How Long Can Stress Leave Last in Canada? EI, STD and Employer Limits Explained
A stress leave in Canada has no single end date. The clock that actually controls it depends on who is paying for the time off: a province's employment standards act caps unpaid, job-protected leave at anywhere from three days to several months; Employment Insurance sickness benefits now pay for up to 26 weeks, a limit raised from 15 weeks in December 2022; and an employer's short-term disability plan typically runs 15 to 26 weeks before a claim moves to long-term disability. Employees who assume one number applies across the board often return to work earlier than they need to, or stop filing paperwork before their income support has actually run out.
What Qualifies as Stress Leave
Stress leave is not its own legal category in Canada. It is sick leave caused by a mental health condition, such as burnout, an anxiety disorder, depression, or an acute stress reaction, diagnosed and documented the same way a physical illness would be. A physician or nurse practitioner has to confirm that the condition prevents the employee from working and give an expected duration. Employers, insurers, and Service Canada all treat that diagnosis the way they would treat a broken leg or a post-surgical recovery: the medical finding decides eligibility, not how the time off is described. A single bad week at work does not qualify; a diagnosed condition that a clinician says makes work unsafe or impossible does.
A family doctor, psychiatrist, or nurse practitioner is typically the one who makes that call, and the note they write does not need to spell out the diagnosis to the employer. It only needs to state that the employee is medically unable to work and for roughly how long. Ordinary workplace frustration, a disagreement with a manager, or a demanding week does not meet that bar on its own; what triggers eligibility is a clinician documenting that the condition is currently preventing the person from doing their job.
How Long Can Stress Leave Last in Canada, Exactly?
So how long can stress leave last in Canada? There is no single number, because up to three separate systems can be running at the same time, each on its own clock:
Job protection — the minimum period during which an employer cannot terminate someone for being on leave, set by provincial or federal employment standards legislation.
Income replacement — usually Employment Insurance sickness benefits while the employee is off work and not covered by an employer plan.
Disability insurance — short-term and then long-term disability coverage through an employer's plan, where one exists.
A leave can continue past the point where any one of these ends; it just means a different source, or none, is paying for it from that point on. The sections below cover each clock separately, because mixing them up is where most of the confusion about how long a stress leave can run actually comes from.
Unpaid, Job-Protected Leave by Province
Ontario — The Employment Standards Act, 2000 gives most employees three unpaid, job-protected sick days a year, and an employer cannot require a doctor's note to cover those three days specifically. For a longer mental health absence, the ESA's separate unpaid Long-Term Illness Leave applies, protecting the job for a much longer stretch while the employee is medically unable to work.
Alberta — The Employment Standards Code provides up to five unpaid, job-protected personal and family responsibility days a year, available once an employee has worked for the same employer for at least 90 days. A stress leave that runs past those five days is generally carried by EI sickness benefits or an employer's own disability plan, rather than by a fixed number of additional days under the Code.
British Columbia — The Employment Standards Act gives employees who have worked at least 90 days five paid and three unpaid days for illness or injury each calendar year. Beyond those eight days, the same pattern applies: EI sickness benefits or short-term disability coverage takes over as the source of both income and ongoing job protection.
Federally regulated employers — banking, telecommunications, interprovincial transport, and similar industries fall under the Canada Labour Code, which allows up to 17 weeks of unpaid medical leave of absence, in addition to up to 10 paid medical leave days a year once an employee has accumulated them under the Code's accrual rules.
EI Sickness Benefits: Up to 26 Weeks of Income Support
Employment Insurance sickness benefits are the main source of income once employer-paid sick days are used up, and they apply the same way regardless of province. Service Canada pays up to 26 weeks of benefits at 55% of average insurable weekly earnings, up to a maximum set each year (a limit raised from 15 weeks in December 2022, so any source still citing a 15-week cap is out of date). Eligibility requires at least 600 hours of insurable employment in the qualifying period, and there is typically a one-week unpaid waiting period before payments begin. To get paid at all, the claim needs a medical certificate stating that the employee cannot work because of their condition and giving an expected return date. Our standard medical forms service covers that exact EI documentation, including the INS5140 certificate Service Canada requires with the claim.
