Assiniboia

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A Very Full Day

Miranda, Neelix, and I are parked at Integra Tire in Assiniboia since Miranda’s out of province safety inspection is first thing tomorrow morning.

The day was quite a rush. I awoke to find more transcription in my in box than I had told my client I was available for. I touched base with him and he told me to do what I could. Thankfully, the job wound up being very easy, but it still ate up my morning and the latter part of the afternoon.

I headed to C&C’s at 1:00 to continue helping with the roof trusses (we’re building them ourselves). I helped yesterday, too, and got fed dinner for a second night in a row! We had roast beef and I LIKED IT!!! I’m turning into a real prairie gal! Today, I only put in about two hours.

When I got in around 3:30, I dumped, filled the fresh water holding tank, and finished squaring away the exterior.

I came in and continued to transcribe until another client requested a Skype meeting that took a half hour. Skype works great at Haven, by the way.

I wrapped up the transcription after that, finishing at just shy of 6:00. I got the inside all packed and pulled out just passed 6:00.

It was sloooooooow going on the road out, being that the pavement is in horrible shape, but I made good time once I hit highway 2.

My on board propane tank was just about empty, so I stopped at the Co-Op to fill up. I’ll get gas tomorrow when I have a better idea of my budget.

Integra was just a block up the street and the lot was empty, so I parked on a big almost level slab. There’s an outlet right there, so I plugged in to give my batteries a good soak.

By the time that was all done, it was about 7:30 and I was beyond ravenous. I hiked the few blocks to Andy’s restaurant and they were still open. There weren’t that many food choices at that hour, but everything was still fresh and I was even asked if I wanted such and such a dish or not. I was fine with what was there. I can’t believe the buffet is just $9.75!

I am incredibly stressed about the inspection and glad I held firm to my plan of spending the night here. I just know I’ll sleep better being on site.

I have to get on the roof in the morning. When I got propane, I noticed that I dragged what looks half a tree with me! I need to get some of my branches trimmed back. 🙂

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A Fun Night Out

After rushing around all morning to do some repairs, clean up the yard, and WORK, I headed to C&C’s to help them with their construction project. We quit early to go to town and have dinner then see a movie, Charles idea.

Assiniboia is sorely lacking in dining establishments. We decided to get the most bang for our buck and go to Andy’s, famous for its (mostly Chinese food) buffet. I’d never gone and was game to try it out. The food was excellent (high praise for me since Chinese is my least favourite dinner option), fresh, hot, and plentiful. Cost? $9.75. Wow!

The movie Charles wanted to see was The Lone Ranger. It wasn’t one I had planned to view, but boy am I glad we went as it was the perfect mix of hilarious and thoughtful; just plain fun!

I can’t believe it’s possible to do dinner and a movie for under $20 (not counting gas) around here! I may have to rethink my Saturday nights. 🙂

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Good News

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.)

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Making Progress!

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.

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Insurance Strikeout

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.