SISIP is asking for legislation to be passed for its policy to offer the same Coverage that VAC now provides, less the lump Sum award. We have the Government of Canada now covering all DND Vets and SISIP collecting all the premiums for each Service member from the TBC. This is called Canadian Bureaucracy, legislated 40,000,000 TBC yearly pay out.
There has been a lot of controversy over the Manual life SISIP policy 901102 and why an Optional Life insurance Policy is Mandatory for Military Service Members. As an ex-service member who held the SISIP optional 901102 Policy while I was an active Service Member I remember the day when we were instructed to Sign our OGTI Policy. A line was formed and one at a time we entered an interview room with a SISIP representative who would present us with the Optional Group Term Insurance Policy. Within the Policy on the first page you are lead to read the instruction “If you wish to request $250,000 or greater insurance you will be required to meat with a SISIP representative”. Luckily that is who has handed me the OGTI policy to read and sign, therefore making any request up to $400,000 a motion of looking up from pen and paper to the person across the table, or in my case over my shoulder. With my option out of the way, I would then be instructed that my premium’s calculation would show on my policy and only 15% would be deducted from my monthly pay. Life insurance is a good thing for an infantry soldier, without reason. My option was executed and I happily signed my Policy and yes it was a good thing to do. Government bureaucracies are difficult to understand and at 19 years of age the only thing I needed to understand was that if I die someone was going to get a nice big cheque, which no one wants.
What I did not understand was my option. I believed my option was how much coverage I wanted; I already knew it was mandatory to have an interview with a SISIP representative. I was ordered to stand in a line and when the directing NCO ordered me to enter the interview room and fallow the SISIP representative’s instructions I did as ordered. I did know that OGTI was an option that the Gov of Canada had made mandatory but I did not know what response I would receive if I asked to opt out of the SISIP policy. So after I was ordered to enter the interview room with the SISIP representative I asked to opt out of SISIP as the title of the Policy had suggested was my right to do so. I wasn’t to too cocky as a new recruit although I was brash enough to enjoy a good puke on a route march. So when the SISIP rep stated to me that he was here for me to sign the policy and that I must do so, I refused, as the policy was an option by its name sake. The rep then explained that I was correct that the policy’s name was optional; however the Gov of Canada has passed legislation to ensure that every service member is covered by SISIP insurance and that by not signing I would be contradicting Gov of Canada legislation.
The story is still not told as all I was doing was fallowing orders. Without anything short of puking at the feet of this SISIP rep I signed up. He was wearing the rank of Major and held the air about him of a Chaplin; I was not going to argue the elephant in the room any farther out the door.
Historically the SISIP 901102 has been the only thing for the Canadian military in the way of Life Insurance. SISIP only began to find its conflicts with VAC as service members began to be released from Service with VAC pensions for Service related injuries. Band-Aid after band aid has been applied to Gov Canada Legislation to mend the bleeding wound the SISIP 901102 represents and insures. One of these Bleeds began when VAC allowed DND employees to apply for Disability Pensions under the Pension Act while still serving. An example of this Bleed would be an infantry man losses his right hand including trigger finger in a tank track while on night maneuvers, he would be offered his option to claim this disability with VAC and to receive a disability pension while still serving and also a job with DND at his pay grade less right hand. If this Service member continues to serve for several more years and then leave the Service he will be offered the option to collect on his SISIP policy under the LTD 901102 as he suffered from a service related injury that resulted in a disability. He would be collecting his VAC disability pension that was awarded while he was serving however his LTD will be deducted by the amount of his VAC pension, this is the SISIP Claw back issue and not unrelated however not the issue of this article.
I would rather focus on the bureaucracies of band aids and the end result of the most recent band aid applied to the VAC and SISIP conflict. SISIP is a good insurance company that offers life insurance to Canadian Service Members. The Canadian Government being concerned about its men and women in uniform legislated that the Treasury Board of Canada will pay 85% of all SISIP regular full time members’ policies and 100% of all Reserve and Sup list policies. As a Reservist you never need to sign a policy unless employed as a full time Reservist. The SISIP policies where subsidized by the TBC at a time in Canadian legislation when the SISIP insurance was not mandatory for Service members, the legislation was intended to help Service members to take life insurance by lowing their premiums. Later the Canadian Government legislated that the SISIP would be mandatory so that every Service member would be covered by Life Insurance. With the TBC already subsidizing all but 15% of each regular Force full time member’s coverage a great success was achieved in Ottawa; that being, having the entire military with a life insurance policy that was paid for by the Government of Canada.
