Imagine having to pay thousands of dollars just to get a card with your social insurance number.
That’s what some northerners say will be the result of recent federal changes to the application process.
Ottawa recently altered the rules for first-time card applicants so that they can no longer apply for the card by mail.
Everyone has to show up in person at a Service Canada office, but only three of Nunavut’s 28 communities have such offices.
That means people in Grise (GREEZ) Fiord must travel to Iqaluit to get the card — a $6,600 airfare and a week’s journey.
Nunavut Premier Eva Aariak (AIR’-ee-ak) has protested to the federal government.
She says the problem is common to all Canada’s remote, fly-in communities, not just those in the North.
FILED UNDER: social insurance number
