Montreal Branch Newsletter
A word from the president – Spring - Printemps 2012
I am carrying out another mandate for a third year as
president of the branch and I want to express my thanks to
the members of the Board for their confidence in me. Since
arriving in 2009 as a director, I had the opportunity to
occupy different positions in the branch, at the board of
director and to get involved in multiple tasks.
One of the priorities that emerged quickly, was to fill on a
regular basis all the positions on the board of directors as soon they are available and,
accordingly, to manage a succession plan for these positions. Indeed, when several
positions remain vacant during the year, this has a dampening effect on our operations
and decision making. During the recent general meeting of May 2, 2012, we met this goal
in those two aspects.
Much work has been accomplished during the year in communications. For example, we
have improved the presentation and the content of our quarterly edition of En Garde.
From this year, we will publish quarterly editions of eight pages each. In fact, in the past,
there were two editions of the fall and spring, which contained eight pages, while the
editions of the summer and winter contained four pages. Concerning the website of the
branch, several improvements have been made to improve its contents, but also to its
presentation. In addition, we now offer a fully bilingual site.
We approached the tables on seniors with the impetus to be an active participant and to
which we will be able to offer a tangible contribution on important issues. I am thinking
here of issues that are aiming to protect and to improve the quality of lives of seniors,
whether, as examples, those of public transit or residences for seniors. FSNA-Montreal
considers it is important to be present at these tables and to work in a complementary way
with other organizations or associations.
In this newsletter we are informing you about our involvement of a difficult situation that
occurred in a senior home, on the results of the Annual General Meeting of May 2, 2012,
on our readiness to know your experiences as volunteer or as civil servant. Also, you will
find two articles on the Public service health care plan, and on two affinity programs.
GOOD READING.
Jacques Lambert
anrf.president@cadre.qc.ca
1
The Federal Superannuates
National Association (FSNA),
Montreal Branch, is a not-forprofit organization founded in 1966
Board of directors
President
Jacques Lambert
1st vice-president
Jocelyne Wiseman
2nd vice-president
Robert Richard
Secretary of the board
Daniel Morin
Treasurer
Aline Landry
Directors
Denis Brunette
Camille de Varennes
Marc Chénier
Pierre Drolet
Nicole Fournier
Loreta Giannetti
Jean Lapierre
Raynald Turgeon
Immediate past president
None
Editing
Loreta Giannetti
Jacques Lambert
Robert Richard
Raynald Turgeon
Paul H. Vanasse
The office is opened from Monday
to Friday, from 10:00 am to 02:00
pm.
1940, Henri-Bourassa Blvd, East,
suite 300, Montréal H2B 1S1
Tel.: (514) 381-8824
Email address :
anrf-fsna@cadre.qc.ca
www.anrf-fsna.qc.ca
Summer 2012
FSNA at the defense of the rights of seniors
You've probably all been made aware of a difficult event that
forced on May 10, 2011 more than 125 residents of Monaco's
residence, owned by Allegro, to move within six weeks while the
statutory deadline set by the law is six months. The average age of
the residents was 84 years. This maneuver of the direction of the
residence Monaco made the headlines, as in newspapers and on
television. Here's a web link (French only) that will allow you to
refresh
your
memory.
http://fr.canoe.ca/infos/quebeccanada/archives/2011/05/20110511234145.html
After being denied by the Quebec Commission of Human and
Youth Rights to complain to the names of seniors who have been
exploited, nine organizations have decided to join their forces to
bring the case to court. This includes your association, FSNA
The coalition is challenging the decision of the Commission which
requires from the associations to obtain the written consent of the
people they represent, which goes against what the law says,
because it stipulates that it would not be necessary in a case of
exploitation of the elderly. Thus, the coalition calls on the Superior
Court of Quebec for a ruling on the interpretation to be made of
certain articles of the Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The Quebec association right of retirees
and pre-retirees (AQDR), through its
president, Louis Plamondon, is the lead
on this legal issue on behalf of the nine
associations. Mr. Jean-Pierre Ménard, a
very well-known lawyer acknowledged
in health issues and in the defense of
advocacy issues concerning the seniors provides the legal
representation.
