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This article provides general information about Ontario employment law as of 2026 and is not legal advice. Statutory references were read from the consolidated Employment Standards Act, 2000, the Limitations Act, 2002 and the Solicitors Act on 7 September 2026, and Employment Insurance rules from the Government of Canada.
A severance package review is a narrow piece of work: someone who reads employment agreements for a living spends an hour with the paper you were handed and tells you what it actually does. The question worth answering first is not whether the number is fair. It is which parts of that envelope you can still change, and which close the moment you sign.
Those are not the same list, and they are close to the reverse of where most attention goes. The number on the first page is the most negotiable thing in the package. The release on the last page is the least, and it is the one people skim.
This guide is ordered by how easily each part can be undone, starting with what is still open and ending with what is not. It does not tell you what your severance should be worth, because our guides to what you are entitled to, the severance pay calculator and termination pay do that properly. If you would rather move straight to a person, you can get matched with an employment lawyer and have the document read this week.
Severance package review in Ontario: the short version
A severance package review answers one question: what does this document do that you cannot see. It is usually a flat fee, it takes about an hour, and the deadline pressuring you into skipping it has no statute behind it.
- The deadline in your letter is not a legal deadline. No Ontario statute puts a time limit on accepting a severance offer. The limits the law does set run for two years.
- Your statutory floor cannot be signed away. Section 5 (1) of the Employment Standards Act, 2000 makes any waiver of an employment standard void, whatever the release says.
- Most non-competes in Ontario are already void. Since 25 October 2021 s. 67.2 has barred an employer from entering into one with an employee who is not a chief-level executive.
- The release is the irreversible part. Everything above your statutory minimum can be closed permanently by signing, which is why it is read first, not last.
- Filing an Employment Standards complaint can shut the courthouse door. Section 97 (1) bars a civil proceeding about the same unpaid wages, so the route is a decision in itself.
- Employment Insurance timing changes on 10 October 2026, and that date is worth knowing before you agree how the money is paid.
Prefer to watch? This short video walks through the same ground: which parts of a severance offer are still open, which close on signature, and why the date on the letter is not a legal one.
The clock in your letter is the only one with no law behind it
Four deadlines follow an Ontario termination. Three are statutory and two of those run for two years. The fourth is the one in your letter, and your employer wrote it.
Every deadline that actually runs after an Ontario termination, on one line. The axis breaks after the first month so both ends stay readable. The hatched band is the only deadline on here that no statute creates.
First 30 days
The deadline in your letter sits somewhere in here. No Ontario statute puts it there. It is a term your employer chose, and asking for more time is a normal request rather than a confrontation.
Month 1 to month 24
Nothing else expires until month 24. Both of the deadlines that protect you land there, and the line between is empty.
- Employment endsEvery clock below starts here.Day zero
- Wages owed must be paidThe later of seven days after the employment ends and what would have been your next pay day.ESA s. 11 (5)
- Last day to file an ESA complaintA complaint about something that happened more than two years earlier is treated as never filed.ESA s. 96 (3)
- Last day to start a court claimTwo years from the day the claim was discovered, and you are presumed to have known on the day it happened.Limitations Act, 2002, s. 4
Sources, read from the consolidated statutes on 7 September 2026: Employment Standards Act, 2000, s. 11 (5) for payment on termination and s. 96 (3) for the complaint deadline, and the Limitations Act, 2002, s. 4 for the court claim, with s. 5 (2) presuming you knew on the day it happened. Employment Insurance timing is a fixed calendar date rather than a period running from your last day, so it is set out in the text instead of on this axis. General information about Ontario law as of 2026, not legal advice.
Read left to right and the argument makes itself. The first fortnight is crowded and loud, and only one thing in it is law: under s. 11 (5) of the Employment Standards Act your employer owes you the wages you have already earned by the later of seven days after the employment ends and what would have been your next pay day. That obligation is not conditional on you signing anything.
