After already having spent some time in Canada courtesy of HM Armed Forces, Hubs and I are considering emigrating to Alberta at the end of his 22. (Assuming we can afford to buy a house there now, as the prices have rocketed!) However, I've been doing some more research into working in Canada and was shocked to discover that the statutory minimum annual leave is only 2 weeks! Are all Canadian employers this mean! We adore Canada but I really don't know whether I can work 40 hours a week for only 2 weeks holiday a year ( I know, we're spoilt in Europe, especially in the army environment) What have been your experiences? We want to move there for a better quality of life and to spend more time with as a family, but if we end up working more, then it sort of defeats the object!

Please tell me about your experiences working for a Canadian employer, especially if you have kids.

Cheers

Wozzie.

Two weeks, moving to three after 5 years seniority is my experience.

I like my job so I don't mind, but more would be nice to see more of this country.

many Canadians don't even take all two weeks.

The increased quality of life comes at the end of the day and at the weekends, not in two week long chunks in the mediterranean

My hubby managed to negotiate 3 weeks per yr initially, rising after 5 years service.

20 days leave plus 10 public hols, usually working out to one long weekend per month for 10 months of the year. Life is pretty laid back anyway, so not as great a 'need' for leave as in the UK.
I work in healthcare.

It's not a Canadian thing per se, it's a North American thing. It varies from job to job, employer to employer and probably province to province. Worst case is 2 weeks and working for a year to 'earn' that. Best case is probably somewhere around 4 weeks. I'm in industry and am at the best case end of the scale.

This subject is discussed every week on BE, usually with someone posting a thread entitled '2 weeks vacation in Canada, say it ain't so?!'. Judicious use of the search function will give you hours of reading on people experiences and emotions.

AX

Although 2 weeks is the statutory minimum, it all seems to boil down to how much your new employer needs your specific skills. For example, in Calgary at the moment there appears to be a move in the Oil and Gas sector towards improved benefits such as extra vacation time rather than sky high salaries in a bid towards keeping salary expectations at reasonable levels. This may very well extend to other businesses in Calgary as well since there is a major labour shortage for skilled workers generally at the moment. It's likely to be be tied to years of industry related experience though. I was lucky enough to start on the full 5 weeks when I started with my new employer 4 months ago, but my first employer in Calgary would only gave me 3 weeks, but that was 2 years ago just before the employment boom started.

If you will need to use your vacation time to visit family back in the UK I think you will struggle with 2 weeks. We have found it just too little to be able to enjoy Canada/US and spend time with our family in the UK. If you don't want to travel too far and not visit family too often you will probably just about make do. It all depends on your situation.

Having the bank holidays are nice but you really can't get very far on them.

My husbands job only allows him to take more leave after 8 years service

Also bear in mind that there is no Ryanair or Easyjet over here. Travel is expensive. Actually I found it was more expensive to fly to Quebec City and Vancouver from Toronto, than it was to fly from Toronto to London!

If you nip down to the States, it's completely different - so much cheaper! I think that might be half the trouble that Canadians don't use their vacations to the max, because it is just too expensive to travel anywhere unusual....

Every Canadian I know that has been "abroad" on holiday, has been to either Mexico, Dominican Republic or Fort Lauderdale to go on a cruise. Mexico is the equivalent of Spain for a package holiday, if you like that sort of thing!

Anyway, somewhat off the point of how many days annual leave, but just to bear in mind if you're like me, and you like to get away with your days off work that you don't get those lovely cheap deals for holidays that you do get in the UK and elsewhere in Europe.

It does drive me loopy the lack of holidays (I find it rather 1952 ), but then I work around it by taking unpaid leave and fork out the costs of travel - not ideal - but I would rather that than not go anywhere. However, we are fortunate enough to be in a position that we can afford to do that. The average Canadian is not, as they do not earn enough.

i got four weeks plus a week off during chirstmas and i work for a university here. Universities and colleges employees (and i am not talking about academic but professional staff) tend to get more time off here. In fact, my time off is comparable with my UK time off. So i am not complaining :-)

I'm an academic, and my contract states that my vacation allowance is "negotiable", but at least two weeks. My boss said that he basically lets people take off as much time as they want.

bazzz, i want to know where you work! Maybe i should get a job there! :-)

Do a search....this subject has been done to death.