Newsletter – March 2026

Workers earning minimum wage in British Columbia will see a pay increase this year, as the provincial rate rises from $17.85 to $18.25 per hour effective June 1, 2026.

The 40-cent increase reflects the province’s average inflation in 2025, the province said in a news release.

According to Jennifer Whiteside, Minister of Labour for British Columbia, the annual increases are designed to help workers keep pace with the rising cost of essentials such as food and transportation. The province has indicated that indexing minimum wage to inflation helps provide greater predictability and stability for workers and employers alike.

The June 1 increase applies to:

• The general minimum wage

• Resident caretakers

• Live-in home-support workers

• Live-in camp leaders

• Piece-rate agricultural workers
  

• App-based ride-hailing and delivery workers

App-Based Ride-Hailing & Delivery Workers

Effective June 1, 2026, the minimum wage for app-based ride-hailing and delivery service workers will increase to $21.89 per hour of engaged time.

Agricultural Piece Rates

Minimum piece rates for hand-harvested crops will increase by the same percentage, effective December 31, 2026.

Read the news release

Minimum wages of several provinces are set to increase in April 2026. For a complete overview of current minimum wage rates and upcoming provincial increases, please review the table on the last page of this newsletter.

An Alberta steel mill worker who left her post briefly to use the washroom after restarting a production line has been reinstated after an arbitrator overturned her dismissal.

In a Feb. 13, 2026 decision, arbitrator Mark Asbell found that AltaSteel did not have just cause to fire Ashley Gott, a pulpit operator with nearly two decades of service. The company alleged she was negligent and reckless after a cold steel billet entered the line during her brief absence in May 2023, causing significant damage and halting production.

Gott testified that she had previously been told by the director of operations not to stop the line for washroom breaks, even though written procedures required delays to be logged. Asbell accepted her evidence, noting other operators followed the same practice and the employer offered no evidence to the contrary.

The arbitrator was critical of AltaSteel’s investigation, which focused solely on Gott and did not include interviews with other crew members or a broader safety review, despite collective agreement language requiring one. He found her immediate admission of responsibility, clean safety record, and long service weighed in favour of progressive discipline.

The termination was replaced with a suspension of five 12-hour shifts. AltaSteel was ordered to reinstate Gott with full compensation, less the suspension period and any mitigation earnings.

Alberta MLAs returned for the spring sitting Tuesday, with the governing United Conservative Party signalling plans to introduce legislation on immigration and medical assistance in dying. Government house leader Joseph Schow said 17 or 18 bills are expected during the session.

The government also plans to introduce legislation that would prohibit medical assistance in dying for certain groups, including mature minors, individuals with a mental illness as their sole underlying condition, those making advance requests, and adults without health-care decision-making capacity. Additional measures would increase oversight of health-care professionals involved in MAID.

Alberta will table Budget 2026 this week.

The Alberta government says it is reconsidering a recent decision to revoke provincial health coverage for some temporary foreign workers, calling the move “premature.”

On Jan. 7, the province quietly removed access to the Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan for people on International Experience Canada Type 58 permits, including those on working holiday and young professional visas. Workers discovered the change only when attempting to register for coverage or renew their health cards.

Following concerns from employers and workers, particularly in the Bow Valley tourism sector, the Ministry of Primary and Preventative Health Services said it has paused the policy while it conducts a review. The government confirmed IEC Type 58 permit holders are once again eligible for coverage, provided their work permits are valid for at least 12 months and they can show proof of full-time employment.

The Bow Valley Immigration Partnership says hundreds of workers in the region could be affected and is calling for clear, public updates from the province. The government has not said how long the policy review will take.

A Weyburn, Sask., tree farm operator is facing multiple charges under provincial foreign worker legislation.

Rodney Sidloski has been charged under the Foreign Worker Recruitment and Immigration Services Act and the Immigration Services Act in connection with alleged offences involving two individuals at the HELP International Shelterbelt Centre near Weyburn.

The charges include allegedly producing or distributing false or misleading information, such as false payroll records, misrepresenting employment terms including duties, wages, and length of employment, and taking unfair advantage of a foreign national’s trust or lack of experience. The alleged offences occurred between May 2022 and August 2024.

A second set of allegations, said to have taken place between June 2022 and June 2024, includes similar claims of providing false information and exploiting a foreign national’s trust or fear.

The provincial government said foreign workers or immigrants with concerns about their rights should contact the Program Compliance Branch at Saskatchewan’s Immigration and Career Training ministry.

The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia has struck down wage restraint legislation introduced by the former Liberal government, ruling it violated public sector unions’ constitutional right to meaningful collective bargaining.

In a decision released Friday, Justice Ann E. Smith found that Bill 148, the Public Services Sustainability Act, “substantially interfered” with unions’ Charter-protected right to good faith bargaining and was not a reasonable limit on that right. The law imposed a two-year wage freeze followed by modest increases and eliminated a retirement lump-sum benefit for qualifying workers.

The court suspended its declaration of invalidity for 12 months to allow the province and unions to negotiate a remedy, noting the potential fiscal impact of an immediate ruling.

Other unions involved in the challenge included the Nova Scotia Nurses’ Union, the Nova Scotia Teachers Union, Canadian Union of Public Employees and Unifor. If no agreement is reached within a year, the matter will return to the judge to be settled.

In a recent decision, the Nova Scotia Workers’ Compensation Appeals Tribunal upheld a compensable psychological injury claim filed by an Educational Assistant who was sexually assaulted by a student at work.

The employer argued that managing aggressive behaviour was inherent to the role and that the incident was not the predominant cause of the worker’s condition due to prior trauma. The Tribunal disagreed.

Applying Nova Scotia’s updated psychological injury standard, the Tribunal found that while challenging behaviour may be expected in certain roles, sexual assault is not simply “part of the job.” It also concluded that the workplace incident was the predominant cause of the worker’s psychological injury, even though there was a prior history of trauma.

Key takeaway for employers: High-risk roles do not provide blanket protection from psychological injury claims. Tribunals will look closely at whether the conduct exceeds normal workplace pressures and whether the incident was the primary cause of the injury.