Twelve areas of benefit

Canada is a long flight from almost everywhere our members began. We negotiate with carriers and travel providers on the routes families actually fly, and for the moments when a seat matters most: the holidays, a wedding, a parent’s illness.

• Family flights in peak season

  Fares and seats for summer, the winter holidays and the festivals that bring families home.

  With your member card

• Flexible tickets

  Change and cancellation terms that suit journeys planned around other people’s lives.

  With your member card

• Extra baggage

  Allowances for the suitcases a visit home really takes.

  With your member card

• Visiting-parents travel

  Fares and assistance for parents and grandparents flying to Canada, with help at every connection.

  With your member card

• Compassionate travel

  Urgent bookings when a family emergency calls you home.

  With your member card

• Snowbird and long-stay travel

  Arrangements for members who spend the winter abroad, or the summer back home.

  With your member card

• Airport help for elders and children

  Meet-and-assist service for elders, and for children who travel alone.

  With your member card

Supporting family abroad is part of the monthly budget in a great many Canadian households. We select regulated transfer providers and negotiate for the whole membership, so that more of what you send arrives.

• Transfers to family

  Regular transfers through regulated providers, selected for clear fees and fair exchange rates.

  With your member card

• Urgent transfers

  Fast delivery when a hospital bill or a school fee cannot wait.

  With your member card

• Bill payment abroad

  School fees, utilities and medical bills paid directly in the country where they fall due.

  With your member card

• Bank, mobile wallet or cash pick-up

  Delivery in the form your family actually uses.

  With your member card

• Exchange for larger sums

  Negotiated terms for tuition, a property purchase or the move of savings to or from Canada.

  With your member card

• How to read a transfer quote

  A plain guide to the fee, the exchange rate and the amount that arrives.

  Free to everyone

A Canadian phone number is asked for on almost every form, and plans here cost more than most newcomers expect. We negotiate plans that do not depend on a Canadian credit history.

• Mobile plans without a credit history

  Monthly plans arranged for members who have just arrived.

  With your member card

• Calling home

  International calling and texting to the countries families call most.

  With your member card

• Home internet

  Plans for renters, on terms that move when you do.

  With your member card

• Arrival SIM

  A Canadian number ready for your first day, arranged before you land.

  With your member card

• Roaming for visits home

  Data and calls for the weeks you spend abroad.

  With your member card

• Devices for students and families

  Phones, tablets and laptops on member terms.

  With your member card

• Keep your Canadian number

  For Canadians abroad: the number your bank and your government accounts already know, kept alive while you are away.

  With your member card

Provincial plans pay for doctors and hospitals. Cover for prescriptions, dental care and eyeglasses varies by province and by age, and some provinces apply a waiting period before a newcomer’s coverage begins. Our group programs are there for what the public plan does not pay.

• Waiting-period cover

  Private medical cover for the first weeks in a province where public coverage begins after a waiting period.

  With your member card

• Dental plan

  Check-ups, cleanings and treatment for adults and children.

  With your member card

• Vision plan

  Eye exams, glasses and contact lenses.

  With your member card

• Extended health

  Physiotherapy, counselling and other care outside the public plan.

  With your member card

• Virtual care in your language

  Appointments by phone or video with clinicians who speak the languages our members speak.

  With your member card

• Cover for students and temporary workers

  Health plans for members who are outside the provincial plan.

  With your member card

• Health cover for Canadians abroad

  Private medical insurance for long stays outside Canada, and for the first weeks after you return.

  With your member card

Cover for prescriptions filled outside hospital varies by province. In Québec everyone must be covered, by the public plan or by a private group plan; elsewhere many adults rely on a workplace or private plan. We negotiate with pharmacies so that a prescription is filled, explained and within reach.

• Prescription savings

  Member terms on prescription medicines at participating pharmacies.

  With your member card

• Generic medicines

  Savings on generic equivalents, with a pharmacist to explain them.

  With your member card

• Pharmacist consultations in your language

  A conversation about your medicines that you fully understand.

  With your member card

• Home delivery

  Prescriptions delivered, including to elders who live alone.

  With your member card

• Vaccines and travel health

  Travel vaccines and advice before a visit home.

  With your member card

• Care for visiting parents

  Help continuing a visiting parent’s treatment during a stay in Canada.

  With your member card

Insurance in Canada is priced on a history most newcomers do not have: years of driving here, years of renting here. We negotiate as a group with licensed insurers, and they issue every policy.

• Visitor and super visa medical

  The medical coverage parents and grandparents need for a long visit, including what a super visa requires.

  With your member card

• Tenant insurance

  Contents and liability cover, which many leases require.

  With your member card

• Auto insurance

  Group terms where private insurers provide auto insurance, and guidance on the public plans in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Québec.

