if they say that they’re sick, that they’re actually sick.”
Sick note rules in Canada have shifted dramatically over the past two years. Most jurisdictions now restrict or prohibit employers from demanding doctors' notes for short absences, and Manitoba — long an outlier — tabled Bill 11 in March 2026 to join the trend. Below is a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction breakdown, as of May 2026:
|
Jurisdiction |
Sick Leave Entitlement |
Rule on Sick Notes / Medical Certificates |
Key Legislation |
Government Source |
|
Federal (Canada Labour Code – federally regulated workplaces: banking, telecoms, airlines, rail, interprovincial transport, etc.) |
Up to 10 days of paid medical leave per year, accrued after a 30‑day qualifying period, plus up to 27 weeks of unpaid medical leave. |
Employers may require a medical certificate only if the medical leave (paid or unpaid) is 5 days or longer, and the written request must be made within 15 days of return to work. |
Canada Labour Code, Part III, s. 239; Canada Labour Standards Regulations |
canada.ca – Types of leaves; IPG‑118 Medical Leave with Pay; Canada Labour Code s. 239 |
|
5 paid + 3 unpaid days per calendar year after 90 days of employment; new 27‑week unpaid serious illness/injury leave (Bill 30) effective Nov. 27, 2025. |
Effective Nov. 12, 2025, an employer cannot require, and an employee need not provide, a note from a doctor, nurse practitioner, psychologist, counsellor, or therapist unless the leave lasts more than 5 days or the employee has already taken at least 2 health‑related leaves in the same calendar year. Employers may still request “reasonably sufficient proof” (e.g., pharmacy receipt). |
Employment Standards Act, ss. 49.1 & 49.2; Employment Standards Regulation (Bill 11, 2025) |
gov.bc.ca – Illness or Injury Leave (s. 49.1); gov.bc.ca – Paid sick leave; News release Nov. 28, 2025 |
|
|
Alberta |
Up to 5 unpaid days of personal and family responsibility leave per calendar year (after 90 days); long‑term illness/injury leave expanded to 27 weeks effective Jan. 1, 2026 (previously 16 weeks). |
No statutory ban on sick notes. For personal and family responsibility leave, a medical certificate is not required by legislation, although employers can set their own documentation policies. For long‑term illness leave, an employee must provide a medical certificate stating the estimated duration of the leave, which may be issued by a nurse practitioner or physician. |
Employment Standards Code, Part 2, Divisions 7.5 & 7.6 |
alberta.ca – Long‑term illness and injury leave; alberta.ca – Personal and family responsibility leave |
|
Up to 12 days unpaid sick leave per year (after 13 weeks’ service); long‑term illness/injury leave increased to 27 weeks effective Jan. 1, 2026. |
Effective Jan. 1, 2026, employers are prohibited from requesting a medical certificate unless the employee has been away for more than 5 consecutive working days, or has had two non‑consecutive absences of 2 or more working days due to sickness or injury in the preceding 12 months. |
The Saskatchewan Employment Act; Saskatchewan Employment Amendment Act, 2024 (Bill 5) |
saskatchewan.ca – Sick Leave |
|
|
Up to 3 unpaid days per year for personal illness/family responsibility (after 30 days); long‑term leave for serious injury/illness up to 27 weeks. |
Currently no statutory restriction. Bill 11, tabled March 5, 2026, would prohibit a sick note unless the absence continues for more than 7 consecutive days, or there is a noticeable pattern of absences. The Bill would also require employers to reimburse the employee for any reasonable cost of obtaining the note. |
The Employment Standards Code; Bill 11 (proposed, 2026) |
gov.mb.ca – Long‑Term Leave for Serious Injury or Illness; Bill 11 text |
|
|
3 days of unpaid job‑protected sick leave per calendar year (after 2 weeks’ service). |
Effective Oct. 28, 2024, employers cannot require employees to provide a certificate from a qualified health practitioner (a medical note) to take a sick leave under the ESA. A “qualified health practitioner” is a physician, registered nurse, or psychologist. Employers may still ask for “evidence reasonable in the circumstances.” |
Employment Standards Act, 2000, s. 50 (sick leave); Working for Workers Five Act, 2024 |
