As Canada’s fertility rate tanks, is it time to reform parental leave?

More than half of potential Canadian parents say they have delayed having children longer than they would like. Many blame the cost of living, but the issues are complex.

Vancouver mom Chelsea Heney waited until the age of 40 to have her first baby last November.

While wanting to be financially prepared was a “big factor” in putting off motherhood, concerns about her relationships, health and career also influenced her decision to wait.

“For me, having children was always something I knew I wanted, but was, increasingly as I got older, something I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to do with respect to age, feeling financially secure,” she told Global News in an interview.

Becoming a mom to her son Olivier has certainly been a fulfilling experience, but Heney says it has come with a “financial toll,” especially since she was laid off during her maternity leave.

“It’s definitely a gut punch,” Heney said.

“I think there’s a financial toll that you take when you have children and especially in my situation, where a job that I thought I was going… to go back to was not there and not available to me.”

While she looks for another job, Heney has filed a human rights complaint against her company over her layoff.

“It’s really unfortunate that, as working women, we don’t have protections that we should in coming back to and being able to take maternity leaves, have children and then coming back to the workplace,” she said.