Then the line is empty for two years. An Employment Standards complaint has to be filed within two years of the contravention under s. 96 (3), and a court claim has to be started within two years of the day the claim was discovered under s. 4 of the Limitations Act, 2002, with s. 5 (2) presuming you knew on the day it happened. Neither of those is next Friday.
None of this means an offer stays open forever. An employer can withdraw one, and some genuinely do improve for a quick answer. It means the pressure is commercial rather than legal, and asking for a few days to take advice is an ordinary request. Many employers expect it.
Most reversible: the number itself
The figure on the first page is an opening position, not a calculation. It is also the part of the package a review is least likely to spend its hour on, because whether it can move is decided by a clause somewhere else.
That clause is the termination provision in your employment contract, if you signed one. Where it is valid and clearly limits you to the statutory minimum, it caps things, and our guide to termination pay in Ontario sets out what that floor contains. Where it is unenforceable, the common law fills the gap instead, and the range is usually wider. Our guide to what severance you are entitled to in Ontario explains how that range is built, and the severance pay calculator will give you an estimate before you speak to anyone.
Consider two people holding offers this month. A warehouse supervisor in Hamilton with eleven years of service signed nothing when he joined, so there is no termination clause to cap anything, and the gap between the statutory floor and the common law range is the whole conversation. A project manager in Mississauga signed a contract in 2019 with a clause limiting her to the Act, and whether that clause survives is the only question that matters in her file. Same envelope, entirely different hour of work.
This article deliberately states no figure. It is about the hire decision, not the amount, and the three guides above own that ground between them. What matters here is a smaller point: an offer that quotes the Employment Standards Act at you is using the Act as a floor. It becomes your ceiling only where a valid contract term makes it one, and that is a question about drafting rather than about fairness.
Still open: the terms wrapped around the number
Money is rarely the only thing in a severance package, and the surrounding terms are usually easier to move than the total, because they cost the employer little.
The items worth naming before you agree to anything:
- How the money is paid. A lump sum and salary continuance are taxed differently and interact differently with Employment Insurance, and the choice is often available.
- Benefits continuation. Whether coverage runs through the notice period, and whether long-term disability is included, which matters if you are unwell.
- A reference letter, and who confirms employment dates. Cheap to give, hard to obtain later.
- The timing of the payment, which is a separate question from how much.
Employment Insurance is where timing bites. Normally, separation payments such as severance and pay in lieu of notice are treated as earnings and allocated to the weeks after your last day, which pushes your benefits back. A temporary measure suspends that: if your claim or the allocation starts between 30 March 2025 and 10 October 2026, separation earnings are not deducted from your benefits.
From 11 October 2026 the ordinary rule returns unless Ottawa extends it, which is why a severance package review arranged this month may reach a different answer on payment timing than one arranged in November. Service Canada asks people to apply as soon as they stop working rather than waiting for a signing deadline or a record of employment. Ontario's public legal information service, Steps to Justice, sets the same ground out in plain language.
Harder to undo: the clauses that follow you out
Restrictive covenants outlive the payment. They are also the part of a severance package most often misunderstood in the employee's favour and against it at the same time.
Ontario banned employment non-competes in 2021. Section 67.2 (1) of the Employment Standards Act says an employer must not enter into an agreement with an employee that is or includes a non-compete, and s. 67.2 (2) makes one entered into in contravention void. The exceptions are narrow: a sale of a business where the seller becomes the buyer's employee, and executives, which s. 67.2 (5) defines as chief executive, president, chief operating, chief financial and the other chief-level offices. The prohibition took effect on 25 October 2021, so where an older agreement sits is one of the things a review works out rather than assumes.
A non-solicitation clause is a different animal and was not banned. A clause stopping you approaching former clients or colleagues can still bind you, and the wording decides how far. Reading the two clauses as though they were one is a common and expensive mistake, and it is the sort of thing an employment contract review settles in minutes.
