Application process for N.S. health card should be easier, says new resident

When Louise Wallace moved to Digby, N.S., from British Columbia last fall, she never expected to get caught up in a months-long struggle to apply for provincial health care.

"I assumed that it would be as simple as you come here, you apply for the Nova Scotia stuff, they take your B.C. stuff and they give you Nova Scotia stuff," she said.

However, she was informed that her B.C. health card was not sufficient as proof of Canadian citizenship. Wallace, who is 61, was born in the United Kingdom and received her Canadian citizenship in 1976.

So she made a call to B.C. Health Department to ask if the documents she had used to apply for provincial coverage there could be sent to Nova Scotia to complete her application, or whether copies of those documents could be sent to her directly.

Instead, what followed was a cycle of calls that took her through both provincial health-care departments and the federal immigration department. 

Wallace says she was told by officials at the B.C. Health Department that she couldn't access copies of her documents because of "privacy of information" concerns.

The Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness says applicants for a provincial health card need to submit documents such as a Canadian birth certificate, a valid Canadian passport, a Canadian citizenship card or immigration documents to support their application. 

A valid health card from another province is not sufficient identification. 

Wallace said she's surprised at the lack of communication between the provincial health-care systems when it comes to identification documents. She wishes Canadians could just exchange one provincial health card for another when they move, rather than starting an application from scratch. 

"I'd really like this to get to someone who could actually change things and get rid of such a terrible problem in logistics," she said.

She isn't sure where her citizenship documents are since she put many of her belongings into storage in New Brunswick when she and her husband moved from B.C. while they looked for a house. 

She's considering applying for another copy of her citizenship certificate for her application, but that can take months.

CBC News reached out to Nova Scotia's Department of Health and Wellness about Wallace's case. Department spokesperson Khalehla Perrault sent an emailed statement that said, in part, "It is the responsibility of the resident to apply for a health card in a new province or territory."

The statement also outlines the process of applying for a health card in Nova Scotia.