On April 16, your President Jacques Lambert, in connection with
Yvan Vigneault, provincial liaison officer to FSNA, appeared at the
press conference held at the offices of Me Ménard, on Hochelaga
Street in Montreal. This press conference was to announce the
motion filed in Superior Court on the previous Friday. The details
of the press conference are available at the following address
(French only): It seems that this issue was not covered in the
English newspapers!
http://www.lelezard.com/communique-1235582.html
2
Annual General Meeting (AGM)
FSNA, Montreal Section
May 2, 2012
The AGM began its works at 10:00AM on
Wednesday, May 2, 2012. We were honored by
the presence of 141 members who decided to
attend this important meeting. Although
participation has increased slightly from year to
year, we would be happier if we had greater
involvement of other members. The Montreal
branch has more than 13,500 members and we
believe we can improve this score for the next
year. Members also asked various questions
about our group insurance and other issues of
concern regarding the future of our pension
plan, concerning taxation and in relation to
health and dental insurance.
Guests attending the meeting: Hélian Lizotte,
a member of our section and national president,
Gerald Denis, national director for the Quebec
region, Jean-Louis Lavoie, Regional Service
Officer and Yvan Vigneault, Provincial
Advocacy Officer.
ELECTIONS
Denis Brunette, President of the Nominating
Committee, presented its report to the General
Assembly. At the time of the end of
nominations, he received nine nominations to
fill seven director positions that became vacant
during the year or whose terms had come to an
end. In addition to these elected positions, an
administrator, recruited after the AGM last year
was confirmed in her post by the members
present. First, four director positions had to be
renewed for a period of three years. With the
unanimous agreement of the members, the four
directors were thus renewed for another term:
namely Jacques Lambert, Camille de Varennes,
Pierre Drolet, Nicole Fournier.
Five candidates have competed for the
remaining three vacancies, one office for a
term of three years, the next one for two years
and for one year for the last post.
By order of the voting results, appointments
are: Aline Landry (3 years), Jean Lapierre (2
years) and Marc Chénier (1 year). The other
two candidates, Michel Racine and Denis
Paulin will be contacted shortly to keep their
applications in reserve and to use their skills
during the year
All positions on the board of the branch are
now occupied. We are very proud of this
success.
Pictured on the new board of directors, we can
recognize by order, Jacques Lambert, Jean
Lapierre, Aline Landry, Michel Chenier,
Jocelyne Wiseman, Raynald Turgeon, Loreta
Giannetti, Pierre Drolet, Nicole Fournier,
Robert Richard, Denis Brunette, Camille de
Varennes, Daniel Morin. .
After the meeting, the board of directors held a
special meeting to elect the new leaders of the
branch. Here are the results of these
appointments: Jacques Lambert, President,
Jocelyne Wiseman, 1st Vice President - Robert
Richard, 2nd Vice President - Aline Landry,
Treasurer and Daniel Morin, Secretary. We
offer our congratulations to newly elected
officials.
During the meeting, the president, Jacques
Lambert, offered a special recognition to three
of our directors and volunteer who left the
branch during the year. We thanked them for
all the work done and for all the commitment
they have dedicated to the branch over the
years, namely Arlette Dion, secretary, Gaston
Plourde, Director and Dusan Pavlovic, our
3
representative at the “Table de concertation des
aînés de Montréal”.
After
lunch,
a
hearty
Yvan
Vigneault,
provincial advocacy
officer, took the
opportunity to make
a presentation with
a humorous edge, about the Quebec
government's policy “Vieillir chez soi”.
