Ah yeah..
That's one thing you have to be careful of if you (Americans) are flying in Canada.
You MUST file a flight plan, regardless if its IFR or VFR. The only exception is if you are traveling less than 25nm from your departure airport. ATC does have a copy of your VFR flight plan whether you are using flight following or not.
The reason I suspect this is the case is because radar coverage in Canada, is not like in the US. In fact, even if you are in an area of radar coverage, you might not be able to get flight following due to controller workload.
If you are flying VFR and you are going to be late at your destination, you must advise ATC of your new ETA, or change in routing, etc..
Also another difference is with IFR flight plans. You can "cancel" IFR, however your SAR alerting is still in effect until you cancel that too.
A lot of foreign pilots will go VFR and cancel IFR, land, and be on their way, without closing their flight plan (SAR alerting service).
Didn't mean to get off topic here.
Oh and there is one other thing. I've never known anyone to use it, but. You can use what's called a "flight itinerary". It's essentially the same as a flight plan, but you "file" it with a "responsible person". This responsible person has the duty to let NavCanada know if you are missing.