Client Update: Time Off To Vote
OCTOBER 19, 2015 – FEDERAL ELECTION
A Federal election has been called for Monday, October 19, 2015. Polls are open in Atlantic Canada from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Advance polls are open from noon to 8:00 p.m. on Friday, October 9, Saturday, October 10, Sunday, October 11, and Monday, October 12. Individuals may also register to vote by special mail-in ballot at www.elections.ca.
Qualified Elector
Every Canadian citizen, 18 years or older on polling day is entitled to vote.
Three Consecutive Hours
Qualified electors are entitled to three consecutive hours on voting day to cast their ballots during polling hours (i.e., 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.). If the employee’s work schedule prevents having three consecutive hours off to vote, the employer must provide the time off to meet the three consecutive hours rule. The following are examples of what time off to vote looks like when voting hours are 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m:
-
- The employee works from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. – no time off required because the employee has 4.5 consecutive hours off of work to the time polls close at 8:30 p.m.
- The employee works from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. – no time off required because the employee has three consecutive hours off of work to the time polls close at 8:30 p.m.
- The employee works from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. – the employee may be permitted to arrive late or leave early to provide three consecutive hours off of work.
The employer has the right to decide what time off to provide to an employee in order to meet the required three consecutive hours and is under no obligation to make allowance for “travel time” to vote for the employee. The Canada Elections Act prohibits any deduction or reduced pay or imposing any penalty for time off to vote as required by the Act.
Employees of a transportation company (i.e., transporting goods or passengers by land, air or water) who are employed outside their polling division in the operation of transportation are not entitled to time off if it cannot be provided without interfering with the transportation service.
What’s the Penalty?
An employer who is convicted of a violation under the Canada Elections Act (e.g., failing to provide time off or reducing an employee’s pay) may be liable for up to a $2000 fine and/or three months imprisonment, or both.
Archive
Matthew Jacobs and Daniel Roth (summer student) “… we cannot be a Blockbuster government serving a Netflix society.” – The Hon. Minister Navdeep Bains paraphrasing the Hon. Scott Brison (May 2019, at the Empire…
Read MoreTauna Staniland, Andrea Shakespeare, Kimberly Bungay and Alycia Novacefski The federal government has introduced new record keeping requirements for private, federally formed corporations governed by the Canada Business Corporations Act (“CBCA”). The amendments to the…
Read MoreHealth Group, Christopher Goodridge and Matthew Jacobs The Ontario Court of Appeal confirmed in a decision released on May 15, 2019 that doctors must provide an ‘effective referral’ where they are unwilling to provide care on…
Read MoreLevel Chan and Dante Manna The Province of Nova Scotia is soliciting stakeholder input on significant regulatory changes to the Pension Benefits Act (“PBA”) and Pension Benefits Regulations (“PBR”). The solicitation is accompanied by a…
Read MoreKevin Landry Health Canada has announced changes to the cannabis licensing regime. These changes come ahead of the release of the cannabis edibles, extracts, and topicals amendments to the Cannabis Regulations expected to be released…
Read MoreGrant Machum Last week’s Nova Scotia Court of Appeal’s decision in Halifax Herald Limited v. Clarke, 2019 NSCA 31, is good news for employers. The Court overturned the trial judge’s determinations that an employee had…
Read MoreRick Dunlop On April 24, 2019, the Nova Scotia Government created the Trade Union Act General Regulations so that the Labour Board will no longer consider a Saturday, Sunday, or holiday as the date of…
Read MoreRodney Zdebiak and Anthony Granville On Monday, April 15, 2019, the Newfoundland and Labrador legislature passed a number of changes to the Automobile Insurance Act (“Act”) stating that the intent is to help stabilize insurance rates,…
Read MoreGrant Machum and Richard Jordan Employers carefully safeguard customer or client lists as confidential information. Gone are the days, however, where an employer’s customer list is only found in a Rolodex or in a closed…
Read MoreGrant Machum and Guy-Etienne Richard Maintaining employment files requires physical space and can be costly. Nowadays many employers are moving away from keeping paper files to electronic storage. This brings up two issues: Are employers…
Read More