It does seem weird. Maybe in Canada the vacation pay needs to be put aside in an account as time off is accrued? If this was the case they might be being paid

It does seem weird. Maybe in Canada the vacation pay needs to be put aside in an account as time off is accrued? If this was the case they might be being paid out of cash that is on-hand and reserved for vacation payments. The company would be getting five days of work out of an employee, paying them five days, but 20% of that money might be coming out of cash already stocked for paying vacation time out.