Only in Canada... eh???

Well, it was a hell of a trip to say the least.....

We had planned to go to Canada in July, visit with some friends in Edmonton in early August and finish up with the estate and come home. Plans change.

Circumstances were such that we felt it was best to get our butts there sooner. So we did. We thought that since we were there, we might as well change my name on legal things... like credit cards, bank accounts, passports, social insurance, pension.. all the good stuff.

Some of it went well, some of it not so well. I found out that in order to change your name on your government ID (driver's licence, social insurance, provincial ID) to your new name, you need to have two pieces of government issued ID in your new name. You think that wasn't fun?

Apparently the problem is that 'Big Brother' wants to know not only who you are now, but who you have been since date of birth and if anything changes, they want to track it. I can no longer get a driver's license in British Columbia because my license changed from British Columbia to Alberta and they (British Columbia) lost track of me. They could not find the linkage from my birth certificate forward to the current driver's license, although they did find my previous driver's license in the system. If this doesn't make sense, it simply means, they couldn't link my birth certificate to previous driver's license and refused to update my current one. Trust me, I am confused too.

Some of it was easier than others... RBC, BMO and Pension Corp accepted the Belizean marriage certificate for what it was. Kudos to you!!!

President's Choice was a different matter altogether. In order to change the information on my bank account and credit card, I had to have two pieces of ID in my new name, plus the marriage certificate. However, they first told us I need one piece of ID, so once we got the first one, we rushed out to the kiosk and prepared to change things over. Then they informed us that I really needed two pieces of ID and the young man in the kiosk had the audacity to laugh at my frustration.

We were able to submit all documents necessary to a kiosk in Edmonton where I signed many papers and signature cards. After two weeks, my name still wasn't changed on my accounts so we started phoning. It turns out that they misplaced the signature cards and then destroyed the rest of the documentation as it wasn't 'complete'. We were told we could go the next day to the kiosk in Langford, but as I explained to the male person on the other end of the line, (at the no service/no help desk - as Bob calls it) we were leaving the first thing in the morning, it was not possible. He allowed as it wasn't his problem and he really didn't care if it was done or not.

Eventually it was all changed via email through supervisors, who could have guessed it could have been so easy. Why couldn't we have done that in the beginning?