My wife and I are expecting a baby in December and trying to get information from our employers and service Canada has been next to impossible.
The plan as of right now is for my wife to take a 12 month maternity leave and I believe I am allocated 5 additional weeks via parental leave (paid out via EI at 55% salary).
Where is gets tricky is from our employers perspective. I currently have the better top up benefits, but their definition for qualification is that you have to be the "primary caregiver". I haven't been able to get a clear answer as to what that means. I assume my wife is the primary, but can that be switched since I have the better benefits? Would she still qualify for mat leave if the definition of primary caregiver was changed?
Are you asking whether she would still qualify for EI or for her employer’s top up?
More along the lines if she would still qualify for EI. I assume she would forfeit her employer top-up (which is hardly anything) since I would take advantage of those.
More along the lines if she would still qualify for EI. I assume she would forfeit her employer top-up (which is hardly anything) since I would take advantage of those.
She would still qualify for EI. Unless something has changed(which I don’t believe to be the case) the total allotted parental leave weeks through EI can be split between both parents however they like.
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Make sure you check with your employer if you can qualify as primary if one of the partners is giving birth. My company also has the primary/secondary terminology, without actually saying that only the birth-giving mother in male/female partnership can be primary.
HR first said the dad could be primary, but it wasn’t until we actually checked with the company insuring the leave that I couldn’t be.
Seems they word it vaguely so that either parent in a same-sex marriage or adoption situation can be primary.
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She would still qualify for EI. Unless something has changed(which I don’t believe to be the case) the total allotted parental leave weeks through EI can be split between both parents however they like.
I think this changed at some point. There are now 5 weeks that can be only claimed by the father/other parent.
"up to 40 weeks can be shared between parents, but one parent cannot receive more than 35 weeks of standard benefits."
My advice would be take the 12 month leave in case you can find daycare but if not make sure to budget that the payments from EI have no tax taken off. This way in the case you need to take longer you'll have savings available. Don't underestimate online shopping with postpartum depression.
Parental Leave
