Hmm, think I'll stay in Newfoundland then!

Not sure. I've only been in the situation once, when I worked for the Canadian government in the UK. The rule was that you accrued leave monthly and you couldn't use it before you'd earned it. I was also told that I was expected not to take any leave during the year in which I joined (I joined in July). I cannot remember if I rolled the unused leave over to the next year or simply lost it.

With the "holiday pay" scheme typically you cant carry it over, they usually just pay out the money in the holiday pay account and you lose the right to that time off. I have never worked for a company here that allows you to bank the holiday allowance, you simply use it or lose it. So in that particular case I could take 2 weeks holiday, but as I had only worked 8 months before the manditory shutdown, I only got 8/12th of the two weeks pay in that pay period

Its not even like they are paying you 54 weeks for 52 worked if you dont take the vacation and they pay out the holiday account money, the holiday pay is skimmed off at a percentage rate as you go, to cover for when you arent there.

All of this misses the central point though which is that most people get by on the measly holiday allowance. My theory is that as my life is so much less stressfull here, I dont need 5 weeks in the sun to enjoy life. It would be nice to have more time to explore Canada a bit more though...not that I could afford the air fares, but thats a different gripe I suppose

I think we were allowed to bank it later on. Just as well; it's quite hard to use up five weeks plus all the public holidays. One year, when they had surplus budget to use up, I sold them back 17 days in one go.

I also heard that some companies expect you to work ALL of the public holidays too - please tell me that's not the case!

At my last job my manager told me just at the end of the day that I should be working the next day which was a public holiday. At least I got paid statutory holiday pay. My co-workers had buggered off or had excuses ready. Where I worked it was expected that the office be partially staffed on public holidays so if not enough volunteers could be found if might be demanded of you.

Yeah and weekends. In fact when I were a lad in't mill we used to work 24 hrs a day 7 days a week and we thought we were well off. Canada's just like that!

As with so much about such a large country it does depend on where you are, what you are doing, what level you are. Unless you are in a sweatshop, Tim Hortons, a 24/7 call centre etc etc they cant make you work stat holidays. If you do work em you get paid in lieu or additional time off. (I use the example of my MIL who is a Nurse.) I happily took 4 weeks off in my first year in my last job. My employers had no problem with that, I was doing what they paid me for and vacation was an entitlement that makes for happy workers. Happy workers are productive workers. QED. Maybe I'm just lucky!

I would expect that you get double pay for holidays, 1 day for the day you had off, and another for the day you worked.

LMAO

Noooooooo! No such thing as double pay and yes, many employers expect you to work public holidays, particularly in the service industry. American owned companies often do not recognise Canadian holidays either, although they are supposed to give you the choice to work or not. Forget UK labour laws, what passes for employment legislation is nothing like as protective here and you can get fired for nothing. Unions are no good, even where they have (illegal) closed shops. Redundancy in BC - after two years - one week for every year worked and many won't pay that. It's a whole different world here.
Good point I should add: SMOKE FREE WORK PLACES

My husband just got a job where three weeks vacation is standard, but he negotiated an extra week unpaid - almost got two weeks extra but someone in the company changed their mind at the last minute! Plus the office is usually closed during Xmas and that doesn't cut into the three weeks (but you can't count on the Xmas break since it isn't official, just tradition). He can't take any holiday during his first 4 months (probation) but after that he can start taking vacation - he doesn't have to 'earn it'. I guess it just depends on the company. We are in Halifax, so maybe Atlantic Canada is just more relaxed about these things!

OK, now I'm curious. What do you do for a living?