I just got through the worst natural phenomenon I’ve ever been through, including Gran Manan’s hurricane of ’94.
A second walk around revealed this damage to Miranda:
The bulb was burned out and the covers are cheap and easy to find. Looks like I got off easy.
Hear ye, hear ye! Thinking of full-time RVing in Canada? Move to Saskatchewan a year before you want to go full-time! Really!
I just got a VERY surprising bit of information from SGI.
There are two major obstacles to full-timing in Canada, legally maintaining your health coverage and all the driving stuff (driver’s license, vehicle registration, and vehicle insurance). All the other provinces I have lived in (ON, QC, AB, YT), a vehicle plated in that province must be used in that province most of the time.
Canadians who live in Mexico, renewing their visitor visas every year, will understand of what I speak. Because of a Mexican law, these Canadians have to keep their vehicles registered and insured in Canada even though the vehicles haven’t been to Canada in years. So many Canadians (and this is all from forum discussions I’ve read) let their registration and insurance expire since their province will not renew.
If these Canadians were from Saskatchewan, there would be no problem. Here’s the email I got from SGI, emphasis mine:
“SGI does have an allowance for individuals traveling and living in their vehicle outside Saskatchewan for an extended period of time. In order to qualify for this registration allowance the registered owner of the vehicle must meet and maintain the following requirements:
1. If they don’t currently have a permanent residence in Saskatchewan, their last permanent residence (owned/rented/leased) was in Saskatchewan; and
2. They don’t own a permanent residence outside of Saskatchewan; and
3. If they hold a driver’s license it must be from Saskatchewan; and
4. They file income tax in Saskatchewan; and
5. They are required to return to Saskatchewan at least once per year.Anytime a vehicle is operated outside of Saskatchewan the rules of the jurisdiction the vehicle is being operated in must be followed.
If you are able to meet the above criteria then you would meet the definition of a Full Time Traveller for registration of your motorhome and the ability to operate it extensively outside Saskatchewan.
If you don’t meet the above criteria you would be considered a non-Saskatchewan resident. As a non-Saskatchewan resident SGI will register and insure the motorhome if it is being used in Saskatchewan. However, out of province use of the motor home would be limited to 30 days in a calendar year.
The coverage provided by the license plate would be for damage to the motor home itself and includes $200,000 in third party liability. The license plate coverage does not cover any contents within a vehicle or anything you have put in storage. This type of coverage would need to be purchased through a private insurance broker.”
Saskatchewan is crazy convenient to get to, being right smack in the middle of the continent, so getting here once a year by vehicle or plane really wouldn’t be an issue.
So if a Canadian is thinking of going full-time, they would do well to move to Saskatchewan for a year first to establish themselves as residents. Then, as long as they come back once a year (note that there isn’t a time requirement for the return), even if they no longer have property here (but why not buy, properties are CHEAP here!), they can still have SK-plated vehicles and an SK driver’s license as long as they keep paying their income tax in SK.
Back in Dawson City, I met a blog reader who is based in Alberta. We talked about replacing an Alberta’s driver’s license if yours is stolen. A true full-timer with no real homebase in Alberta would have a really hard time doing so as you have to reestablish proof of residency. In SK, no problem as long as you follow their non-onerous rules.
Now, health coverage is another matter altogether, same as all the other provinces in that you need to be here a certain number of months per year (six in SK). But that seems like such a small hurdle when the driving stressors are eliminated.
This revelation has renewed my interest in going to Mexico for a few years if I can meet the new visa requirements. I could head down there with Miranda only (less complicated to enter the country that way and the motorhome would have entry for 10 years versus six months for the truck). I could spend the bulk of the year there, but fly to SK for parts of the summer. This would be lovely once I get a small cottage on this lot and even a garage.
I’m happy to know that Canada hasn’t whipped me completely into submission, that I can still refuse to accept what I’m initially told and move up the chain of command until I get the answer I want.
This is the freest I’ve felt since I pulled out of Ottawa just shy of five years ago. In a couple of weeks, I will be ‘legitimate’ again and be able to set off on my next adventure with the peace of mind that I have been sorely lacking the last few years.
I got back from a Willow Bunch run this morning to find several emails from insurance brokers in Regina regarding my conundrum. All but one basically said, “Yeah, good luck with that.”
The exception basically said, “Hey, no problem! You’ll get the basic RV insurance from SGI to make it street legal, then we’ll add on some extra coverage since it’s your house and you need more liability, and finally we’ll tack on a basic tenant insurance policy for your contents.”
I forwarded the email to my SGI contact who confirmed that this is doable. It is!!!! Now, I’m waiting for the other guy to get back to me with some answers regarding the coverage they can give me. It’s nowhere near as good as what I’m getting with the Elite coverage and I’m wondering if we can get a little closer to that (eg. being able to get a hotel and restaurant meals if I’m forced out).
