Setting statutory holiday hours on Google before customers show up

Short answer: use special hours on your Google Business Profile for one-off dates — statutory holidays, closures, events — and keep regular hours for a normal week. Because statutory holidays vary by province, set them for the specific holidays your business actually observes, not a generic national list.

A locked door on a day a customer expected you to be open is one of the fastest ways to lose trust, and the next Google review often mentions it directly.

Why "statutory holiday" isn't one fixed list

Unlike some countries with a single national holiday calendar, Canada's statutory holidays differ by province. Canada Day and Boxing Day are broadly observed, but Family Day is observed in some provinces and not others, and provincial holidays like Victoria Day or the August civic holiday vary in whether local businesses close. A business in Calgary and one in Montreal may have genuinely different holiday hours in the same month — so copy nothing from a template without checking your own province's calendar.

Building a simple calendar

• List the statutory and provincial holidays relevant to where you actually operate.
• Decide, for each one, whether you're closed, open reduced hours, or open as normal (some retailers stay open Boxing Day; many trades close).
• Set special hours in Google at least a couple of weeks ahead — not the morning of — so the change has time to be indexed and seen.
• Revisit the calendar yearly, since some holidays (like Thanksgiving in October, distinct from the US date) shift by a few days each year.

Multi-location businesses

If you run locations in more than one province — say Toronto and Calgary — don't assume both close for the same days. Family Day alone varies enough across provinces that a shared calendar needs a column per location, not one blanket rule.

Where this shows up beyond Google

Customers checking a listing on YellowPages.ca or HomeStars won't automatically see your updated Google special hours; if those directories matter to your business, update hours there too so a customer doesn't get two different answers depending on where they looked.

Where Local SEO AI helps

Local SEO AI is software that can hold a holiday hours calendar for your business and remind you ahead of each date, with changes staying as drafts until you approve them for your connected profile — live Google connection is awaiting approval, and the product is not a Google partner. As an illustrative example only: a hypothetical Ottawa dental clinic might set up a yearly template covering Canada Day, Thanksgiving and Boxing Day once, then just confirm it each year rather than rebuilding it. See the business profile workspace or /ca/pricing for plans, billed in GBP (£). Next: read our Google Business Profile post ideas for holiday-related posts.

For wider guidance on running a Canadian business, see the Government of Canada's business and industry pages.