LAWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

Workplace Violence

May 27: Québec published new OHS regulations requiring employers to implement specific measures to prevent workplace sexual violence (SCV): i. give workers written information about SCV risks at the particular workplace; ii. ensure workers receive SCV prevention training from a competent person; and iii. implement SCV reporting, complaint, and investigation procedures. Effective date: May 27, 2027.

Action Point: Sexual and domestic violence becomes an OHS issue and liability risk for employers when it happens at the victim’s workplace. Find out how to protect your employees from the risk of workplace domestic violence.

Employment Benefits

Jun 15: Administrators of supplemental pensions take note: Retraite Québec issued new instructions on the mortality rates to use for non-binary persons for purposes of calculating their pension or the value of their benefits accrued under a supplemental pension plan or a voluntary retirement savings plan.

Immigration

Jun 5: Québec sent 2,549 new invitations to individuals who submitted an expression of interest to apply to the Skilled Worker Selection Program (SWPSP). It also added tourism to the list of priority occupations. With over 420,000 jobs across Québec, tourism generated record revenues of nearly $19 billion in 2025. It is Quebec's fourth largest export sector for foreign exchange earnings, just after aerospace, aluminum, and iron ore.

Action Point: Find out what companies and their HR directors need to know to navigate the immigration law maze.

New Laws

Jun 11: Newly effective red-tape reduction legislation abolishes the annual royalty that sawmills in Québec must pay on timber from public forests. Bill 11 also revises the pricing of such timber, which will now be based on a minimum rate that’s adjusted monthly according to the average profitability of companies and market conditions. The government plans to phase in the new wood pricing system over a two-year transition period.

New Laws

Jun 5: Newly tabled Bill 796 amends the Consumer Protection Act to ban social media platform operators from signing up consumers under 16 years of age and require them to verify users’ ages. The Bill also prohibits certain engagement mechanisms in video games aimed at young consumers as well as paid loot boxes and microtransactions.

Privacy

Jun 4: One year ago on this date, Québec implemented an online process allowing victims whose intimate images were shared without their consent to seek orders to have those images taken down. The government reports that the new recourse is working with the issuance of an average of more than one order issued per week in the past 12 months. Other provinces, including Ontario, have begun adopting similar systems in their own jurisdictions.

Action Point: Digital privacy and nonconsensual publication of intimate images is also a potential liability risk for employers. Find out how to protect your organization from revenge porn and cyberbullying liability.

New Laws

May 29: Québec forestry company Art Massif Structures de Bois is getting a $2.5 million grant from the province to acquire equipment for producing glulam trembling aspen to enhance its products, which already include glulam spruce. The project is expected to secure about 40 jobs at the company’s plant.

Workplace Violence

Jun 11: Royal Assent for Bill 4 making it easier for individuals who are at risk of domestic violence, including minor under the age of 14, to apply to law enforcement for personal information indicating whether their or their parent’s intimate partner has a history of violence. The Bill also allows police officers and support services personnel to seek such information on behalf of a third person they reasonably suspect to be in danger of intimate partner violence.

Action Point: Are you doing enough to protect your employees against violence at work? Find out about the 10 things you must do to prevent workplace violence.

Health & Safety

Jun 10: The Commission des normes, de l'équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST)  published amendments to the OHS Safety Code for construction work governing use of personal fall protection during the assembly or dismantling of a metal structure, including metal bridging work. Highlights: New requirement to have an engineer's plan meeting CSA Z259.13 and Z259.16 when using a flexible continuous anchorage system for that type of work, clarification of the standards for movement limitation system arrest links, and updates to required lighting levels. Effective date: August 10, 2026.

Workers’ Compensation

Jun 16: CNESST proposed increasing the average workers’ compensation contribution rate from $1.54 to $1.71 per $100 assessable payroll in 2027. That’s the second yearly increase in a row.

CASES

Termination: Constructively Dismissed Exec Needn’t Accept Demotion to Mitigate Damages

After serving in a strategic role for 35 years, a 59-year-old Hydro-Québec executive was reassigned to a purely operational role at the same salary and benefits. The executive rejected the position and HQ treated his refusal as a resignation. While finding constructive dismissal, the court ruled that the executive’s refusal to accept the new position was a failure to mitigate damages. The case went all the way to Québec’s highest court which upheld the finding of constructive dismissal but reversed on failure to mitigate, finding that the employer must strictly offer the new position as a formal notice of termination. Because HQ never offered the executive the new job as a working notice in lieu of termination, it couldn’t penalize him for refusing it. Result: The executive was entitled to 24 months’ notice, $836,365 [Poulin c. Hydro-Québec, 2026 QCCA 758 (CanLII), June 4, 2026].

Action Point: Canadian courts are divided on whether a wrongfully terminated employee’s duty to “mitigate” damages includes accepting offered employment from the company that fired them. Recent cases have answered that question “yes,” provided that the offered replacement job is at the same pay and benefits. Poulin, however, goes in the other direction, with the high court finding that accepting the new job would have been too humiliating and demeaning for the veteran executive even though he would have incurred no loss in pay or benefits. Find out about the 7 things wrongfully dismissed employees must do to mitigate their damages.

Drugs & Alcohol: OK to Terminate Safety-Sensitive Employee for Refusing a Drug Test

During a 2:00 a.m. overtime shift, an experienced cheese slicing machine operator was unable to keep pace with the assembly line and had to set aside 10 boxes to finish later to catch up. She also displayed agitation during the shift. Suspecting impairment, the company asked the operator to take a drug test, but she refused. As a result, the company fired her. The Québec arbitrator dismissed the union’s grievance. The operator’s job was safety-sensitive and there was reasonable cause to suspect that she wasn’t fit for duty thereby justifying for-cause testing under the company’s drug testing policy, which the arbitrator ruled was a reasonable safety policy. The operator’s refusal to submit to testing was thus just cause to terminate [Teamsters Québec, local 1999 v. Agropur Coopérative (Beauceville), 2026 CanLII 52451 (QC SAT), June 1, 2026].

Action Point: The moral of this case is that refusing a drug test is grounds for discipline when the demand to submit to testing is justified under a reasonably written and enforced drug and alcohol testing policy. Find out how to create a legally sound drug testing policy at your workplace.

Health & Safety: Paver Didn’t Commit & Used Due Diligence to Avoid OHS Traffic Violations

A CNESST inspector cites the project manager for what she believes to be OHS violations at a road paving site, including noncompliant signage, a street barrier located in the grassy area rather than the roadway, and a missing road flagger. After reviewing the photographs, witness testimony, and other evidence, the Québec court ruled that the signs were compliant, adequate numbers of flaggers were in place, and the barrier was moved to the grass only temporarily to allow a school bus to pass when the inspector snapped her photo and put back in the road immediately thereafter. And if it had committed the violations, the court continued, the manager exercised due diligence to comply by hiring an experienced and reputable signage firm to create the traffic safety plan and then having the plan signed by a qualified engineer [CNESST v. Pavages Multipro inc., 2026 QCCQ 1984 (CanLII), May 7, 2026].

Action Point: Find out what due diligence is and how it helps you avoid liability for OHS violations.