WINNERS OF ATTENDANCE PRIZES
Michel Abourousse, Denis Brunette,
Pierrette Campeau, Fernande Clermont,
Pierre Drolet,
Jacqueline Forget,
Lionel Grégoire,
Georgette Hamaoui,
Michael Hazel,
Michel Jean,
Carole Kahle,
Monique Lalonde,
Robert Lefrançois, Claudette Rivest,
Guy Robertson,
Noelline Simard,
Jean-Jacques St-Gelais Lina Tortorella
The AGM was a great success and we received
many comments indicating a high level of
satisfaction.
In closing, we thank our sponsors who have
generously provided a number of prizes,
namely Health Partners, The Great Explorers,
La Capitale Insurance, ETFS Insurance,
Energie Cardio.
OUR MEMORIES AS CIVIL SERVANTS
HAVE YOUR SAY
In the newsletter of last spring, we asked you to
send us your story of the experiences that have
characterized your work life as a federal civil
servant. We wish to thank those who have sent
us testimonials about their experiences during
their working career with the federal
government. We hope others in the coming
weeks will take their pen, or their computer,
and send us their thoughts.
Please remember that the purpose of this
section is to give you the floor. You, all and all,
as former civil servants, have contributed to the
good management of the federal public service.
You have been, for many years of your life, at
the service of the citizens of Canada. You
certainly have a lot to say about your
contribution.
As public servants,
now retired, did you
write a policy that
would have stood out,
did you manage a
program that has had a
great influence on the
lives of Canadians, or
have you participated
in its design and its
implementation?
Were you in direct contact with the public?
Have you worked in an urban centre or in a
remote region? What have you accomplished in
a distinctive manner during your career? There
must be initiatives where you have
distinguished yourself!
It's like if you have decided to write to your
grandchildren to inform them about the
importance of the public service in a country as
large and diverse as Canada. So stop for a
moment, put a nice soft music and start writing
on the value of the work you have done.
With your different testimonies, we want to
enhance the image of the pensioners who have
spent most of their working lives to serve the
Canadian public. We cannot wait to read you
and you publish in this journal.
Email: anrf-fsna@cadre.qc.ca
Mail: FSNA - 1940, boul. Henri-Bourassa Est,
Suite 300, Montreal (Quebec) H2B 1S1
4
VOLUNTEERING
YOUR EXPERIENCES
Want to volunteer but do not know where to
look or you do not know the needs of the
organizations that are seeking for volunteers?
Here are two sites that might interest you:
1 - In the Greater Montreal
www.benevolatmontreal.org
region:
2 - In Montreal: www.cabm.net
From April 15 to 21, 2012 was held the
National Volunteer Week. The Governor
General of Canada, His Excellency the Right
Honourable David Johnston, had the
opportunity to remit the Governor General's
Award to celebrate volunteerisms’ and to pay a
tribute to their efforts (www.gg.ca). According
to the statistics, in 2010, Canadians spent a
number of volunteer hours that equate to more
than one million full-time employment. Yes,
you read correctly. It's amazing all the work
that volunteers can accomplish.
Volunteering is an indispensable activity in our
society that is increasingly individualistic. Day
after day, in grand gestures such as small
actions, volunteers are working generously to
build a better world, either by trying to relieve
human misery and promoting values that they
hold dear.
Are you a volunteer?
So do not forget that we are interested to know
you. Write to us and let us know in what you
are volunteering. We want to publish a portrait
of volunteer commitments that is practiced
among our members. You never know, once
published, the examples may encourage others
to take action?
Email: anrf-fsna@cadre.qc.ca
Mail : FSNA - 1940, boul. Henri-Bourassa Est,
Suite 300, Montreal, QC, H2B 1S1
Volunteering: Where can I look?
PUBLIC SERVICE HEALTH CARE PLAN
Useful information
It is common for members of FSNA to
communicate with our office to express their
frustration or their misunderstanding with
respect to the reimbursement of prescription
drugs by Sun Life under the Public Service
Health Care Plan (PSHCP).
The basic principle is that once the annual
deductible paid (that is to say by contributing $
60 for a single member or $ 100 for a family),
the plan will reimburse, in most cases, 80% of
the cost of the drug.