Not counting the out of province vehicle inspections, which I’ll get to momentarily, my paperwork is mostly in order. I have all my Quebec claims history and my driver’s abstract. But when I moved from Yukon to Alberta, my Yukon broker refused to give me my claims history and sent it directly to my Alberta broker, after two or three requests. I’m going to request my Alberta claims history and at the same time ask if they have the Yukon information to send along with the Alberta records. I have a Yukon driver’s abstract and SGI can access Alberta records to get my history there.
So the next major hurdle is the out of province vehicle inspections. Since I needed propane, I decided to drive to Assiniboia to talk to someone in person. I went to the SGI website, found the only place in town that could do both vehicles, and headed there. The truck is scheduled for first thing Tuesday morning and Miranda for the Tuesday after that. I forgot to ask about the cost and, really, it’s irrelevant since I need the work done.
Once the truck safety is done and any issues found are addressed, I will be able to get my Saskatchewan driver’s license and health coverage as well as the plates for the truck and the tenant insurance for Miranda. That will mean Miranda will not be street legal but I’ll be okay parked on my property if disaster strikes.
The out of province inspections are a huge wildcard. I have no idea what may be found. The truck was safetied in Alberta last summer, so I’m not too concerned. But I really don’t know about Miranda because of the accident I had last year. I know the brakes won’t be a problem, but there could be alignment issues and I could be forced to buy my tires right then and there when I was hoping to get her into a Montana tire shop.
My feelings about the purpose for the out of province inspections aside, I know that Miranda’s likely due for a thorough inspection, so I’m trying to be zen about this instead of thinking of all the time it’s going to take to pull out, get there, do the inspection, come back, get set up again, and do it all over again in the likely event that she needs work done.
So to reiterate, provided the truck inspection goes smoothly and I get the rest of my claims history promptly, I just may end up being a Saskatchewan resident by the end of the month. And for the rest of my life. The next time I immigrate somewhere, it’s to another country.
(And the word ‘immigrate’ is not hyperbole. I have proof on my desk, a government form from Quebec, that you don’t move to a new province but rather immigrate to it.)
Ah, having been a fed really was useful as I’ve learned how the great mean machine thinks and acts.
I’ve been researching private insurance and have found a number of folks who do ‘special property’ insurance. I’ve contacted a few to see if I could get the contents of my rig insured, plus get some personal liability coverage. Possibly, and only if SGI will insure the motorhome for the driving portion of the equation.
So I went back to the broker in Assiniboia and asked them if SGI would insure a vehicle that I’m living in. YES. They just won’t merge their house and auto policies to give me an all-in-one or give me the personal liability coverage.
Now, I just need to find someone who will give me the coverage I’m missing. I really doubt that I’ll get anything as good as I had with Aviva Elite, like the hotel and meal perk if I’m forced out, and I’m sure I’ll end up paying, sum total, way more than I’m paying now (about $1,700 a year for the truck, motorhome and contents, and liability). But if I can pull this together, I may get my Saskatchewan residency!
The moral of the story is, be your own advocate. And remember the government is just a bunch of robots acting in unison. Confuse them enough and you just might get what you want.
Star Trek has been the best education of my life.
The insurance broker I spoke to in Assiniboia has been unable to find me coverage for living in my motorhome. I spoke with someone who commented on the blog about having similar difficulties and followed up as to what she did. She took up residency outside of Saskatchewan.
As long as the insurance issues are not dealt with, there is no point in moving forward with the residency transfer. I was going to remain mum about all of this, accustomed as I am to living off the radar. But the realisation that I’m actually coming ‘legitimate’ again, willing to live in one province for six months and traveling as a snowbird the rest of the year, has made me decide to go public. The only issue I’m having is that Saskatchewan insurers don’t want me to live in my motorhome. Why would I put myself into debt to get another residence when this one suits me just fine?
Since Saskatchewan has government-run insurance, I did the logical thing and contacted the government. We’ll see if that gets me anything.
If I don’t get resolution from that, the next step will be the media. I am going to have to be very open about my conundrum in order to protect myself.
Most irksome is that this is delaying my getting health coverage. It might not be clear to folks who have never changed provinces, but that’s the last step to establishing residency and you use your vehicle registration and new driver’s license as part of the proof that you can get health coverage in the new province. Because the two databases are linked, it is almost impossible to have health coverage in one province and a driver’s license in another, unless one of the provinces is Quebec since it doesn’t share information with other provinces (writing from experience…).
So until I get my vehicle insurance issues resolved, I’m stuck for health insurance. While I could use my Alberta health care for a real emergency here, it would raise a red flag.
Just another day in the Independent States of America. I may have to question just how badly I want to be at Haven. 🙁
I would like to clarify this post as the issue I’m facing isn’t clear. The problem is that insurance is run by the government in SK and they do not have an obvious product that fits my need. Therefore, they will not insure me. The issue isn’t whether or not I can live in a motorhome but rather I can live in it while being protected in the event of an accident, break in, fire, etc. If I was dealing with a private corporation, they should have more flexibility in creating a product for me. The government is not set up to think outside the box.