Cannot be undone: the release, and the route you choose
Two things in this process are effectively permanent. Signing the release closes the claims it covers, and filing an Employment Standards complaint about unpaid wages closes the courtroom on the same matter.
The release is a contract. What it cannot reach is your statutory floor, because s. 5 (1) of the Employment Standards Act makes any contracting out or waiver of an employment standard void. Everything above that floor is exactly what a release is designed to close, which is most of what a wrongful dismissal claim would have been about. Getting a signed release set aside afterwards is litigation about unconscionability, not a phone call, and it turns on facts particular to the signing.
The second permanent choice is quieter. Under s. 97 (1) of the Act, an employee who files a complaint about unpaid wages may not then commence a civil proceeding about the same matter. The Ministry route is free and slower and capped by what the Act provides. The court route, run through the Superior Court of Justice, can reach common law notice and costs money to run. Which court depends on size: Ontario's Small Claims Court has handled claims up to $50,000 since 1 October 2025, and our guide to Small Claims Court in Ontario covers how that forum works, while suing someone in Ontario covers the Superior Court route above it. Picking one before understanding the other is the mistake this section exists to flag.
That is a good reason to read the pillar guide on being fired or laid off before you act. If the change to your role came before any offer arrived, our guide to constructive dismissal in Ontario covers that route too.
What a severance package lawyer charges to read it
Three fee models cover almost every severance package review in Ontario, and which one fits depends on whether the work stops at reading or turns into a negotiation.
| Model | What it usually covers | When it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Free first consultation | A short call to triage whether there is anything to look at | Deciding whether to spend anything at all |
| Flat review fee | Reading the package and a written or verbal opinion on where you stand | The document is signed or not, and you want to know which |
| Hourly | Correspondence, negotiation, revised drafts | The offer is being pushed back on |
| Contingency | The lawyer is paid from what is recovered | A claim is being advanced and you would rather not fund it |
Contingency is available here, which surprises people. Section 28.1 (3) of the Solicitors Act prohibits contingency fee agreements only in criminal or quasi-criminal proceedings and in family law matters, so an employment matter may be taken on one. Section 28.1 (4) requires the agreement to be in writing, and s. 28.1 (11) lets a client ask the Superior Court to assess the bill within thirty days of delivery or within a year of paying it.
The Law Society of Ontario publishes its own plain-language guidance on paying for legal services, which is worth reading before the first call. We publish no market rate for a review, because the honest answer is that it varies by firm and by how much of the file the lawyer expects to take on. Our guide to what a lawyer costs in Ontario explains how each fee model shifts risk between you and the firm, which is the more useful thing to understand before the first call.
When a review will not change anything
Sometimes the answer is that the offer is what it is. A good employment lawyer will say so, and the free consultation exists partly so that conversation costs nothing.
Six things you can check on the paper in front of you. Ticking one shows the question a review would ask about it. Nothing here estimates an amount.
Tick what applies to your offer
Each item reveals the question a review would ask about that part of the paperwork, and the answers together suggest whether a review is worth arranging.
Fee models appear once you have ticked something.
Statutory references verified on 7 September 2026 against the consolidated Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ss. 5, 67.2, 96) and the Solicitors Act (s. 28.1). Contingency fee agreements are prohibited only in criminal or quasi-criminal proceedings and family law matters, so an employment matter may be taken on one, and it has to be in writing. This is general information about Ontario law, not legal advice, and it does not estimate what any offer should be worth.
The pattern where a severance package review tends to earn its fee is not about the size of the package. It is about how many of the terms above are in play at once: a contract with a termination clause, a release, and a covenant that follows you out. Where none of those is present, where the service was short and the employer has paid the statutory amounts cleanly, a review often confirms what you already suspected. That is still worth an hour if the alternative is signing while unsure, but it is a different decision from the one facing someone holding a contract with a clause nobody has read since the day they joined.
