Ontario became the first Canadian province to ban non-competes as a talent draw

In late 2021 Ontario, a province that competes with US tech hubs and other Canadian provinces for workers and investment, passed Bill 27, the Working for Workers Act. The bill's headline change banned non-compete agreements with employees, effective December 2, 2021, making Ontario the first Canadian province to do so, and the government introduced the ban explicitly as a means to attract and retain global talent and investments.

The prohibition was drawn broadly - any agreement stopping an employee from engaging in competing business after the job ends - with only two exceptions: executives, defined as C-suite officers and similar top roles, and sellers of a business who become employees of the buyer immediately after the sale. Non-solicitation, confidentiality and intellectual-property clauses stayed legal, and there was no grandfathering or transition period, so employers holding existing non-competes had to stop relying on them.

A second provision required every employer with 25 or more employees to develop a written policy on disconnecting from work - defined as being free from work-related emails, calls and messages - within six months, copy it to each employee, and keep it for three years. The law deliberately set no required content, a choice the legislative summary said was meant to give employers flexibility to fit their operational needs, so it mandated a process rather than a specific after-hours rule.

The article reporting the change, from law firm Gowling WLG, stressed that the policy duty did not by itself mean employees could ignore evening email - the employer decides what the policy says. The design still gave Ontario a first-mover story in the Canadian talent market, and the December 2021 Hacker News discussion drew 575 points and 171 comments.

Ban employee non-competes outright, with narrow carve-outs

Being the first Canadian province to ban non-competes made Ontario the visible exception for workers weighing where to move.

The ban removed the restraint that blocked employee mobility while leaving non-solicitation, confidentiality and IP clauses legal, so firms kept the protections they most needed.

Narrow exceptions for executives and business sellers kept the law passable without gutting acquisitions or top-level hiring.

No grandfathering made the change real on day one instead of fading in over a transition period.

The right-to-disconnect duty imposed process - a written policy within six months - without prescribing rigid after-hours rules.

Compete for talent by removing the clause that traps workers: a clean ban with narrow carve-outs changes every future offer at little political cost.

Royal Assent came on December 2, 2021, and the non-compete ban took effect the same day with no grandfathering, so employers had to review agreements and notify affected employees. Employers with 25 or more staff had until June 2, 2022 to produce disconnect-from-work policies; Gowling WLG advised that the policy duty would not automatically end after-hours expectations. The Hacker News thread on December 27, 2021 drew 575 points and 171 comments debating what the law did and did not change; measured talent flows were not yet reported.