Canadian Mat Leave
momofcatan
member
Hi everyone,
I have looked up the basics about Canadian mat leave, I know how much I'm going to get, and that there's a 2 week waiting period. Just wondering if anyone has any general suggestions/knowledge they would like to share about the whole process?
Also, I work at a med-large size company, and everyone I work with personally knows I'm expecting (including managers), but I haven't actually had a meeting with the HR dept yet. Any reason that I need to do this sooner rather than later? I'm not due until June, and don't really have any concerns.
Would love any wisdom you have to share.
P.S. Must say, trolling the bump makes me SOOOO happy to be Canadian, I am looking forward to my 1 year leave (even with the financial hit), can't imagine only having 6 or 8 weeks!
Re: Canadian Mat Leave
Being a Canadian mom is pretty awesome!
Tell your employer your leave date as soon as you know it. I cant remember how much notice they need but its just nice to give a lot of notice when you are gone a year. There is a 2 week waiting period for EI benefits to kick in. If you want to go back early you are required to give your employer 30 days notice. When you apply for mat leave its just one online application, including universal tax credit and baby bonus and its so super easy. You can also apply for baby's SIN and Birth Cert from the same Service Canada website.
Congrats on your up coming little arrival!
Applying for EI has no impact on the Universal Child Care Benefit or the Canada Child Tax Benefit (& the child component of GSTC plus any provincial credits CRA administers for these programs). You have to apply for those programs yourself (by mail or online though CRA website), unless you do the Automatic Birth Application (residents of Newfoundland, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, PEI,BC, Nova Scotia) if you choose this route when you do your registration for live birth there is a box to check that says you also want to apply for CCTB and UCCB. Using the ABA you can also register for your child's birth certificate, SIN, possible provincial medical care depending on province.
https://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/bnfts/tmtd-eng.html
If you want info on parental/maternal EI benefits heres a link https://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/sc/ei/benefits/maternityparental.shtml
Also I wanted to mention that if you need to go off on medical leave before the birth keep in mind these are separate benefits then the maternal/parental benefits and that time does not count towards your 52 weeks.
I know at least one women who though they would have to use their maternity/parental leave if they were taken off work before birth. She was therefore trying to work longer then was healthy for her situation and baby.
One year??? Awesome!
I'm already happy about our 15 weeks as opposed to 6.
Thanks everyone! This is exactly the little suggestions I was looking for.
Whoops, I just made my contribution to the other mat leave spin off thread (it was a lengthy one too, hah).
But I agree with the PP that applying for EI benefits online doesn't also get you the tax and child care benefits. You can do that when you register the birth online (again, the PP covered it quite well in terms of which provinces allow you to do that online... here in Ontario, it's like a "one stop shop" for registering your baby for things like birth, SIN, child benefits, etc. - pretty awesome!)