A flight from western Canada to Toronto was cancelled because a young child would not sit down and fasten their seatbelt, leaving other passengers scrambling to find somewhere to stay for the night.

Porter Airlines said Flight PD444 had left the terminal at the Victoria airport in British Columbia and was heading for the runway on Thursday evening when the child, who was standing on the seat, could not be strapped in despite repeated attempts by their parent and the cabin crew.

The crew decided to return to the terminal because the aircraft could not take off safely, said Brad Cicero, a spokesman for the Toronto-based airline. Bringing the plane back to a gate, removing the parent and child, retrieving their luggage, and refiling the paperwork took so long that the flight was set to miss the airport's 12.30am runway closure.

It meant the crew was left with little choice but to ask the remaining passengers to get off. The flight eventually left on Friday afternoon.

"We apologise for the effect this had on other passengers, who were able to depart on a flight the following day," Mr Cicero said.

Passengers described a long wait with little information, although one said the child had not been badly behaved, only frightened.

"They just kept hiding under their seat. If they got forced into being strapped in, they just kind of slid out underneath," a passenger named Aryeh Kozuch told the CBC.

Another passenger said that the process took far longer than it should have. "It took forever," Hillary Hertzberg told the broadcaster. "The kid eventually got off the plane at 11.30pm, so we had been on the flight for almost an hour at that point."

Ms Hertzberg said she wanted the airline to cover the costs for the passengers. Porter declined to say whether it would compensate the passengers.

Canadian aviation norms require every passenger to be seated with their seatbelt fastened during taxiing, take-off and landing, with no exemption for young children, who must be held or restrained rather than left unsecured.

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