Stop Guessing: A Better Way to Plan Parental Leave
We overhauled the Parental Leave Calculator to help Canadian families maximize their benefits, visualize the 'Sharing Bonus', and budget with bi-weekly accuracy.
Planning for a new child is exciting, but navigating Service Canada’s rules for Maternity and Parental leave is often… less exciting.
The government rules are complex. There are “Standard” vs. “Extended” plans, “Individual Maximums” vs. “Family Pools,” and the confusing “Sharing Benefit” (often called the “Use it or Lose it” bonus).
Most calculators simply ask you to input your salary and spit out a confusing annual total. We realized that families don’t budget based on annual totals—they budget by the paycheck.
So, we completely rebuilt the Loonie Sense Parental Leave Estimator. Here is what changed and why it matters for your family planning.
1. Visualizing the “Sharing Bonus”
The biggest missed opportunity for Canadian families is the Parental Sharing Benefit.
- The Rule: On a standard plan, one parent can take up to 35 weeks. But if both parents share the leave, the government adds 5 extra weeks, bringing the total to 40.
- The Problem: It is hard to visualize how to split those weeks to get the full 40.
- The Fix: We added interactive Allocation Sliders.
Now, you can drag the sliders for Parent 1 and Parent 2. As soon as your combined leave qualifies for the bonus, our new Pool Meter turns emerald green, letting you know you’ve unlocked the maximum government contribution.
2. The “Bi-Weekly Paycheck” View
Knowing you are eligible for “$33,000 total” is helpful, but it doesn’t help you pay the mortgage in March.
We added a new “Paycheck View” to the results. We take the annual estimate and break it down into the actual bi-weekly deposit you can expect from Service Canada.
- Parent 1 receives: $1,300 / 2 weeks
- Parent 2 receives: $800 / 2 weeks
This allows you to sit down with your monthly budget and see exactly where the gaps are.
3. Person-Centric Results
Old calculators often lumped “Maternity” and “Parental” benefits into one big pot. This is confusing because Maternity leave is exclusive to the birth parent, while Parental leave is shareable.
We redesigned the result cards to be Person-Centric:
- Parent 1 Card: Combines their exclusive Maternity weeks with their chosen Parental weeks for a total “Time Off” view.
- Parent 2 Card: Shows their specific contribution and payout.
4. Removing the Friction
If you earn over the insurable maximum ($66,600 for 2025), you shouldn’t have to memorize that number.
We added “Set to Max” badges inside the salary inputs. One click automatically caps your salary at the EI limit, saving you time and ensuring your calculation is 100% accurate to the current year’s rules.
Try it Out
The goal of Loonie Sense is to make Canadian finance clear and actionable. We hope this new tool helps you plan your time off with confidence, so you can focus on what really matters—your growing family.