But you are certainly aware that the insurance
regime will reimburse 80% of the cost of the
drug based on a scale that applies to all of
Canada. In what follows, you will find a
summary of the policy PSHCP on this issue.
We invite you to read it.
When a contributor uses his PSHCP card to
buy a drug, the pharmacist must accept the fare
paid by Sun Life (company that administers the
Plan) for prescription drugs and for eligible
5
medical supplies. The price list is applicable
for all of Canada and includes the profit margin
and cost that the pharmacist would normally
require.
Public Service Health Care Plan
The different levels of hospitalisation
Similar price lists are used in all cases where a
direct payment card is used. However, in this
case, the price of a drug can vary quite
significantly from one pharmacy to another.
The price list is controlled electronically when
a participant uses his benefit card; it is possible
that the participant pays more than the price
listed in the Schedule if the benefit card is not
used at time of purchase. In such a situation, it
is important that the contributor makes a form
of "shopping" as to be certain that he pays the
price that will be most advantageous to him.
When the participant subsequently presents a
claim, settlement will only be based on rates
authorized by the scale.
Each prescription drug available in Canada has,
for every dosage, a drug identification number
(DIN). So as a result, every drug has a specific
price for each component of the scale and that,
for each province of the country.
The Public Service Health Care Plan (PSHCP)
with a choice of three levels of hospitalization.
Level I costs $ 21.78 to $ 42.76 individually
and as a family; level II costing respectively $
38.34 and $ 59.32. As for the level III, the cost
is $ 67.19 and $ 88.17 respectively.
With Level I, the plan will reimburse up to $
60 per day of the cost of a private or semi
private room. In the case of Level II, the refund
will be $ 140 per day for Level III and it will
be $ 220 per day.
The price list is maintained by TELUS Health
Solutions. TELUS manages the benefit card as
a subcontractor to Sun Life.
Our colleagues, in the Outaouais region, have
recently demonstrated to us in a publication,
that it is not necessarily advantageous to
subscribe to Level III. Take the example of two
people paying for the family coverage. The
first person chose Level III (member A) and
the second person chose (member B) Level I.
We are being assured that TELUS uses, on a
continuous basis, various sources in his
research to gather all the accurate information
on the pharmaceutical market in order to
maintain the price list up to date, including the
information provided the Department of Health
of Quebec.
Over a period of five years the member A will
pay a total of $ 5 290 in contributions. The
member B will have paid $ 2,566. The
difference is $ 2,724 for the member B. Now,
imagine that the B member is hospitalized 8
days and it makes the request for a private
room.
We believe also worth mentioning in this
section that if a contributor pays an amount
above $3000 for his drug supplies, the PSHCP
assume 100% of the drug costs beyond those
disbursements.
Let say that he will invoice for the, for
purposes of illustration, $ 300 per day. His fee
will be $ 2 400 less $ 60 per day paid by the
Level I, so he will pay out of his pocket $ 1
920.
The same situation occurs with the A member
who is hospitalized eight days and made the
request for a private room, also billed at a cost
of $ 300 per day. In his case the plan will
6
reimburse $ 220 per day because of its
participation in Level III.
His fees will also be $ 2 400 less $ 1 760 paid
by the plan. He will pay $ 640 from his pocket.
Moreover, if we add membership fees and
charges incurred by the hospital, the member B
is doing with a total of $ 4,486 while the
member A will pay $ 5 930. The difference
amounts to $ 1,444 for the member who chose
the level I.
In this calculation, we must consider the fact
that there are very few private rooms in the
hospital centres. However, you may want to
apply for a private room, but it remains a safe
bet that you will be placed in the room that will
be available, regardless of private or semiprivate room.
The new university hospital centres under
construction in the Montreal area will mostly
have private rooms. It would be the ongoing
trend we will see in the new hospitals because
of the reduced risk of spreading infections, if
there are mainly private rooms.
As this will be the only types of room
available, there can be no question of charging
patients for the rooms in the new University
Hospital Centres.
