A new survey by Angus Reid shows more than half of Canadians asked would like to see a ban on non-compete clauses.

Ontario banned non-competes in 2021 to help free up labour mobility.

Non-compete clauses are written into the contracts of some employees, preventing them from working for direct competitors for a time after leaving their current place of work.

Support for doing away with non-competes is highest in British Columbia and Ontario.

According to Angus Reid, advocates for non-competes suggest that they are needed to prevent competitors from gaining an unfair advantage when hiring recently-departed employees from rivals. The argument is more popular among those over the age of 54, but does not rise higher than 32 per cent among any age and gender grouping.