Will my parental leave still be protected if the business is sold while I'm off?

Yes. Being on a protected leave when your employer's business is sold doesn't put your job at extra risk, and it doesn't reset your entitlements either. Ontario's Employment Standards Act, 2000 gives employees the right to job-protected leaves, including parental leave, and separately treats your employment as continuing, not restarting, when a business is sold and the new owner takes over its staff.

Put together, this generally means the new owner steps into the same position the old employer was in: it must reinstate you to your same or a comparable position when your leave ends, and can't treat the change in ownership as an excuse to end your employment or your leave rights while you're away.

What can get complicated in practice is communication — you may not hear directly from a new owner while you're off, and administrative details like benefits enrollment or payroll changes can be handled poorly during a transition. That's worth following up on, even from leave, so nothing falls through the cracks. If you're told your leave or your job is at risk specifically because of the sale, push back and get advice promptly, since that reasoning alone isn't a lawful basis to end your protected leave rights.