Canadian IFR/VFR Flight Plan

Andrew Sarangan wrote in message .158...
This is a question for those familiar with the Canadian system:

I understand that ATC opens and closes VFR flight plans. Lets say I file an
IFR flight plan. ATC comes back with a routing I don't like. I decline the
IFR clearance and decide go VFR. Could I ask ATC to change the IFR flight
plan to a VFR flight plan? Or, do I have to file a separate VFR flight
plan, and call them back to activate the VFR flight plan?



Andrew,
I just returned from a 10 day trip to Canada on Saturday. Flew both
VFR and IFR. It is like the US- they automatically open/close IFR flt
plans; pilot needs to both open and close VFR flt plans. However,
the tower or ground control will frequently ask if you want them to
open or close your VFR plan for you, but not always. If you land or
take off from nontowered airport you need to open/close, usually;
although Canada has numerous noncontrolled airports that have a sort
of flight service at it that may volunteer to do so. I only landed
IFR at a towered airport so I don't really know how they handle
closing IFR at uncontrolled airports; I suspect that you must close it
yourself,of course.