Iqaluit senior not told of massive bill until September

Rev. Mike Gardener of Iqaluit had no idea that he would be obliged to pay $34,000 and leave the Larga Baffin patient residence in Ottawa until he received a letter from Annamarie Hedley, the Government of Nunavut’s manager of health insurance programs, on Sept. 22.

That much is clear from a handwritten letter Rev. Gardener wrote to Alex Campbell, Nunavut’s deputy health minister, on Sept. 30.

Along with the bill, Rev. Gardener was also told to leave the residence to make room for Inuit beneficiaries.

But that’s hardly the GN’s version of events, according to a letter that Campbell sent Sept. 29 to one of Gardener’s three daughters, which was obtained by Nunatsiaq News.

In this letter, Campbell says Gardener had been told in July to contact the GN health insurance office in Rankin Inlet to “ascertain his eligibility” for benefits under a program called the Nunavut extended health benefit plan.

That office did not hear from Rev. Gardener, Campbell writes.

“Mr. Gardener later advised the boarding home manager that he could continue to stay at the facility because it had been approved.”

Larga Baffin’s manager assumed Rev. Gardener had done this “without verifying it,” says Campbell.

Rev. Gardener, who has spent more than 50 years as an Anglican minister on Baffin Island, began his stay at the Larga Baffin patient residence last January because his wife Margaret, 80, was hospitalized in Ottawa.

Rev. Gardener writes that before heading to Ottawa he was told there would be “no problem” for him to stay in Larga as an escort, as he had this on a previous trip.

“So I trusted your Department that it would still be the same policy for this current stay,” he writes Campbell.

Otherwise Rev. Gardener says he would have found other accommodation in Ottawa.

Rev. Gardener tells Campbell that he had no idea there might be any problem with staying at the patient residence until “out of the blue” Trudy Metcalfe, the manager of Larga Baffin, told him in July that funds for his stay were running out.

Metcalfe told him “not to fret,” Rev. Gardener says in his letter to Campbell.

And, after that, Rev. Gardener says he heard nothing more.

“I assumed I would be able to stay on at Larga, as nothing was said or given to me in writing,” he writes Campbell, saying that after he had been informed that be would have to pay, he did so, until he moved out.

Rev. Gardener says he wants Campbell to know what “there has been no direct communication to me from your dept other than the letter of Sept. 22… and an invoice (#1180) for my stay at Larga.”

After applying the $70 a day for room and board from Nunavut’s extended health benefits plan for residents over 65 to the bill Gardener received Sept. 22, the GN would assume the remaining amount of money due from Rev. Gardener for his stay from January to July 31, Campbell says.

The GN would “need to work out the details” of the amount Rev. Gardener would have to pay for his stay from Aug. 1 to Sept 22.

“The department of health and social services will not assume responsibility for any further payments to Larga on Mr. Gardener’s behalf effective Sept. 22,” he says.

“The Larga Baffin has been advised that should they decide to accommodate non-beneficiary clients, then they must secure payment directly from the individual because the boarding home is specifically for land claims beneficiaries and is funded through the federal government’s Non Insured Health Benefits and these benefits are directed to Aboriginal, Inuit and First Nations status individuals across Canada.”

Campbell ends his letter by saying the GN offers no accommodation on medical travel so this “policy must be applied fairly and consistently so that there is no perception of inequality of benefits, such as offering accommodations to non-beneficiaries at the boarding homes.”

The letters of support sent to the GN on Rev. Gardener’s behalf include a Sept. 28 letter from Yvette Goodland, the social worker for Ottawa Health Services Network Inc.

Goodland says Rev. Gardener provided essential pastoral services during his stay at Larga Baffin.

“While here in Ottawa, Mike has been a stellar escort. He stays at his wife’s bedside every day. When his wife’s health allows, Mike voluntarily extended himself to many family members at Larga,” Goodland writes.

“I can recall at least on four occasions when Mike was a direct help to me in supporting families while their loved ones passed away. Mike has also baptized babies from the North when their health was deteriorating. I have to say it’s an extremely moving experience to observe him pray in Inuktitut with loved ones. It is intense and genuine. The family members clearly benefit by his presence.

“Aside from his support at the bedside of the ailing, Mike has performed a church service here at Larga every Sunday morning since he arrived many months ago.

“He also started a Bible studies group on Tuesday evenings a few months back. He has even provided group support when there has been tragedy up north and individual spiritual support when people come to him to talk.”

Related story:
• Iqaluit man gets $17,000 bill for boarding home stay because he’s not aboriginal (Ottawa Citizen)