Why are you so hellbent on trying to convince me this wasn't expensive for my company, or that somehow I'm the only who got this?
We're in the tech business, we all get stocks. When they have to give you notice of 16 weeks, you still work there for 16 weeks, so you keep vesting stocks and getting benefits. Then they offer everyone to terminate them now (not in 16 weeks) and give a bonus to make it go away.
I don't see the difference, because of those notice weeks they had to pay me what "equates to a years worth of salary".
The same laws are in BC and Alberta, so my guess is this was federally mandated for all provinces to implement collective labor laws. At the end of the day we would all fall on federal employment insurance so it makes sense.
I really don't see your point, aside from trying to convince me I should have gotten the same as the US. It's not "if the notice period isn't respected". They owe you that period, and they pay people extra to make it go away. So i got 16 weeks + 3 months + accrued vacation + stocks