I am a salaried employee at a private company in Ontario that receives 3 weeks of paid vacation annually.

I'm currently 4 months pregnant and due in March 2023. I'm wondering if I can take my 3 weeks of paid time off before going on maternity leave despite only working January and part of Feburary in the 2023 fiscal year.

In an informal and unrelated conversation I had last week with a senior coworker, she mentioned that technically my 3 weeks of vacation time assumes that I work the remainder of the year and if I were to quit halfway through a fiscal year, I would only have accrued 1.5 weeks of paid vacation, for example, and I would owe my employer the other 1.5 weeks of pay back. This conversation was in relation to another employee who had recently quit.

I assume that despite being on mat leave from March 2023 to December 2023, that I would still be entitled to my full 3 weeks of paid holiday time in Ontario.

Has anyone else been through this before or could provide some insight or guidance? I haven't shared the news of my pregnancy with my employer yet so unfortunately I cannot ask outright.