Federal Budget Proposals Affecting Employers

As part of the Government of Canada's 2025 budget released on November 4, 2025 (the Budget), the federal government announced an intention to revise the Canada Labour Code to restrict the use of non-compete clauses in employment agreements for federally regulated employees subject to the Canada Labour Code.

The Budget did not provide details of the proposed non-compete ban, but we can anticipate that it will likely be a broad ban with limited exceptions similar to the ban in Ontario's Employment Standards Act, 2000, given the rationale behind proposing such changes is to reduce barriers to labour mobility. As you may recall, Ontario introduced restrictions on non-competes in the employment context in October 2021 (more details can be found in our previous blog. As a result, in Ontario, non-competes are prohibited for employees except for chief level positions and in limited circumstances related to the sale of a business.