Ontario Minimum Wage Increase

When a building services provider in Ontario is replaced, who bears responsibility for common law wrongful dismissal damages owed to terminated employees? The Ontario Court of Appeal has delivered its first ruling on this critical question, establishing new precedent that significantly impacts liability allocation in the condominium, security, cleaning, and property management sectors.

In Cooper v GFI Solutions Ltd, 2026 ABCJ 142 (Higa, J), the Alberta Court of Justice found a wrongfully dismissed employee was entitled to 8 months’ reasonable notice plus $30k in aggravated damages. This is important for several reasons, but the aggravated damages award is the biggest highlight. I am aware of only one ACJ case with an aggravated damages award this high. I am not aware of any higher.

The Ontario Court of Appeal’s recent decisions in Baker v. Van Dolder’s Home Team Inc. and Li v. Wayfair Canada ULC may be among its most significant in the field of employment law in the past decade. Certainly, the volume of commentary on these cases would suggest that they are.

The Ontario Court of Appeal's decision in Wigdor v Facebook Canada Ltd. addresses whether employers can stop equity compensation vesting during statutory notice periods. When Facebook Canada terminated Dr. Wigdor and cancelled his unvested RSUs worth millions, the court examined whether forfeiture provisions in equity agreements can override Employment Standards Act protections for employee compensation.

An Oregon Court of Appeals decision clarifies how statutory damages are calculated in wage deduction cases, determining whether employees can recover $200 per paycheck or per violation category. The ruling also addresses when employers can use Oregon's class action cure provision to dismiss collective claims before litigation advances.

Yes. In Dome Mine Ltd. and USW, Local 7980, 2026 CanLII 78264 (ON LA), an Ontario arbitrator upheld the termination of an employee who refused a valid post-incident drug and alcohol test.

The Ontario Court of Appeal recently released its decision in Wigdor v. Facebook Canada Ltd., addressing two significant issues for Ontario employers: the enforceability of termination clauses that purport to limit an employee's entitlements, and the application of the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA) to equity-based compensation documents such as Restricted Stock Unit (RSU) agreements.

La Cour d'appel de l'Ontario a confirmé que les options d'achat d'actions et autres régimes fondés sur des actions ne seront pas automatiquement considérés comme une rémunération d'emploi ni comme une modalité...

Smart glasses are rapidly transitioning from a novelty seen in movies to a mainstream workplace tool. Devices like the Ray-Ban Meta line and Samsung’s Google-powered glasses are being used across industries.

Le 25 août 2026, le gouvernement fédéral a annoncé un important panier de mesures visant à soutenir les entreprises et les travailleurs canadiens affectés par la plus récente vague de droits de douane imposés par les États-Unis, dans la foulée de l'échec des récentes négociations commerciales entre les deux pays.

Canada is positioning itself as a premier destination for institutional investment through legislative reforms, accelerated regulatory approvals, and a new sovereign wealth fund. With ambitious plans to catalyze $1 trillion in investment over five years, the question remains whether Canada can execute major projects with the certainty and speed required to deliver returns that global investors demand.

The AI boom is creating unprecedented demand for GPUs, servers, power systems, cooling infrastructure, and other data center assets in Canada. As highlighted in the Equipment Lease & Finance Association’s (ELFA) recent article, as part of the data center “gold rush,” equipment finance has become a critical part of the capital stack supporting data center development, with lenders increasingly financing GPU-backed infrastructure and related technology assets. Canada’s cooler environment, expansive geography and access to abundant water and electricity in certain provinces, make the country a desirable location to build data centers.

The Canada Revenue Agency has issued new guidance on how non-profit organizations can manage accumulated surpluses and investment income while maintaining their tax-exempt status under the Income Tax Act. Meanwhile, the Department of Finance has proposed expanded reporting requirements that will significantly affect NPOs with annual revenues above $100,000 starting in 2027.

Canada has announced sweeping counter-tariffs ranging from 15% to 50% on approximately C$27.6 billion of US imports, effective September 8, 2026, in direct response to President Trump's 50% Section 338 tariffs on Canadian goods. The measures target key sectors including steel, aluminum, dairy, appliances, and electronics, while the federal government simultaneously rolls out C$7.5 billion in support for affected businesses and workers. Understanding whether products qualify as US goods under Canada's markin

The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario has implemented sweeping procedural changes to address its notorious backlog and accessibility concerns.

On August 17, 2026, the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) issued Decision 30732-D01-2026 in which it denied Synapse Real Estate Corp.’s (Synapse) application to build and operate a natural gas power plant in Olds, Alberta. Unusually, the decision was made without a hearing.

The US Department of Commerce’s recent imposition in mid-June of an export licensing requirement (since lifted at end of June for select US entities) on exports, reexports, and in-country transfers of Anthropic’s Claude Mythos 5 Model and Claude Fable 5 Model to all destinations worldwide and to “all foreign persons” is a stark reminder of how export controls may go beyond the control of physical goods and also apply to intangible goods such as software, AI models, or technology transfers in the cloud. More recent news about AI models going rogue and a proposed bipartisan “AI Kill Switch” bill introduced by two US congressmen foreshadow additional controls in the near future.

A recent Ontario Court of Appeal decision in Wigdor v. Facebook Canada Ltd. has dramatically altered the landscape for equity compensation plans in Canada. The ruling found that Restricted Stock Unit forfeiture provisions may violate Employment Standards Act minimum standards, resulting in a multi-million dollar damages award. Employers using RSUs or similar equity-based compensation must now reassess whether their plan documents comply with evolving judicial interpretations of statutory notice period prote

The Supreme Court of Canada has established a national test for spoliation and clarified how courts should remedy the destruction of evidence in litigation. While document preservation demands must be taken seriously, adverse inferences do not automatically entitle parties to maximum damages—courts retain discretion to craft remedies that fit the circumstances and must ensure inferences genuinely fill evidentiary gaps rather than merely conform to existing evidence.

A change of trustee is often treated as a routine administrative change rather than a taxable event. However, it can create important tax consequences, particularly where the trust owns corporate shares, the replacement trustee has contributed property to the trust, or trustee residency affects the trust’s tax residence.