Canada’s provincial and territorial governments are responsible for education. They follow government standards to ensure high quality public education across the country. School is mandatory for children from about the age of six years old to 18 years old. Our study environments are safe and welcoming.
I agree with your point about teenagers work interfering with their schooling, but that’s not quite correct about the mandatory age.
It’s only mandatory to 18 in New Brunswick and 17 in Manitoba.
In the rest of Canada the age is 15 to 16. (16 in Saskatchewan.
https://web.archive.org/web/20100214200211/http://www.educationau-incanada.ca/index.aspx?action=educationsystem-systemeeducation&lang=eng
I went with this page:
In MB, it’s either until you graduate or you turn 18.
https://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/schools/gts.html