On July 1, 2023, the federal government switched insurance providers from Sun Life to Canada Life.
The transition was supposed to be seamless. For hundreds, if not thousands, of federal public servants, retirees and their families, it was anything but.
Within days of the switch, CBC began receiving phone calls and emails from Canadians affected by the change — people whose benefits had suddenly and for no apparent reason been cut off, leaving them on the hook for expensive treatment or medication.
When they tried to reach the company to resolve their issues, many spent hours on hold. Some never got through to an agent. Overnight, families across the country were suddenly left begging for benefits.
CBC Ottawa shared many of their stories, and in several cases Canada Life swiftly resolved their problems. Months later, the company apologized before a parliamentary committee for what their clients had gone through.
Here are some of their stories.
The Hartlings
Dorène and Stephen Hartling enrolled in the Canada Life system well before the July 1, 2023 switchover, but since then they’ve spent days trying to get through to someone at the company about their health and dental benefits. (Kimberley Molina/CBC)
Worried about whether her monthly $1,800 medication would be covered, Dorène Hartling told CBC she called Canada Life close to two dozen times in one week but never reached an agent.
Her pharmacist had warned that with other customers insured under the Public Service Health Care Plan, it had been hit-and-miss.
Hartling was the first to share her Canada Life story with CBC.
Louise Sullivan and Mike Fairhead
With her husband’s physio benefits reduced, she’s worried he’ll lose the progress he’s made
5 months ago
Duration 1:38
Because of changes to the Public Service Health Care Plan, Louise Sullivan said her husband Mike is giving up the majority of his physiotherapy treatments which, after a stroke eight years ago, have allowed him to retain some mobility and regain some independence.
Louise Sullivan and Michael Fairhead, both retired federal public servants in their mid-60s, enjoyed an active life before Fairhead suffered a stroke eight years ago and lost function on most of his right side.
Coverage for his physiotherapy had been practically unlimited, but under Canada Life it was suddenly capped at $1,500 a year, forcing the couple to reduce Fairhead’s treatment to just once a week.
The McLaughlans
Briar McLaughlan was two when she was found without vital signs in a family pool in July 2022. She had been in the pool for up to 20 minutes and her mother performed CPR on her before she was rushed to hospital. (Francis Ferland/CBC)
For the McLaughlan family, everything changed in July 2022, when their two-year-old daughter Briar nearly drowned and suffered brain damage.
The little girl defied the odds, and after spending four months in hospital, she returned home to Kingston, Ont.
After the switch to Canada Life, the family had to fight for the same level of coverage that Briar had received before the accident, forcing them into debt and facing difficult choices due to their mounting costs.
Gloria Timothy and her granddaughters
‘The bills have added up:’ Canada Life switch leaves family unable to access late father’s military benefits
Gloria Timothy has been caring for her granddaughters for nearly six years, but since the federal government’s switch to Canada Life insurance coverage, she’s been suddenly unable to claim the girls’ medical benefits.
Gloria Timothy has been caring for her two teenage granddaughters for six years now. The girls are entitled to medical benefits through their father, a deceased Canadian military veteran. Their mother is no longer in their lives.
Under Sun Life, Timothy had no problem claiming expenses for the girls’ therapy and other medical needs, but that all changed after July 1.
Despite numerous attempts to explain her situation to the company, Timothy said Canada Life agents refused to deal with her because she’s not officially listed under her son-in-law’s plan.
That left Timothy, who’s retired and on a fixed income, paying out of pocket and facing some difficult choices.
Elizabeth Stagg
(Submitted by Elizabeth Stagg)
Elizabeth Stagg said she was effectively left to starve because the coverage for the formula she needed to live was significantly reduced when the federal government switched insurance providers.
That left Stagg, whose intestines had stopped functioning after she suffered a blood infection, on the hook for hundreds of dollars a month.
“It’s scary because [with] the economy, everything is so expensive these days, just trying to find the money to live,” Stagg said. “And here I may not be able to find the money to eat.”
The Namiesniowskis
She couldn’t afford her asthma treatment after coverage changes with Canada Life
Janice Namiesniowski was feeling hopeful when she started treating her asthma with Xolair, an injectable drug that costs $2,264.70 per treatment. But she can’t afford it unless it’s partially covered under her insurance plan, and her coverage was suddenly cut off when Canada Life took over the Public Service Health Care Plan in July.
For decades, Janice Namiesniowski’s severe asthma left her feeling like she was “breathing through a straw.”
Then she tried an expensive new drug called Xolair, which was largely covered under her husband Conrad’s health plan. The transformation was remarkable.
But after the switch to Canada Life, their coverage ended and Namiesniowski was forced to stop taking the drug.
Federal committee gets involved
A sign is seen on the headquarters of Canada Life in Toronto, May 7, 2009. The parent company of Canada Life, Great-West Lifeco Inc, reported profits that were lower than analysts had estimated. (Peter Jones/Reuters)
In October, the federal government announced a parliamentary committee would look into how the switch to Canada Life had left many public servants without the coverage they’d been promised.
Among the details the committee will study is the process by which the contract was awarded to Canada Life, as well as possible measures to restore adequate coverage for federal public servants and their dependents.
Hundred of emails
Kari Hentzelt has Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and says without a specific medication, she can suffer up to 20 migraines a month. (Submitted by Kari Hentzelt)
Following a week-long series telling the stories of Canadians affected by the insurance switch, CBC heard from many more who’d had similar experiences.
While Canada Life had intervened to resolve some cases, it quickly became evident there were many, many more awaiting resolution.