ontario.ca – Sick leave (ESA Guide) |
|
|
After 3 months of employment, an employee is entitled to 2 days of paid sick leave per calendar year, plus additional unpaid leave under the Act respecting labour standards. |
Effective Jan. 1, 2025 (Bill 68): employers cannot require any document attesting to reasons for absence — including a medical certificate — for the first 3 short‑term absences (each of 3 consecutive days or less) within a rolling 12‑month period for illness, accident, organ/tissue donation, domestic/sexual violence, or a criminal offence. Documentation is barred for family‑caregiver absences regardless of length. |
Act respecting labour standards, ss. 79.1, 79.2; Bill 68, An Act mainly to reduce the administrative burden of physicians |
CNESST – Absences for illness |
|
|
New Brunswick |
Up to 5 unpaid sick days per 12‑month period (after 90 days of employment). |
An employer may request a medical certificate only when an employee takes sick leave of 4 or more consecutive days. For shorter absences, employers may seek other reasonable evidence of entitlement. |
Employment Standards Act, s. 44.02 |
gnb.ca – Employment Standards: Sick Leave |
|
Up to 3 unpaid days per year for sickness or family obligations (after 30 days). |
Effective July 1, 2023: employers cannot request a sick note unless the employee is absent for more than 5 working days or has already had 2 absences of 5 or fewer working days in the previous 12‑month period. The note may come from a broader group of qualified health professionals (nurses, dentists, pharmacists, physiotherapists, social workers, etc.). |
Medical Certificates for Employee Absences Act (part of the Patient Access to Care Act) |
novascotia.ca – Labour Standards: Sick Leave |
|
|
Prince Edward Island |
After Oct. 1, 2024: up to 3 paid sick days per year (phased by length of service) plus unpaid leave under the ESA. |
Amendments effective Oct. 1, 2024 confirmed that an employer may require a medical certificate when an employee takes 3 consecutive days of sick leave. |
Employment Standards Act; Bill 106 (2024) |
princeedwardisland.ca – Employment Standards: Sick Leave |
|
Up to 7 unpaid sick days per year under the Labour Standards Act. |
Effective Dec. 4, 2024: the Labour Standards Act provision requiring a medical/nurse practitioner certificate to substantiate 3 or more consecutive days of statutory sick leave was repealed (Bills 82 and 101). Employers may still set their own policies. New long‑term illness/injury leave retains medical‑certificate requirements. |
Labour Standards Act, RSNL 1990, c. L‑2 (as amended by Bills 82 & 101) |
Government of NL News Release, Dec. 3, 2024; Labour Standards Act consolidation |
|
|
Yukon |
Up to 12 days of unpaid sick leave, earned at 1 day per completed month of employment; cannot be carried over. Separate Paid Sick Leave Rebate program (territorial, up to 40 hours per year, until March 31, 2026). |
An employer may require the employee to submit a certificate from a qualified medical practitioner or nurse practitioner, with no statutory threshold limiting when this can be requested. |
Employment Standards Act, RSY 2002, c. 72, s. 59 |
yukon.ca – Special Leave Fact Sheet; yukon.ca – Paid Sick Leave Rebate |
|
Northwest Territories |
Up to 5 unpaid days per 12‑month period for sick leave or family responsibility leave (after 30 continuous days of employment). |
Employers may request a medical certificate; there is no statutory restriction on when. The Employment Standards Act permits proof of illness/injury to be required as a condition of leave. |
Employment Standards Act, SNWT 2007, c. 13 |
gov.nt.ca – Employment Standards; my.hr.gov.nt.ca – Leave |
|
Nunavut |
Sick leave is generally unpaid under the Labour Standards Act (5 days per year minimum threshold in practice); accumulated paid sick leave applies in the Government of Nunavut public service. |
The Labour Standards Act permits employers to require reasonable verification, with no statutory ban on sick‑note requests. Most employers follow a 3‑day threshold by practice. |
Labour Standards Act, RSNWT (Nu) 1988, c. L‑1 (as adopted by Nunavut) |
Government of Nunavut – Labour Standards; CanLII consolidation of Labour Standards Act |
