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.
MONCTON, N.B. – New Brunswick RCMP say two youths have been arrested after an emergency alert was issued Monday evening about someone carrying a gun in the province’s southeast.
Caledonia Region Mounties say they were first called out to Main Street in the community of Salisbury around 7 p.m. on reports of a shooting.
A 48-year-old man was found at the scene suffering from gunshot wounds and he was rushed to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Police say in the interest of public safety, they issued an Alert Ready message at 8:15 p.m. for someone driving a silver Ford F-150 pickup truck and reportedly carrying a firearm with dangerous intent in the Salisbury and Moncton area.
Two youths were arrested without incident later in the evening in Salisbury, and the alert was cancelled just after midnight Tuesday.
Police are still looking for the silver pickup truck, covered in mud, with possible Nova Scotia licence plate HDC 958. They now confirm the truck was stolen from Central Blissville.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. – Golf Canada has set an impressive stretch goal of having 30 professional golfers at the highest levels of the sport by 2032.
The World Junior Girls Golf Championship is a huge part of that target.
Credit Valley Golf and Country Club will host the international tournament from Sept. 30 to Oct. 5, with 24 teams representing 23 nations — Canada gets two squads — competing. Lindsay McGrath, a 17-year-old golfer from Oakville, Ont., said she’s excited to be representing Canada and continue to develop her game.
“I’m really grateful to be here,” said McGrath on Monday after a news conference in Credit Valley’s clubhouse in Mississauga, Ont. “It’s just such an awesome feeling being here and representing our country, wearing all the logos and being on Team Canada.
“I’ve always wanted to play in this tournament, so it’s really special to me.”
McGrath will be joined by Nobelle Park of Oakville, Ont., and Eileen Park of Red Deer, Alta., on Team Canada 2. All three earned their places through a qualifying tournament last month.
“I love my teammates so much,” said McGrath. “I know Nobelle and Eileen very well. I’m just so excited to be with them. We have such a great relationship.”
Shauna Liu of Maple, Ont., Calgary’s Aphrodite Deng and Clairey Lin make up Team Canada 2. Liu earned her exemption following her win at the 2024 Canadian Junior Girls Championship while Deng earned her exemption as being the low eligible Canadian on the world amateur golf ranking as of Aug. 7.
Deng was No. 175 at the time, she has since improved to No. 171 and is Canada’s lowest-ranked player.
“I think it’s a really great opportunity,” said Liu. “We don’t really get that many opportunities to play with people from across the world, so it’s really great to meet new people and play with them.
“It’s great to see maybe how they play and take parts from their game that we might also implement our own games.”
Golf Canada founded the World Junior Girls Golf Championship in 2014 to fill a void in women’s international competition and help grow its own homegrown talent. The hosts won for the first time last year when Vancouver’s Anna Huang, Toronto’s Vanessa Borovilos and Vancouver’s Vanessa Zhang won team gold and Huang earned individual silver.
Medallists who have gone on to win on the LPGA Tour include Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., who was fourth in the individual competition at the inaugural tournament. She was on Canada’s bronze-medal team in 2014 with Selena Costabile of Thornhill, Ont., and Calgary’s Jaclyn Lee.
Other notable competitors who went on to become LPGA Tour winners include Angel Yin and Megan Khang of the United States, as well as Yuka Saso of the Philippines, Sweden’s Linn Grant and Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand.
“It’s not if, it’s when they’re going to be on the LPGA Tour,” said Garrett Ball, Golf Canada’s chief operating officer, of how Canada’s golfers in the World Junior Girls Championship can be part of the organization’s goal to have 30 pros in the LPGA and PGA Tours by 2032.
“Events like this, like the She Plays Golf festival that we launched two years ago, and then the CPKC Women’s Open exemptions that we utilize to bring in our national team athletes and get the experience has been important in that pathway.”
The individual winner of the World Junior Girls Golf Championship will earn a berth in next year’s CPKC Women’s Open at nearby Mississaugua Golf and Country Club.
Both clubs, as well as former RBC Canadian Open host site Glen Abbey Golf Club, were devastated by heavy rains through June and July as the Greater Toronto Area had its wettest summer in recorded history.
Jason Hanna, the chief operating officer of Credit Valley Golf and Country Club, said that he has seen the Credit River flood so badly that it affected the course’s playability a handful of times over his nearly two decades with the club.
Staff and members alike came together to clean up the course after the flooding was over, with hundreds of people coming together to make the club playable again.
“You had to show up, bring your own rake, bring your own shovel, bring your own gloves, and then we’d take them down to the golf course, assign them to areas where they would work, and then we would do a big barbecue down at the halfway house,” said Hanna. “We got guys, like, 80 years old, putting in eight-hour days down there, working away.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
NEW YORK (AP) — Fenway Park has the Ted Williams seat. And now Citi Field has the Grimace seat.
The kid-friendly McDonald’s character made another appearance at the ballpark Monday, when the New York Mets unveiled a commemorative purple seat in section 302 to honor “his special connection to Mets fans.”
Wearing his pear-shaped purple costume and a baseball glove on backwards, Grimace threw out a funny-looking first pitch — as best he could with those furry fingers and short arms — before New York beat the Miami Marlins at Citi Field on June 12.
That victory began a seven-game winning streak, and Grimace the Mets’ good-luck charm soon went viral, taking on a life of its own online.
New York is 53-31 since June 12, the best record in the majors during that span. The Mets were tied with rival Atlanta for the last National League playoff spot as they opened their final homestand of the season Monday night against Washington.
The new Grimace seat in the second deck in right field — located in row 6, seat 12 to signify 6/12 on the calendar — was brought into the Shannon Forde press conference room Monday afternoon. The character posed next to the chair and with fans who strolled into the room.
The seat is available for purchase for each of the Mets’ remaining home games.
“It’s been great to see how our fanbase created the Grimace phenomenon following his first pitch in June and in the months since,” Mets senior vice president of partnerships Brenden Mallette said in a news release. “As we explored how to further capture the magic of this moment and celebrate our new celebrity fan, installing a commemorative seat ahead of fan appreciation weekend felt like the perfect way to give something back to the fans in a fun and unique way.”
Up in Boston, the famous Ted Williams seat is painted bright red among rows of green chairs deep in the right-field stands at Fenway Park to mark where a reported 502-foot homer hit by the Hall of Fame slugger landed in June 1946.
So, does this catapult Grimace into Splendid Splinter territory?
“I don’t know if we put him on the same level,” Mets executive vice president and chief marketing officer Andy Goldberg said with a grin.
“It’s just been a fun year, and at the same time, we’ve been playing great ball. Ever since the end of May, we have been crushing it,” he explained. “So I think that added to the mystique.”
