In the economic update on November 25, 2025, Québec's Minister of Finance announced a temporary exemption from paying health services fund (HSF) contributions for 2026 and 2027 for the following:

• certain employers in the employers in the agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors
• certain individuals with income from these sectors

Rules for the HSF contribution exemption for the agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors

Employers in the agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors that qualify as exempt specified employers for 2026 and 2027 will not have to pay any HSF contributions for these years, regardless of their total payroll. As a result, no periodic remittances of the HSF contribution will have to be made during these years. The HSF contribution rate for these years will be 0% for these employers.

“Exempt specified employer” means an employer that meets the following conditions:

• More than 50% of their total payroll is attributable to one of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes in the table below.

• Their main activities fall under the NAICS codes in the table below.

  NAICS code	Activities
  111	Crop production
  112	Animal production and aquaculture
  113	Forestry and logging
  1141	Fishing
  321111	Sawmills (except shingle and shake mills)
  32211	Pulp mills

Rule for eligible specified employers and exempt specified employers

Since 2015, employers in the primary and manufacturing sectors that qualify as eligible specified employers for a given year have benefited from a reduced HSF contribution rate.

As is the case with eligible specified employers, more than 50% of exempt specified employers' total payroll must be attributable to specific NAICS codes.

Since the concept of “eligible specified employers” was introduced in 2015, Revenu Québec has applied it taking into account certain principles to ensure that employers' main activities are attributable to the primary and manufacturing sectors, and that the remuneration paid to their employees can be considered attributable to activities in these sectors. The same principles, with the necessary adjustments, must therefore be considered in applying the new concept of “exempt specified employer”.

Accordingly, the Act respecting the Régie de l'assurance maladie du Québec (ARAMQ) will be amended to specify, in the definitions of “eligible specified employer” and “exempt specified employer,” that these employers' main activities must be respectively those included in the sectors identified in the NAICS codes, or represented by one of these codes, related to each of these definitions.

The amendments to the definition of “eligible specified employer” will apply on a declaratory basis, that is, as of the introduction of this definition in the ARAMQ. However, they will not apply to cases pending on November 25, 2025, or to notices of objection served on the Minister no later than 10 a.m. on November 25, 2025, if the dispute concerns the determination of the employer's main activities.

HSF contribution rules for individuals

To account for the fact that many individuals have income from farming, forestry or fishing, the ARAMQ will be amended to allow an individual with income from these sectors to deduct, in calculating their total income for 2026 and 2027 for the purposes of their HSF contribution, an amount equal to their net business income from these sectors.

For greater clarity, the same NAICS codes listed above for exempt specified employers will be used to calculate the HSF contribution for individuals.

For more information, see Information bulletin 2025-8 (PDF – 460 KB) on the Ministère des Finances website.