The demand for elderly care in Canada is expected to increase considerably over the next few decades due to the growing proportion of elderly people in the population and the increasing number of seniors suffering from chronic illnesses requiring care. Due to the high cost of formal care for the aged, much of this care has so far been provided informally. The development of appropriate public policies on care for the aged must be based, among other things, on the effects of informal care on the labour market. Using data from the Longitudinal and International Study of Adults (ELIA), we explore these labour market effects in the Canadian context. Our main conclusions are as follows: (1) there is no statistically significant evidence that providing care for the elderly affects employment; (2) providing care has a small, negative and statistically significant effect on hours worked; (3) carers earn higher wages than non-carers; (4) among carers, those earning higher wages provide fewer hours of care; (5) one in five carers report a burden due to their care provision - these people provide a relatively high number of hours of care; (6) some of our results suggest that women spend more time on care provision during recessions.