Here’s what I’ve pieced together about this story:
- Iqaluit man travels to Ottawa to be with his wife while she receives medical treatment. He stays in a medical boarding home.
- Iqaluit man is told that he does not qualify for the government program that funds the medical boarding home. He is asked to leave, and receives a large bill ($17,000) for his stay.
- People go nuts, because the man is a good person who has helped lots of Nunavut residents.
- The government of Nunavut announces that the good man will not pay a dime: another health-benefits program will cover $8,000 of the bill. The other $9,000 is to be covered, “perhaps, by Larga” (the boarding home).
I really, really feel like I’m missing something here, and I’m kind of annoyed at the way this has been covered. Or maybe at government programs. Or maybe it’s a bit of both.
Buried deep in the news stories is the information that the program is NIHB, a federal program that covers certain medical expenses for First Nations and Inuit clients. This fellow is neither; therefore, he does not qualify for the program. So far, I understand, although I think his situation really, really sucks. The government of Nunavut has nothing to do with NIHB, but I am guessing that they administer the program on the federal government’s behalf.
CBC has been stressing what a good guy this fellow is. I really don’t understand how that is relevant, except perhaps to make him a more sympathetic figure. It doesn’t matter whether he was offering spiritual counselling to people while he was there. It’s a government program. He’s either eligible or he’s not. It appears that he’s not.
But wait! Suddenly it appears that he’s eligible for some other government program run by the same department that sent the collection notice. I am guessing that it’s even run by the same person who sent the notice. (That would be Annamarie Hedley, featured reading from a prepared statement in this story. That’s just a guess, but it’s an educated one.) This program will cover $8,000 of the cost. I’m not sure why Ms. Hedley’s office staff couldn’t have done the math before sending out the collection notice, but OK, fine.
But who’s paying the other $9,000? Why should the people who run the boarding home pay any of it? Was it their job to make sure that only people who are eligible for the program stay there? Is the government of Nunavut just going to swallow the cost because this fellow’s a really nice guy? What happens to the next poor chump who gets stuck with a bill and isn’t so nice?
I’m always suspicious when I hear that a bill has suddenly disappeared. I can’t be the only one who is getting the distinct impression that there is some sort of slush fund that is used to shut up the loudest people instead of fixing problems. This system is either working or it’s not. Maybe it works fine most of the time. But it looks to me like there is a serious gap in the system here: maybe the extended-health-benefits program doesn’t provide enough coverage; maybe it needs to be overhauled; maybe people just need to know that they can’t go to Ottawa for long periods of time without being responsible for paying part of the cost or for buying private insurance.
Whatever the problem is, the government of Nunavut needs to put some effort into fixing it instead of reassuring everyone that this guy isn’t going to pay a penny. He isn’t the point.
So I wish CBC would stop talking about how nice this guy is, and start talking about systemic problems that could be fixed with a little effort. Government programs aren’t supposed to help people based on the number of folks who stick up for them.
I understand your frustration! The CBC liberal bleeding hearts are like this. We are losing our journalistic tendencies of old as they take sides and present sob stories, rather than information and facts. It enervates me no end.
I know my brother stayed in a residence for patients receiving cancer treatment while dad was having radiation treatments in Toronto. Bro paid a hefty amount – not downtown TO prices, though. Dad was free, but they had to be together since dad had signs of dementia.
I think it *is* up to an agency to determine if a client/resident (whatever) qualifies to stay in a place like this. You wouldn’t want a man staying in a home for battered women, for example. That is not why the money was donated to the cause.
Well done: digging for more info.
This is a key sentence in your piece:
“the distinct impression that there is some sort of slush fund that is used to shut up the loudest people instead of fixing problems.”
That applies to other situations too. People all over cave to the loudest complainant. It is just interesting that in this case, he was not also obnoxious.
You are hardcore Megan. Definitely one of the best (trusted) news sources in the area.
Aaaaaand now I’m not clear on the $17K. Nunatsiaq News reported that the original bill was for $34K, meaning that the $17K was the amount owing after the EHB program covered part of the cost. That’s also what the Ottawa Citizen reported. Where the heck is this money coming from?
Nigel, you’re very kind, but the comment above shows that I’m definitely not a news source: I have done no original reporting. If anything, I’m a columnist.
Megan; one of the major pieces of information that is missing from this article, is some context for why Mike Gardiner should be treated any differently from anyone else.
I met Mike and his family when I lived in Iqaluit in the late 1980’s. Even though I only knew him for two years, he left such a huge impression on me (and likely everyone he met), that I totally understand the article.
Mike is an elderly, non-aboriginal, Anglican minister, who lives in Iqaluit. What is not mentioned (perhaps because it is common knowledge to many of the residents) is that he has spent most of his life in the North, having moved to the the Baffin region as a very young man in the 1950’s – Yes the 1950’s – when most of the residents were living a traditional lifestyle, and everything (including his Mike’s fiancee) came once a year, on the Hudson’s Bay or RCMP supply ship.
Mike is fluent in Inuktitut and is likely has lived a more traditionally Inuit lifestyle than many (if not most) of Nunavut’s residents. Mike and his wife Margaret raised many children, some of whom are genetically aboriginal, some of whom are genetically caucasion.
The Mike Gardiner that I knew spent his life serving the people of Nunavut. He baptized many of the residents, and buried their family members. I recall him spending weeks looking through old handwritten church records, piecing together facts which would help an elderly resident convince the Canadian Government that she was entitled to an old age pension. He has been a fixture in the Baffin for many years, and has not ever really left my thoughts.
While this information may not address some of your concerns about the journalism, perhaps it helps you understand the story. There are very few people like Mike Gardiner in the world, and I expect that, if there was not some sort of loophole that would allow his costs to be covered, the people whose lives he touched would be filling the gap.
That’s exactly why I don’t let people comment on my opinions anymore. They just don’t get the difference between someone as a statistic, and someone as a person. And actually, it just took me three tries to word that in a way that seems intelligible. Hmmmm… I’m sure I’d have a point if I wasn’t so tired. In any case, I’m pretty sure I agree with your point.
I don’t know the man, but I’m quite certain that he is a wonderful, wonderful person. I don’t doubt that for a moment. A reader just e-mailed me to say that the real story is how great he is, not the situation he found himself in.
I really hope the government of Nunavut figures out how to fix the problem. If money’s an issue, I’d suggest that they should start by letting people know what is and isn’t covered under the EHB program. But then, money doesn’t appear to be an issue.
Sigh — Megan, this is one of the reasons that I don’t like posting comments on your blog.
Some of your readers are very intolerant of other people who are not as smart as they are….or maybe it’s intolerance of people who see something from a different angle, and have the audacity (big word for someone as dumb as I aparently am) to add their comment to your blog. And yes you were correct; I was trying to make the point that the ACTUAL story is not the story that CBC ran with. I apologise for adding additional facts to the discussion, and not going with the usual flow of how incompetent some reporting is.
Won’t happen again.
No, no, no, no. Please stay. All are welcome here. We can have different opinions and still be OK.