How long a Canadian can stay, by province

There are two different countdowns running on a Canadian winter in Florida and they are frequently confused with each other. One is American and decides whether the US will treat you as a resident for tax. The other is Canadian, it decides whether your provincial health coverage survives, and — this is the part almost nobody expects — it is not the same number in Ontario as it is in Quebec, Alberta or British Columbia.

Published September 6, 2026

Most cross-border advice written for Canadians in Florida is written for Québec, because the Québec rule is the strictest and the francophone snowbird press has covered it for decades. If you are insured in Ontario, Alberta or British Columbia, that advice is not your advice, and in every case it is more conservative than the rule you are actually under.

1. The four provincial rules, as the provinces state them

Ontario (OHIP). An absence of more than seven months in any twelve-month period is possible while keeping coverage — for up to two years — provided you keep a valid health card, Ontario remains your primary place of residence, and you were physically present in Ontario for at least 153 days in each of the two twelve-month periods immediately before you left. Ontario advises visiting ServiceOntario in person before an absence longer than seven months.

Québec (RAMQ). You must be present in Québec 183 days or more to remain eligible. The count is per calendar year, January 1 to December 31, and it is absences that are counted — consecutive or not. Two things are excluded from the count: absences of 21 consecutive days or less, and the days on which you leave and return. Once every seven years you may be absent 183 days or more in a calendar year without losing eligibility.

Alberta (AHCIP). You must be physically present in Alberta at least 183 days in a twelve-month period. A temporary absence outside Canada is normally under six consecutive months — but Alberta publishes an explicit recurring vacation allowance of up to 212 days in a twelve-month period, on condition that you contact AHCIP before you go and after you return.

British Columbia (MSP). The standard vacation allowance is seven months' absence in a calendar year. Beyond that there is an extended absence of up to 24 consecutive months, once in a 60-month period, with its own conditions. Anyone who will be absent six months or more in a calendar year is told to contact Health Insurance BC to confirm eligibility.

2. Two countdowns, and they are not the same test

The number 183 appears on both sides of this and means different things, which is where most of the confusion in this category comes from.

• The provincial test asks how long you were away from your province, or present in it, and the consequence of failing it is that your provincial health coverage lapses. It is a residency question decided by a provincial ministry.
• The US test asks how many days you were in the United States, counts a weighted portion of the two preceding years as well as the current one, and the consequence of failing it is that the US may treat you as a resident for tax purposes. It is a federal tax question decided by the IRS.

Passing one tells you nothing about the other. A person can keep provincial coverage comfortably and still cross the US threshold, and the relief for that is a separate federal filing with its own deadline. Both counts have to be run, every year, separately.

• Les deux règles de 183 jours — the two counts, explained in French
• Le formulaire 8840 — the closer connection filing, and filing it on time
• RAMQ : combien de jours hors du Québec

3. What does not change with your province

The health rules are provincial. Almost everything else a Canadian owner deals with in Florida is US federal law and reads identically wherever you are insured:

• FIRPTA withholding on a sale — 15% of the sale price, with reductions to 10% and 0% that depend on the buyer's use and the price, not on your province.
• The section 871(d) election on rental income — the same election, the same effect, the same commitment.
• The US substantial presence test and the closer-connection relief that goes with it.
• US estate tax exposure and the Canada–US treaty position.

That is why the rest of this cluster does not split by province, and why a guide written for a Québec seller is substantively correct for an Ontario seller once the language and the health section are set aside.

• Renting out your Florida condo as a Canadian — 30% of gross, or the net election
• Selling as a Canadian — FIRPTA and the certificate that has to come first
• Buying as a Canadian — what to have ready before a closing date exists
• The whole Canadian cluster

4. Where the condo itself comes into it

How long you intend to be here changes which buildings work, and it changes it through the declaration rather than through anything about the neighborhood. An owner who is here four months and wants the unit let for four more is subject to the building's minimum lease term and to any cap on how many leases a year it permits. A twelve-month minimum makes that plan impossible; a one-month minimum makes it routine.

That is a document question with a checkable answer, and it is worth settling before an offer rather than after.

• Every building covered here — 46 towers, built from the county record rather than developer copy
• What the association asks of a tenant
• What a unit costs to hold for the months you are not in it

What this page does not cover

It covers four provinces. Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island and the territories each publish their own rules, and they are not assumed here to match any of the four above. If you are insured outside Ontario, Québec, Alberta or British Columbia, read your own ministry's page.

It also does not cover travel medical insurance, which is a separate product answering a separate risk. Provincial coverage lapsing and being uninsured while abroad are two different problems, and the second one is not solved by counting days correctly.

These rules change. Every figure above is cited to the government page it came from with the date it was read; check the source before you rely on it for a decision.