Support

My sister and I were talking about her recent move to the US. She has an excellent job with great benefits. And yet if she were having a baby, her maximum maternity leave - without risking her job - is 12 weeks, some of that without pay, unless she has a c-section or something. That was a bit of a surprise to her.

When I go on maternity leave I'll get 55% of my salary (to a max of $413/week) for 15 weeks. That's maternity leave, and every woman in Canada who is Employment Insurance eligible (basically, who works for someone else) is eligible.

(I think the idea behind this being a mother-only thing is that it's for recovery and also probably is politically motivated somewhat around breastfeeding. As I may have mentioned a few times, breastfeeding is a political issue around here - there are posters in the subway promoting it. )
Sounds nice, but that's just the start.

Then there are 35 weeks of parental leave. Either my husband or I can claim parental leave, or we can split it. So as long as we could live on the premiums (that max of $413/week), we could both be home for a while, or alternate, or one of us can take the whole time. This leave is also available to adoptive parents.

During this time, as long as my company doesn't go out of business, my job is required to be held for me. (One reason employers grudgingly like the year-long maternity/parental leave is that they can offer a one-year contract to someone else, which is long enough to be worth the effort. It's also a keen way for someone to get experience, being willing to take a one-year maternity leave contract.)

While I'm home (in our case I will be taking the 50 weeks, unless something happens to change our plan) I will most likely be taking my kid to the Early Years Centre, which is a province of Ontario thing. These centres are set up pretty much all over, and they have different things but they are all along the lines of: parenting classes, toy lending library, drop-in playroom times, art and music and movement classes for toddlers, etc. The one closest to our new house offers a lot of classes in Tamil, which isn't useful to me but I think is kind of cool. As far as I know, all the programmes are free. The idea is to give frazzled parents somewhere to go.

Also, having the baby will cost me about $100. The rest is covered by OHIP. This is for a phone line in our room, and we are supposed to supply the diapers and pads and those kinds of things ourselves (although we didn't, with Emily; she was in NICU diapers all the way, including the one we changed, that last night). I'll have breastfeeding clinics available for free, drop in any time.

Day care - not so great yet. Right now it's provincial and although Quebec offers $6/day daycare to all - yes all, at least that's my understanding - parents in the province, Ontario only has subsidies for people who are below a certain level of income - which, if you have to make a choice between funding some or none, seems like a good way to go to me. A federal programme is coming along though. It won't be $6/day, that's for sure, but it may be an improvement. (For what things are like currently - one of the people from whom we bought the house said that her kids are in a daycare she really likes at the local school and it's $155/week for a 2 year old. I've heard of prices up to $300.)

I pay high taxes all right, and no system is perfect, but I am kind of glad not to be having to make the decision about *no* income and *no* path back to a job at this point. Makes me glad to be having this kid on this side of the border.