Obviously, it is your responsibility to
determine what is best for you and you might
prefer to guarantee a higher reimbursement rate
for hospital expenses provided by the Level III.
If you decide to modify your level of PSHCP
hospitalization coverage, you should contact
the Pension Office.
This office will provide a change form that you
must complete and return by mail.
The change takes effect the day marking the
third month of receipt of the completed form.
ARE YOU A MEMBER OF FADOQ
Island of Montreal region
In the newsletter of last fall, we
informed you that your board of
directors had decided to join the
FADOQ of the region of the
Island of Montreal as an
associative member. This status
gives us a vote on the board of directors of the
of FADOQ. This vote is vested in the President
of the Section.
Moreover, at a recent Board of Directors
(BOD) of FADOQ held in April 2012,
elections were held to fill vacancies at the
director’s level.
We are pleased to announce that the first vicepresident of our section, Jocelyne Wiseman,
was elected to the position of director within
the FADOQ of Montreal. This gives a second
vote for our branch. Your branch, with two
votes on the Board of FADOQ, can exert
influence in the decisions.
The mission of FADOQ is to promote and
defend the rights of seniors, to organize
activities, to provide programs and services that
meet the interests of people aged 50 and over
and to promote their quality of life and
development.
The FADOQ network of the Montreal Island
Region offers a range of sporting, recreational
and cultural activities designed specifically to
meet the interests of our members.
The annual cost of membership at the FADOQIsland of Montreal for the members of FSNAMontreal will be $ 20.00 instead of $ 25.00 per
year or a 25% discount.
ENJOY IT NOW. Join the network of
FADOQ-Island of Montreal. You can get a
membership form on the website of the branch
at http://www.anrf-fsna.qc.ca/pdf/fadoq-anrfentente.pdf
7
To obtain the application form, you can also
contact us at our offices at (514) 381-8824
For more details about FADOQ-Island of
Montreal, or its operation, please contact their
offices at (514) 271-1411. Do not forget to
mention you are a member of FSNA of the
Montreal branch
AFFINITY PROGRAMS
MONTREAL BRANCH
1- Rabais-Campus
2- Théâtre St-Sauveur and /Sainte-Adèle
Your branch has established a committee on
affinity programs to get discounts on products
and services that are complementary to those
offered by the national office.
Here are two programs that are now available
to members of the Montreal branch
Discount given to FSNA
members
Theatre only: $35.50 tax included (regular
price $40.00)
Supper and theatre : $62.00 tax included
(regular price $65.00).
See their website for more information:
http://www.theatrestsauveur.com/
N.B. – The plays are in French only.
Rabais-Campus
Subscription fees
Guarantee the lowest
prices (except for
student rates) for
subscriptions
to
newspapers and magazines to FSNA members
(Promotion for the Associations).
If you are not satisfied with your subscription,
it will be completed quickly and you will be
reimbursed for the undelivered portion.
However, it is understood that the participating
publications and subscription prices can change
without notice.
To subscribe, contact Discount-Campus:
Montreal: (514) 982-0180
Outside of Montreal: (800) 265-0180 (800)
265-0180
MYTHBUSTING
FEDERAL SECTOR PENSION
FSNA believes
that the calls for
federal
public
sector
pension
reform are a
convenient
diversion from
the bigger issue: that many Canadians do not
have access to an adequate pension plan and
that they lack adequate savings to provide for a
reasonable retirement income. Pension fairness
should focus on raising the standard that would
afford all Canadians the opportunity to have a
predictable and secure retirement income.
For example, the average annual pension paid
from the public service pension plan for
members who retired up and including 2010
was approximately $ 25 000. Surviving
spouses of these retirees received about half of
the retiree’s pension in 2010. This amounted to
an average of $1,750 annually. .
Take the time to download the full prepared
document by the National Office. It is very
interesting and very well documented. Feel free
to send us your comments.
http://www.fsna.com/uploads/editor/Mythbusti
ng_Federal_Public_Sector_Pensions.pdf
8