It is sadly a part of canadian restaurant culture but not seen as mandatory. Canadian service workers are regulated to be paid at least minimum wage.
Companies mostly use tipping here as an excuse for the wages to not come out of their own pockets. If tips received equal or exceed minimum wage then they don’t have to fork out the cash. If the employee only made $10hr in tips then the employer fills in the rest.
Because of this, I mostly refuse to tip. I’m not going to subsidise a restaurant paying their employees. If you can’t afford to pay people you shouldn’t be in business.
Thanks for the clarification. I totally forgot it isn’t federally regulated.
There are also student wages which allow you to pay students under 18 even lower wages. Fun stuff!