Zach's Mom, or any Canadian Mommies - maternity leave quest

amynicole21 wrote: Can you enlighten me on the maternity leave policies in Canada? Can Daddies take a year as well? And if you have kids close together, like Zach's mom, are there any limits to how many consecutive leaves you can take?

Also, what percentage of your pay do you receive while on leave? And do all of your benefits (health ins, etc) keep going as usual?

Sounds like such an amazing system - I would love to have taken a year off. I wonder how the government can afford to keep it going!? Do you guys pay a lot of taxes?

mummy2girls replied: well....im from canada. You get up to 12 months paid maternity leave. the dad not so much(but cant be too sure because im not married). I made 1500 a month before i got preg and then for maternity benefits i got 800 a month. not much but i was living with family so that helped.

health benefits...i was on blue cross for dental and prescriptions but im in alberta so the health care coverage covers ALOT!!! i paid nothing for having jenna, the hospital room was covered, docotrs app are covered. i just went on blue cross for the dental and prescriptions and eye exams and such. And because im considered low income jenna gets covered 100 percent for everything under the childrens alberta health program. the blue cross is for me. when i had my son in the NICU peds ward and PICU the alberta covered all the expenses for that. and because you live in alberta no matter what you cant be turned away for care at all.

I make 1600 a month but bring home 1400 after taxes. And get it back at the end of each year:)

Hillbilly Housewife replied: Hey! Sorry I didn`t get back to you sooner...

Normally, when you have a job that you have been working for at least 13 weeks, you are entitled to 55% or your pay.

In my case, my salary before taxes is 3400 monthly. After taxes, it comes down to 2200 or so. Last year, from employment insurance, I got 680 monthly, plus I got an additional 38% from my work (because I`m government) so I ended up getting 93% of my monthly salary.

You are entitled to 17 weeks parental leave, and 35 weeks maternity leave. Coming out to 52 weeks total leave. The 17 weeks can be taken by either parent, but is usually taken by the mom.

Because I`m government, if I take any time off and get the extra 38% top of from my pay, if I decide NOT to return to wrk after my year, I have to pay back that 38%. I also have to work double the time I took off.

I don`t know the policies on taking leave right after you`ve come back... because I went back to work when Zach was 2 1/2 months old, so I`ve worked double the time I`ve taken off already. But I konw women who`ve come back to work and gone on maternity leave about 3 months later... and they didn`t have a problem.

Funny enough - in Quebec, there is such a decrease in the number of children born every year that the government is actually giving a baby bonus of a few thousand dollars when you give birth.

There is also a mother`s allowance for every child you have. Currently, I receive 88$ a month for Zach...but I received 110 until a few months ago, when they realized that my salary went up. Heh heh.

So I`m entitled to a whole yar when this new baby is born, and not only that, but as long as it`s born before December 31st, I also get to claim it as a dependant for the WHOLE YEAR even if he/she is only a day old! Neat, huh?

The government can afford to do this simply because they can`t afford NOT to.

Not only that - but because of the health care system, you don`t pay for everything like you do over there. Having a baby only costs the 75$ or whatever it costs to have the birth registered, and the 35$ cost or whatever for the birth certificate. Generally, I pay like 10$ a month or something like that for benefits from my work, and that covers what the health care does not. So if ever I have to pay for a prescription or something, my work insurance pays for either the whole hting, or 80%.

The benefits from my work while I am on maternity leave are taken out of the 38%, so I don`t have to worry about it. The other health car coverage that I get automatically, for living in Canada, I NEVER have to worry about it - I just flash my health care card... heh heh

all in all...Canada is an awesome place to have kids.

Did I mention I love Canada?

I love Canada!

Jamie replied: Zack's mom...........3400/month.............. what is your job......and where can i apply...........lol

and yes im still job less

Hillbilly Housewife replied: Just as an added bonus - here`s a website (from the government) where you can check out different questions you may have

http://www.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/ae-ei/pubs/special_e.shtml

Hope that helps!

Hillbilly Housewife replied:
I`m an assistant for the government. To be more specific, I deal with travel claims from the 4 laywers I work with, 1 of which lives in Washington.

It`s a real awesome job...I love it. I just started this position at the beginning of the month...and you can apply for a position similar by visiting the PSC (public service commission).

You`re in Ottawa, right? Go to 66 Slater downtown..I think it`s on the 3rd floor. Bring them a copy of your resume, and they`ll put you in the bank of names. Also, check www.jobs.gc.ca....there`s lots of stuff there too!

Also - check out Excel Agency. That`s how I started working for the government almost 4 years ago. (613) 230-5393 (I think??) you can give my name as a reference if you want, they should still have me on file...

Jamie replied: no im in toronto!!!!!

Hillbilly Housewife replied:
No problem - just go to the psc website, there`s a section for offices in different places...jsut look up the one for Toronto, same deal!


Central and Southern Ontario


Location & Phone Numbers
Public Service Commission of Canada
Recruitment and Assessment Services Branch
1 Front St. W
Toronto, Ontario
M5J 2X5

INFOTEL (TOLL-FREE) :1 (800) 645-5605
Hearing impaired and speech impaired clients can contact us through a Teletype Device (TTY/TDD) at: (416) 973-2269
TTY (TOLL FREE) :1 (800) 532-9397
Fax : (416) 973-1883
E-mail : psctor@psc-cfp.gc.ca

Good luck!

amynicole21 replied: That simply amazes me. I got 5 weeks paid leave, and still had to pay over $2000 to have Sophia with amazing insurance!!

What about your property taxes? Looks like income tax is about 35% or so... What's the secret? I guess your government doesn't spend $200 billion a pop on foreign wars like ours, eh

CantWait replied: also, alberta is the only province in Canada where you pay for your health insurance. Still better then nothing......we have no provincial tax here, so that's part of the reason, I find everything here in general is more expensive because of it. For my matt leave I'm only making $400 a month, compared to the $900 I was bringing home each month before. That doesn't include my tips either It's funny how I had to claim so much of my tips on income tax, but don't get them on my matt leave.

Kirstenmumof3 replied: When I had my first DD and that was 8 years ago, maternity leave was only 6 months but I was getting more money on maternity benefits than I was working. When I was pregnant with Claudia I was only working part time and was off for the whole summer. As a result I was 5 hours short and did not recieve any maternity benefits at all. I still have a job to go back to, which is good. But the money sure would have helped us a lot!

Hillbilly Housewife replied:
Property taxes is about 1300$ a year for me...it goes with the value of the house. You only ahve to pay property taxes if you own, not if you rent. The owner pays for it. (or includes it in the cost of rent...whatever....but you don't get a tax bill.)

I guess the secret is that we don't make war...we're the Peacekeepers, so obviously we don't spend nearly as much in weapons and overseas stuff etc etc.... even if our Prime Minister did give himself a ridiculous raise. Ugh.

I htink that it's also a matter of number of population. We don't have nearly as many people living in Canada as the US does...and the number of people on Welfare is significantly less too. So that doesn't suck up as much money.

I really don't know... I'd have to actually follow the news to figure out what's going on... heh heh