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TalentInitiator

How the product applies each rule

Canadian hiring law is specific: a pay range no wider than $50,000, a statement when AI screens applicants, an answer within 45 days of an interview. Below is every rule we build for, the behaviour it triggers in the product and the source it comes from.

How to read this page

This page explains how TalentInitiator applies these rules. It is not legal advice for your organization. Our team checks every source again by November 30, 2026, and sources marked “Pending legal review” have not been confirmed by counsel yet.

Explainers

Longer notes on the rules buyers and candidates ask us about most.

  • Ontario job postings, 2026

    Pay ranges, the AI-use statement, Canadian experience, existing vacancies, the 45-day answer and the three-year archive.

  • Quebec’s Law 25

    Decisions made by people, explanations on request, an assessment before information leaves Quebec, and French first.

  • Responsible sourcing

    What we never do to find candidates, why, and the channels we use instead.

  • How we use AI

    Which models run where, what they decide and never decide, what is hidden from them, and how candidates ask for a person.

  • Ontario AI-statement generator

    A free tool: answer three questions and get the statement in English and French, with a pay-range check and a Canadian-experience scan.

Rule by rule

Rules are grouped by where they come from. Not every rule applies to every job: the product works out which ones do from the work location, the employer’s headcount on posting day and whether the posting is public.

Ontario job postings

The job-posting rules of Ontario’s Employment Standards Act, in force since January 1, 2026 for employers with 25 or more employees.

RuleWhat the product doesSource
Pay shown in the postingA public Ontario posting cannot be published without its pay or pay range and the period it is paid by. Postings where all of the pay is above $200,000 are exempt.
Width of the pay rangeHourly, weekly and monthly pay is turned into a yearly figure. A range wider than $50,000 a year blocks publishing, and the composer suggests the widest maximum allowed.
No “Canadian experience” requirementA linter reads the posting and the application form in English and French, flags phrases such as “Canadian experience preferred” and offers a skills-first rewrite.
AI-use statementWhen an AI feature works with a job’s applicants, the AI-use statement is inserted from a versioned template in both languages. It cannot be removed while the law requires it.
Existing-vacancy statementThe recruiter must say whether the posting is for an existing vacancy. The statement comes from a template, and publishing waits for the answer.
Interview outcome noticeA 45-day clock starts when an interview is completed. Recruiters see notices coming due and send them from a template in the candidate’s language.
Posting records keptEvery published version of a posting and its application form is frozen and kept 3 years after it comes down, with a view of what changed between versions.
Fraud reporting and policyEvery public posting has a “Report this posting” control, the fraud policy is published, and earlier versions of the policy are kept.
Ontario recruiter licenceStaffing agencies record their Ontario licence number when they set up their account. The compliance centre warns while it is missing.

Human rights and fairness

Ontario’s Human Rights Code and the guidance Ontario’s human-rights and privacy regulators have published on AI in hiring.

RuleWhat the product doesSource
A person decides every dispositionAdvancing, holding or rejecting a candidate takes an acting person, a reason code and a written reason. A reason that only points at the AI recommendation, or restates it with a few words added, is refused.
Job-related rubric criteriaEvery scoring criterion needs a job-related justification. A guard rejects criteria built on stand-ins for age, origin, family status and other protected grounds, and the recruiter approves the criteria before anyone is scored.
Wording that touches a protected groundSentences in a posting that touch a protected ground are flagged for the recruiter to review.
Identity removed before scoringNames, contact details, photos, dates of birth, graduation years, nationality and other identifying details are removed before a profile is scored. Recruiters can see exactly what was hidden.
Fairness monitoringVoluntary self-identification is stored apart from scores. The adverse-impact report compares selection rates from human decisions and flags groups too small to read.
Interviews evaluated from the transcript onlyInterview answers are evaluated from the text of the transcript. There is no facial, voice-tone, emotion or personality analysis.

Quebec privacy and the French language

Quebec’s private-sector privacy act as amended by Law 25, and the Charter of the French Language.

RuleWhat the product doesSource
Profiling off by default (Quebec)In Quebec mode, functions that profile a person beyond the job they applied for stay off until an administrator reads the notice and turns one on.
Assessment before information leaves QuebecA transfer assessment must be completed before an organization in Quebec mode uses the live AI service outside Quebec.
Privacy impact assessment (Quebec)A privacy impact assessment template is tracked in the compliance centre until it is completed.
French version published at the same timeQuebec postings publish in French and English at the same time. Publishing one language alone is refused.
Language requirement explainedA Quebec posting that requires a language other than French needs a written justification before it can be published.
English and French versions matchThe composer warns when the French and English versions differ on pay, shifts, location or sections.

Federal privacy law

The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and the Privacy Commissioner of Canada’s guidance.

RuleWhat the product doesSource
Notice and consent before applyingCandidates see a layered privacy notice before they apply. Consent is recorded for each purpose, with the exact wording and the language it was shown in.
Processing outside CanadaBefore any AI processing of a candidate’s information outside Canada, the candidate has read the residency statement and agreed to it.
Access and deletion requestsCandidates can view, correct, export and ask to delete their information from their portal. Each request is due in 30 days and tracked in the compliance centre.
Limited retentionRecords are anonymized, then deleted, when their retention period ends, unless a legal hold or a minimum set by law keeps them.
Breach records keptBreaches are recorded with the real-risk-of-significant-harm assessment, and each record is kept 24 months.
Candidates come from consented sourcesEvery candidate record states how the person came in and on what legal basis: they applied, they consented, or a platform licenses the data under contract. There is no way to store a profile copied from another website.

Anti-spam law

Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation. We treat recruiting outreach as commercial email to be safe.

RuleWhat the product doesSource
Consent to contact (CASL)Each outreach message records its consent basis, express or implied with its source and expiry date, before anyone can approve it.
Sender identification (CASL)Every email and text message carries the sender’s name, mailing address and a way to reach them, in a footer the draft cannot remove.
Unsubscribe (CASL)Unsubscribe links and STOP replies take effect at once, links keep working for at least 60 days, and the address joins a suppression list.

Recording, accessibility and accommodation

The Criminal Code on recording, and Ontario’s accessibility standards.

RuleWhat the product doesSource
Consent to recordBefore anything is recorded, candidates see what is recorded, who sees it, where it is stored and for how long, then give express consent. Text answers and an interview with a person are always available.
Accommodation statementPostings and interview invitations say that accommodation is available. Candidates can ask for extra time, captions, a phone interview, text-only answers or an interviewer who is a person.
Accessible pages and flowsPages are built to WCAG 2.1 AA, and every candidate step works with a keyboard alone.
Accessibility compliance reportThe compliance centre reminds Ontario employers with 20 or more staff that their accessibility compliance report is due December 31, 2026.

Where the information lives

Storage locations, encryption, retention and the breach process are on the security page.

Read about security