What’s changing in your obligations
A legal obligation is not a state, it is a date. A text comes into force, a deadline runs, a phase ends. The wave of the moment comes from the modernization of the occupational health and safety regime (Law 27, explained in plain language, in French): its OHS obligations (CNESST) came into force in stages, the last on October 1, 2026. This page keeps count, and it also says something few sites say: when we re-read each text at the source. A reading two years old is not worth the same as one from last month, and you have the right to know which one you are reading. These dates also exist in machine-readable form, for AI assistants and developers: our open data.
Every line here comes from a reading of the official text, not from a popularized article. When a secondary source was used - because the official site was inaccessible - it says so, with the name of the source and a note that it remains to be cross-checked.
What is coming
October 1, 2026 - action plan or prevention program (CNESST)
The Regulation respecting prevention and participation mechanisms in establishments has been in force since October 1, 2025, and the year allowed to establishments already in place has run out: since October 1, 2026, each must have developed and implemented its action plan (fewer than 20 workers) or its prevention program (20 workers or more) - psychosocial risks included. An establishment created after October 2025 has one year from its creation.
June 1, 2027 - end of the sell-off period for products (Charter of the French Language)
The signage and packaging rules have been in force since June 1, 2025. A sell-off period allows non-compliant products made before June 1, 2025 to be sold until June 1, 2027, provided no French version of the trademark was filed before the end of February 2024. After that date, this stock can no longer be sold.
Document upkeep and the proof register are included for 6 months with every plan, then $49/month or $490/year, cancellable at any time. See the plans
What is already in force
January 1, 2025 - extended producer responsibility
Selective collection moves to full producer responsibility. The term “producer” is broader than it looks: a brand, an importer or a transactional website can be covered without ever having made a package. The regulation dates from 2022, amended in 2023 and 2025.
October 1, 2025 - prevention and participation mechanisms
The health and safety regime now applies to all establishments, with the one-year period described above. It is the text that brings psychosocial risks into the prevention obligation.
June 1, 2025 - signage, packaging and francization
Two changes on the same day. The rules on public signage and packaging come into force: a recognized trademark remains permitted in another language, but its generic or descriptive elements must be translated. And the francization threshold drops to 25 employees, with registration with the OQLF.
September 2024 - prescribed content of the harassment policy
Law 42 specifies what the psychological and sexual harassment prevention policy provided for in section 81.19 of the Act respecting labour standards must contain. The obligation covers every employer, from a single employee.
September 2023 - main obligations of Law 25
The second phase notably imposes the public privacy policy, incident management and the person in charge of the protection of personal information. The three phases were spread from 2022 to 2024.
June 2023 - regulation of child labour
Hiring under 14 becomes prohibited, except for precise regulatory exceptions, and hour rules apply to those under 16 during the school year.
Obligations with no fixed date
Some obligations come back on your calendar, not on a date common to all businesses. They therefore appear in no public countdown, and that is precisely why they are forgotten:
- Annual update declaration to the enterprise register - within six months of the end of your fiscal year;
- Employer’s pay equity declaration - with the annual register declaration, for employers of 10 or more employees;
- Pay equity maintenance - every five years from your previous posting, so specific to each business;
- Review of the occupational health and safety action plan - one year after its adoption, per establishment;
- Annual selective collection declaration - the window is set each year by the designated body; in 2026, from April 1 to May 31, on the quantities placed on the market in 2025;
- Privacy incident register and harassment report register - kept continuously, with no date.
When each text was re-read
The date that matters is not the law’s, it is that of the last reading. Here is ours, subject by subject.
| Subject | Last re-reading | Tool |
|---|---|---|
| Selective collection (EPR) | August 18, 2026 | Selective collection |
| Compliance deadlines | August 18, 2026 | all |
| Environmental claims | August 18, 2026 | Environmental claims |
| Labour standards fines | August 17, 2026 | Harassment prevention |
| Privacy policy (Law 25) | August 17, 2026 | Law 25 audit |
| Enterprise register | August 12, 2026 | all |
| Erasure of information | August 10, 2026 | Law 25 audit |
| Retirement savings (VRSP) | August 10, 2026 | Retirement savings |
| Pay equity | August 9, 2026 | Pay equity |
| Psychosocial risks | August 9, 2026 | Psychosocial risks |
| Commercial emails | August 9, 2026 | Law 25 audit |
A document produced here reflects the law on the day you download it, not the day you paid. It is rebuilt at each download, from your answers and the current law, and this regeneration is free, with no time limit.
What this page does not do
It does not replace legal advice and does not claim to be exhaustive: it covers the obligations our tools handle, for a provincially regulated Quebec small business. Federally regulated businesses, regulated sectors and collective agreements add rules that are not here. Does a date look wrong or missing to you? Write to us: a dated correction is better than a page that looks sure of itself.