Cam I Am

On Friday, I got a a piece of mail I knew wasn’t good as soon as I saw the envelope..

It was from Canada Customs and Revenue Agency.

That can never be good at this time of year.

I assumed that it was a mini-audit on my income taxes.  For the past 3 years, they’ve questioned the same thing again, and I submit the info that they are looking for, and then they leave me alone for another year.  This time, the letter was for something completely different.

The general idea of it was that I owed for the provincial Medical Services Plan (MSP), or for our provincial health card/plan (for those of you that don’t know what MSP is!).  I instantly was not impressed about this letter, because as far as I knew, my wife’s employer covers that for us, as a taxable benefit.

So I called the number on the letter.  I got in contact with the Revenue Services of British Columbia, and very politely asked WTF?  It seems that in 2002, I was paying a fee every month (something like $12.80).  When I started working for Shaw, they starting covering it, but apparently, I somehow didn’t make a complete payment to keep me “up to date”.  I was then informed that I owed $45.60.  After a fairly quick discussion, I cleared up the matter by charging it to me credit card..

It took them over 5 years to track me down for $45!  That hardly seems worth it, but it seems the MSP is like a pitbull, and won’t let go until they are ready too..