On May 31, 2022, Alberta’s Bill 17, Labour Statutes Amendment Act, 2022, received Royal Assent, and the following amendments to Reservist Leave and Bereavement Leave in the province’s Employment Standards Code came into force.

Reservist Leave

The entitlement to reservist leave for training purposes is no longer restricted to “an amount up to 20 days per calendar year.”  With the removal of that limit, employees who have completed at least 12 consecutive weeks with an employer may now take as much unpaid leave as they require to participate in reservist training.

Bereavement Leave

The entitlement to three days of unpaid bereavement leave in a calendar year for an employee who has been employed by the same employer for at least 90 days is expanded to include the occurrence of the following situations:

• the employee’s pregnancy, or their spouse’s or common-law partner’s pregnancy ends in other than a live birth; and
• a person’s pregnancy ends in other than a live birth and the employee would have been a parent of that child.

This expansion includes the end of a pregnancy due to miscarriage, stillbirth, and abortion. It also makes bereavement leave available should such an event occur to eligible employees who are biological and adoptive parents, and parents whose children are being carried by gestational carriers/surrogates.