Short-Term Disability: How Employer Plans Usually Run
Where an employer offers short-term disability (STD) coverage, it typically replaces a higher percentage of income than EI does, for a defined period that commonly runs 15 to 26 weeks, after a short elimination period during which no benefit is paid. Once that period ends, the employee either returns to work or the claim moves to a separate long-term disability review. Insurers almost always require updated medical certification partway through an STD claim, not only at the start, to confirm the leave is still medically necessary. Because those follow-up notes have to match the insurer's own form and timeline rather than a generic template, ongoing stress-leave paperwork is usually handled as custom medical documentation rather than a single one-time note.
A Typical Stress Leave Timeline
The weeks tend to fall into a predictable pattern, even though the exact lengths vary by employer and province:
Week 1 — the initial medical note is written, the employee stops work, and any employer-paid sick days or the EI one-week waiting period are used up first.
Weeks 2 to roughly 15 — short-term disability pays out if the employer offers it; otherwise EI sickness benefits take over at 55% of average insurable earnings.
Around week 15 to 26 — EI sickness benefits continue up to their 26-week maximum. An STD plan that runs shorter than 26 weeks typically hands off to long-term disability before EI runs out.
After week 26, or after STD ends — the claim either closes because the employee has returned to work, or it moves to a long-term disability review with its own separate medical requirements.
None of these stages renew automatically. Each one needs its own piece of documentation submitted on time, which is why claims stall far more often from a missed form than from a medical setback.
What Happens When Stress Leave Runs Out
Running out of EI weeks or STD coverage does not automatically end job protection, and it does not automatically mean a person is fit to return either. Three outcomes are common: the employee returns to work, sometimes on a graduated schedule with reduced hours for the first few weeks; the claim is approved for long-term disability, which comes with its own separate medical review; or the employee and employer agree to an extended unpaid leave outside any formal program. Whichever applies, returning to work after a stress leave usually requires a note confirming the employee is fit to resume duties, with or without temporary restrictions. That is a routine request our sick leave notes service also covers on the return-to-work side, not only at the start of the leave.
Getting the Documentation Stress Leave Actually Requires
An initial note from a physician or nurse practitioner — stating that a medical condition prevents the employee from working and giving an expected duration. This is what starts the leave and supports the first EI or STD application.
The EI medical certificate (INS5140) — the specific form Service Canada requires to pay sickness benefits. It has to be submitted with the claim itself, not just kept on file in case it's asked for.
Any renewal or extension notes the insurer or Service Canada requests — most claims longer than a few weeks need at least one follow-up certificate confirming the leave is still medically necessary before payments continue.
A return-to-work or fitness note — confirming the employee can resume duties, with any temporary restrictions noted, once the leave ends.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long can stress leave last in Canada without pay?
Unpaid, job-protected stress leave can run anywhere from three days under Ontario's basic sick leave provision to several months under a longer illness-leave provision, depending on the province. Pay, separately, usually comes from EI sickness benefits (up to 26 weeks) or an employer's disability plan, not from the unpaid leave provision itself.
Does my employer have to hold my job during stress leave?
Yes, for the period covered by the applicable employment standards leave. Job protection and income replacement are two different guarantees, so an employee can be protected from termination while relying on EI or STD for income during the same period.
Can my employer deny stress leave if I have a doctor's note?
An employer generally cannot refuse a leave that is properly documented and falls within what the applicable employment standards act or the employee's own illness covers. They can ask for reasonable supporting documentation, but not for a note that discloses the specific diagnosis.
What happens if I need more than 26 weeks?
Once EI sickness benefits are exhausted, the usual next step is a long-term disability claim through an employer's insurer, which runs its own medical review and approval process separate from EI.
Do I need a new doctor's note every few weeks?
Usually yes for longer claims. Insurers and Service Canada both expect periodic medical certification confirming the leave is still necessary, not a single note submitted at the start and never updated.
Is stress leave the same as short-term disability?
No. Stress leave is the time off work; short-term disability is one possible source of income during that time. An employee can be on stress leave without any STD coverage at all, relying on EI or personal savings instead.
What if my employer doesn't offer short-term disability at all?
EI sickness benefits are still available as long as the employee has the required insurable hours, regardless of whether the employer has a disability plan. Without STD topping it up, the 55% EI rate is usually the full amount of income replacement during the leave.
The Bottom Line
The timeline for stress leave is really three overlapping timelines (job protection, EI, and employer disability coverage), and the paperwork for each one is slightly different. Getting the right medical certificate at the right stage, rather than one generic note stretched to cover the whole leave, is usually what keeps a claim moving instead of stalling between stages. Our medical certificates service is built around that same-day documentation, from the first note that starts the leave through the follow-up and return-to-work certificates that keep it on track.
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