can I lose vacation time

[pieman]

My jurisdiction is: canada - alberta

Our company has recently instigated an HR policy that details how much accumulated vacation time we are allowed to carry over to the next entitlement year.
I have been told by HR that I will lose any vacation time that I have not used up, over and above the "carry over" amount by the end of each entitlement year.
I have also been told that I cannot ask to have the unused vacation time paid out as vacation pay.
The Employment Law in Canada doesn't seem to have a clear picture of the relationship of vacation time to vacation pay and the employee's rights in this matter.
Can someone who knows more about the issue please explain what my options are in this matter?

 

[cbg]

This is primarily a US site and employment law is very, very different between Canada and the US. In the US the answer to your question would be state specific.

I don't think we have any experts in Canadian law on the site so if you don't get any responses, you might want to see if you can find a like site for Canadian law.