What benefits can servers get in the Northwest Territories?
The short answer
In Northwest Territories
| Health coverage (NWT Health Care Plan) | Moving from elsewhere in Canada, coverage starts the first day of the third month after you became a resident. You must be present 153 days a year. Send the application form, with proof such as a pay stub, to the Health Services Administration Office (1-800-661-0830). A short job under 12 months doesn’t require you to switch. |
|---|---|
| Extended Health Benefits (low income) | Below the low-income threshold (band 1), drugs, dental, vision care, medical supplies and medical travel are covered at no cost. From September 1, 2026 the band 1 limit is $38,144 in Yellowknife, $35,726 in the South Slave and $41,941 in the Beaufort Delta, adjusted for family size. |
| Extended Health Benefits (higher incomes) | Bands 2 to 10 currently get eligible prescriptions and medical supplies at no cost under a temporary adjustment. At band 11 you pay a $365 family deductible and 30% of costs, up to $550 a year. |
| Applying for EHB | You need a valid NWT Health Care Card and a tax return for last year (or other proof of income). Reapply by September 1 each year. If you turn down an employer plan that offers these benefits, you aren’t eligible. |
| Vacation and vacation pay | Two weeks after each of the first five years, three weeks from the sixth. Vacation pay is at least 4% of annual wages (6% from year six), paid by the day before your vacation. |
| Statutory holidays | 11, including National Indigenous Peoples Day, the first Monday in August and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Holiday pay is a normal day’s wages. None is owed if you haven’t worked 30 days in the last 12 months. Work it and you get overtime pay on top, or a substitute holiday. |
| Sick leave | At least five unpaid days in each 12-month period once you’ve been employed 30 days. Ask your employer as early as you reasonably can. |
“The Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) offers Extended Health Benefits (EHB), a public benefits plan, which helps eligible residents with the cost of non-insured medical needs not covered by the NWT Health Care Plan.” (NWT Health and Social Services: Extended Health Benefits)
Plus the federal programs: What benefits can servers get in Canada?
What’s different in Northwest Territories
The NWT ties its health benefits to where you live. The Extended Health Benefits income bands are set region by region from the northern cost of living, so the same pay can put you under the threshold in the Beaufort Delta but over it in the South Slave. Under the threshold, the territory covers dental and vision care as well as prescriptions, which fills the gap a restaurant job with no benefits plan leaves.
Tips don’t count here as wages under the Employment Standards Act, so the 4% vacation pay and holiday pay are figured on your hourly pay alone. Sick days are unpaid and there are five. Remember the September 1 renewal, or coverage lapses. Federal benefits like the Canada Workers Benefit also apply.
Official sources
- NWT Health and Social Services: NWT Health Care Plan, general information
- NWT Health and Social Services: Extended Health Benefits
- NWT Extended Health Benefits: Income thresholds and cost sharing
- NWT Extended Health Benefits: Applying and renewing
- Northwest Territories: Employment Standards Act, SNWT 2007, c.13
Last verified
. Checked the government pages linked above.
Still open: No-cost drugs for income bands 2 to 10 are described as a temporary adjustment, with no end date given. The territory removed its consumer carbon tax on April 1, 2025, and the Finance page gives no final date for the Cost of Living Offset.