If the offer is rejected and the conversation escalates, the next document is usually a letter setting out the claim, and our guide to the demand letter in Ontario explains what that does. Most matters never get there.
How Olanur helps
We built Olanur so the first step costs nothing and takes minutes. You describe what happened and what the offer says, and our matching system routes the request to employment lawyers whose practice areas and province fit the matter.
Because the request arrives already scoped, the first conversation starts on your document rather than on twenty minutes of background. The lawyers you see are verified against their law society record before they appear, and you can run the same check yourself through the Ontario lawyer lookup. If you are unsure whether the situation warrants a lawyer at all, our guide to whether you need one is a fair place to start, and how to find a lawyer in Canada covers what to ask once you have a shortlist.
Frequently asked questions
It depends on how many terms are in play rather than on the size of the offer. Where there is an employment contract with a termination clause, a release, or a non-compete or non-solicitation clause, a review is usually worth its fee, because those are the terms that decide the outcome rather than trim it. Where service was short and the employer has paid the statutory amounts cleanly, a review often confirms the position instead of changing it, and the severance pay calculator will give you a sense of that before you spend anything.
An employer can set a deadline and can withdraw an offer, but no Ontario statute puts a time limit on accepting one. The deadlines the law actually sets are far longer: two years to file an Employment Standards complaint under s. 96 (3), and two years from discovery to start a court claim under s. 4 of the Limitations Act, 2002. Asking for a few more days to take advice is a normal request, and many employers expect it.
No. Section 5 (1) of the Employment Standards Act, 2000 says no employer or employee may contract out of or waive an employment standard, and any such contracting out or waiver is void. A release can close claims above that floor, which is most of a common law wrongful dismissal claim, but it cannot reach the statutory minimum itself. Section 5 (2) also confirms that where a contract gives you a greater benefit than the standard, the contract applies instead.
Usually not, if you are not a chief-level executive. Section 67.2 of the Employment Standards Act prohibits an employer from entering into a non-compete with an employee and makes one entered into in contravention void. The exceptions are a sale of a business where the seller becomes the buyer's employee, and executives, meaning chief executive, president, chief operating, chief financial and similar offices. The prohibition took effect on 25 October 2021, so where an older agreement stands is a question worth putting to a lawyer.
Normally yes, because separation payments are treated as earnings and allocated to the weeks following your last day. A temporary federal measure suspends that: if your claim or the allocation starts between 30 March 2025 and 10 October 2026, separation earnings are not deducted from your benefits. From 11 October 2026 the ordinary rule returns unless the measure is extended. Service Canada asks people to apply as soon as they stop working rather than waiting for a signing deadline or a record of employment.
Yes. Section 28.1 (3) of the Solicitors Act prohibits contingency fee agreements only in criminal or quasi-criminal proceedings and in family law matters, so an employment matter may be taken on one. The agreement has to be in writing under s. 28.1 (4), and under s. 28.1 (11) a client may apply to the Superior Court of Justice to assess the bill within thirty days of its delivery or within a year after paying it.
They are alternatives rather than steps, which is why the choice matters. Under s. 97 (1) of the Employment Standards Act, an employee who files a complaint about unpaid wages may not commence a civil proceeding about the same matter. The Ministry route costs nothing and is limited to what the Act provides. The court route can pursue common law reasonable notice, which is often larger, but it costs money to run, and smaller claims go to Small Claims Court. Understanding both before picking one is the main reason people have the package reviewed.
The useful way to think about a severance package review is as an hour spent on the parts of the document that close behind you. The number can be revisited. The release cannot, and neither can the choice between the Ministry and the court. If you are holding an offer with a deadline on it this week, the least you can do is read the last page as carefully as the first, and if you would like someone else to read it too, you can get matched with an employment lawyer in Ontario at no cost.
Rohan Whitfield
Employment & Immigration Law Contributor
Rohan writes on employment rights, wrongful dismissal, severance entitlements, and Canadian immigration law, helping workers and newcomers understand their legal options.