We have no conflicts until we see DND employees retiring with life time pensions already awarded for disabilities, A bureaucratic nightmare bleeding though heavy gauze. What was to fallow is an extreme overhaul to the VAC legislation that opened the Pandora’s Box of the SISIP claw back issue, this over haul being the New Veterans Charter. The New Veterans Charter was enacted to ensure that New Veterans whose injuries may be related to Combat and Hostile theaters of operations would receive absolute care wholly supplied by the responsibility of the Gov of Canada. The New Veterans Charter was intended to address the SISIP conflicts however it is apparent that the New Veterans charter is an old ratted field dressing over a sucking chest wound, it may be tight but it is still sucking.
Enter the room SISIP claw back.
News, media, and Veterans on the Parliament lawns wanting to know why a Disabled Vet cannot collect his VAC Reward and claim his full SISIP policy insurance for compensation. The government of Canada has ensured that all pain and suffering is covered by the reward offered in the New Veterans Charter and that any pain and suffering rewarded by the Pension act is in conflict with the SISIP 901102 as to much of a reward is when a reward conflicts with the compensation.
What is a reward?
It is very easy to understand that a Reward of $5000 to a DND employee who lost a finger will be paid by VAC rather than having his missing finger bronzed and mounted as a trophy. I believe that most people would agree that $5000 is a more reasonable reward.
C-55 - In short VAC and SISIP are no longer in conflict, quite the contrary they are parallel or more so to the point they are Redundant. With the passing of Bill C-55 VAC offers a onetime non taxable lump sum not in conflict with the SISIP claw back issue and also $2000 a month offered to Veterans with permanent Life long Disabilities and 75% of you salary at current rate and a minimum salary rate of basic Corporal or $40,000. DID you get that!! VAC!! And no longer SISIP offers everything SISIP used to cover for Veterans with Disabilities. The new conflict is in the VAC financial services labeled Earnings Loss, a taxable income replacement paid to VAC clients with disabilities who are participating in the Rehab and Vocational portions of VAC’s New Veterans Charter. This conflict is with the VAC EL and the SISIP LTD as VAC now provides a minimum income replacement of a basic corporal at current Military Salary while SISIP is 75% of prerelease salary weather that salary be 1976 or 2011. Why would SISIP ask for new legislation to raise the policy coverage to match VAC? I would assume to keep their appearances in good standing with the face valued voters of Canada. There is no benefit to having SISIP still in the picture unless the legislated premium paid by the TBC for each Member is collected for the programs it truly is paying out on now, CFPAF. Manual life SISIP has reported over $42.9M in life insurance benefits were paid to beneficiaries and the SISIP FS insurance coverage in force was $27.8B. . In 2010 close to 68,830 Regular Force and 30,000 Reserve Force members were insured under the Long Term Disability (LTD) policies. Total benefits paid and support provided under the LTD and Vocational Rehabilitation Programs (VRP) was in excess of $62.2M. LTD benefits were paid to over 3,893 members, and the VRP assisted 2,873 members. Canadian Forces Census is taken using the number of Life insurance policies Manual life holds for the Canadian Military. Now are these figures before or after they deduct all Programs and Pensions awarded through VAC legislation
So you would think SISIP would disappear, nope, SISIP is asking for legislation to be passed for its policy to offer the same Coverage that VAC now provides less the lump Sum award. We have the Government of Canada now covering all DND VETS and SISIP collecting all the premiums for each Service member from the TBC. This is called Canadian Bureaucracy legislated 40,000,000 TBC yearly payout. Sure it makes sense to make sure all Service members have a Life insurance policy. All this legislation was passed during a Class action suit representing 4300 Service members in Court arguing the SISIP claw back issue. It is absolute redundancy with no accountability to have two Canadian Government Organizations provide the same coverage for disabilities to Service members, one through legislation and the other through policy. With the only true beneficiary of this kick back asking for complete absolution in this issue as they are mandatory. John A Macdonald’s Tory Life Insurance Company Manual life receiving a kick back from the Conservative Party of Canada, oh I wasn’t paying attention.
The only logical rational that may be applied by any one observing this kick back must surely agree that the Government of Canada will Guide the disabled Soldier from DND to VAC and offer a road map to CANEX and SISIP on the side. You will agree that the Disabled Vets will only observe the better option of the two, that being the VAC legislation.
Oxymoronic Canadian legislated redundant bureaucratic processes are in place to ensure that Canadians are all treated fairly and with the respect that they deserve and have earned. Somewhere up there mandatory got legislated. Plain and simple, this legislation may be interpreted as Malfeasance.