Who’s to blame?
(CBC)
The unions representing public servants say the federal government should have done more to ensure a smoother transition when the country’s largest health-care plan switched to Canada Life.
The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) compared the switch to the adoption of the Phoenix pay system, which left workers underpaid, overpaid or not paid at all.
An apology
Ryan Weiss, Canada Life’s vice-president of national accounts, appeared via video call at the standing committee on government operations and estimates in Ottawa on Dec. 7, 2023. (ParlVu)
Representatives from Canada Life apologized at a House of Commons committee studying its rocky transition to becoming the administrator of the country’s largest health-care plan.
Representatives of Canada Life appeared by video call before the House of Commons standing committee on government operations and estimates.
“To those who had a poor service experience these past months: we are sorry,” said Ryan Weiss, Canada Life’s vice-president of national accounts.
NEMASKA – For the first time in their history, members of the Cree community of Nemaska received a visit from a sitting Quebec premier on Sunday and were able to share first-hand the story of how they were displaced by a hydroelectric project in the 1970s.
François Legault was greeted in Nemaska by men and women who arrived by canoe to re-enact the founding of their new village in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region, in northern Quebec, 47 years ago. The community was forced in the early 1970s to move from their original location because they were told it would be flooded as part of the Nottaway-Broadback-Rupert hydro project.
The reservoir was ultimately constructed elsewhere, but by then the members of the village had already left for other places, abandoning their homes and many of their belongings in the process.
George Wapachee, co-author of the book “Going Home,” said community members were “relocated for nothing.”
“We didn’t know what the rights were, or who to turn to,” he said in an interview. “That turned us into refugees and we were forced to abandon the life we knew.”
The book, published in 2022 by Wapachee and Susan Marshall, is filled with stories of Cree community members. Leaving behind sewing machines and hunting dogs, they were initially sent to two different villages, 100 and 300 kilometres away, Wapachee said.
In their new homes, several of them were forced to live in “deplorable conditions,” and some were physically and verbally abused, he said. The new village of Nemaska was only built a few years later, in 1977.
“At this time, families were losing their children to prison-schools,” he said, in reference to the residential school system. “Imagine the burden of losing your community as well.”
Legault’s visit came on Sept. 15, when the community gathers every year to remember the founding of the “New Nemaska,” on the shores of Lake Champion in the heart of the boreal forest, some 1,500 kilometres from Montreal. Nemaska Chief Clarence Jolly said the community invited Legault to a traditional feast on Sunday, and planned to present him with Wapachee’s book and tell him their stories.
Thomas Jolly, a former chief, said he was 15 years old when he was forced to leave his village with all his belongings in a single bag.
Meeting Legault was important “because have to recognize what happened and we have to talk about the repercussions that the relocation had on people,” he said, adding that those effects are still felt today.
Earlier Sunday, Legault had been in the Cree community of Eastmain, where he participated in the official renaming of a hydro dam in honour of former premier Bernard Landry.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mayors and other leaders from several British Columbia communities say the provincial and federal governments need to take “immediate action” to tackle mental health and public safety issues that have reached crisis levels.
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim says it’s become “abundantly clear” that mental health and addiction issues and public safety have caused crises that are “gripping” Vancouver, and he and other politicians, First Nations leaders and law enforcement officials are pleading for federal and provincial help.
In a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier David Eby, mayors say there are “three critical fronts” that require action including “mandatory care” for people with severe mental health and addiction issues.
The letter says senior governments also need to bring in “meaningful bail reform” for repeat offenders, and the federal government must improve policing at Metro Vancouver ports to stop illicit drugs from coming in and stolen vehicles from being exported.
Sim says the “current system” has failed British Columbians, and the number of people dealing with severe mental health and addiction issues due to lack of proper care has “reached a critical point.”
Vancouver Police Chief Adam Palmer says repeat violent offenders are too often released on bail due to a “revolving door of justice,” and a new approach is needed to deal with mentally ill people who “pose a serious and immediate danger to themselves and others.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024
WINNIPEG – A backbencher with Manitoba’s NDP government has been removed from caucus over his link to convicted sex offender Peter Nygard.
Caucus chair Mike Moyes says it learned early Monday that a business partner of Mark Wasyliw is acting as Nygard’s criminal defence lawyer.
Moyes says Wasyliw was notified of the decision.
“Wasyliw’s failure to demonstrate good judgment does not align with our caucus principles of mutual respect and trust,” Moyes said in a statement.
“As such MLA Wasyliw can no longer continue his role in our caucus.”
Nygard, who founded a fashion empire in Winnipeg, was sentenced earlier this month to 11 years in prison for sexually assaulting four women at his company’s headquarters in Toronto.
The 83-year-old continues to face charges in Manitoba, Quebec and the United States.
Moyes declined to say whether Wasyliw would be sitting as an Independent.
The legislature member for Fort Garry was first elected in 2019. Before the NDP formed government in 2023, Wasyliw served as the party’s finance critic.
He previously came under fire from the Opposition Progressive Conservatives for continuing to work as a lawyer while serving in the legislature.
At the time, Wasyliw told the Winnipeg Free Press that he was disappointed he wasn’t named to cabinet and planned to continue working as a defence lawyer.
Premier Wab Kinew objected to Wasyliw’s decision, saying elected officials should focus on serving the public.
There were possible signs of tension between Wasyliw and Kinew last fall. Wasyliw didn’t shake hands with the new premier after being sworn into office. Other caucus members shook Kinew’s hand, hugged or offered a fist bump.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