  With your member card

• Home insurance

  Cover for a first Canadian home.

  With your member card

• Life insurance

  Term cover that protects a family on both sides of an ocean.

  With your member card

• Travel medical

  For trips home, and for Canadians who live abroad.

  With your member card

• Critical illness and disability

  Income protection for a household that depends on one or two earners.

  With your member card

Every policy is issued by a licensed insurer. Membership itself is not insurance.

A flawless record elsewhere counts for nothing at a Canadian credit bureau: everyone starts at zero. We arrange the accounts and first credit products that build a history from the first month.

• Newcomer accounts

  Chequing and savings accounts set up for new arrivals, ready when you land.

  With your member card

• Secured credit cards

  A first card that reports to both credit bureaus.

  With your member card

• Rent reporting

  Your rent payments added to your credit history.

  With your member card

• First loans

  A clear route from a first card to a first car loan, on terms negotiated for the group.

  With your member card

• Mortgage guidance for first-time buyers

  Including buyers with a short Canadian history.

  With your member card

• Banking for Canadians abroad

  Accounts, cards and a credit history kept in good order from a distance.

  With your member card

• Registered savings explained

  Plain guides to the TFSA, RRSP, RESP and FHSA. General information, not financial advice.

  Free to everyone

A life between two countries runs on paper: certified copies, translations, sworn statements, powers of attorney. We arrange access to licensed professionals and point you to the right office. We do not give legal or immigration advice ourselves.

• Certified translation

  Translations by certified translators, in the form Canadian authorities accept.

  With your member card

• Notary and commissioner services

  Sworn statements, certified true copies and letters of invitation.

  With your member card

• Authentication for use abroad

  Guidance on authentication and apostilles for Canadian documents needed in another country.

  With your member card

• Lawyer referrals

  First consultations with licensed lawyers and, in Québec, notaries.

  With your member card

• Licensed immigration representatives

  Referrals to lawyers and licensed consultants only, never to unlicensed agents.

  With your member card

• Wills and powers of attorney

  For families with property, parents or children in two countries.

  With your member card

• Consular Desk

  How to reach your consulate in Canada, or Canadian consular services abroad. Information only.

  Free to everyone

Canada invites engineers, nurses, teachers and electricians, and then asks each of them to qualify again, profession by profession and province by province. We guide members along that route and secure places in the programs that shorten it.

• Credential assessment support

  The right assessment for your purpose, and the route to your provincial regulator, step by step.

  With your member card

• Bridging programs

  Places in programs that turn international experience into a Canadian licence.

  With your member card

• Licensing exam preparation

  Study groups and preparation courses for professional and trade exams.

  With your member card

• Mentoring in your profession

  An introduction to someone who has already made the same journey.

  With your member card

• Workplace English and French

  Courses in the language of your occupation, not only the language of the classroom.

  With your member card

• Résumé and interview coaching

  How Canadian employers read a résumé, and what they listen for in an interview.

  With your member card

• Trades and Red Seal pathways

  Guidance for tradespeople on certification and on working across provinces.

  With your member card

The first Canadian year is the expensive one: a winter wardrobe, a furnished home, a car that must start at minus thirty. We negotiate member terms on the purchases every household makes.

• Winter clothing

  Coats, boots and layers for adults and for fast-growing children.

  With your member card

• Winter tires and car care

  Tires, block heaters and servicing before the cold arrives.

  With your member card

• Furniture and appliances

  Furnishing a first home in Canada.

  With your member card

• Groceries from home

  Member terms at grocers that stock the foods you grew up with.

  With your member card

• Moving and storage

  Within a city, between provinces and across borders.

  With your member card

• Family outings

  Museums, parks, rinks and ski hills: the Canadian seasons, on member terms.

  With your member card

• Tax preparation

  Tax preparers who know newcomer and cross-border returns.

  With your member card

Many of our members are raising children in one country and caring for parents in another. These programs hold a family together across the distance.

• Elder care abroad

  Care providers for parents in the country where they live, with reports you can trust.

  With your member card

• Elder care in Canada

  Home care and companionship in the language your parents speak.

  With your member card

• Heritage-language classes

  So that your children can talk with their grandparents.

  With your member card

• Tutoring and homework help

  Support for children who are learning in a new school system.

  With your member card

• International student support

  For students who arrive alone, and for the parents who worry from far away.

  With your member card

• Camps and after-school programs

  Places for children through the long summer and after the school day.

  With your member card

• Family emergencies abroad

  A plan and a person to call when something happens to a relative far away.

  With your member card

It is the question families put off longest: where, and how, if it happens here? We arrange dignified options in advance through licensed providers, and the network stands with the family when the day comes.

• Repatriation of remains

  Arranged between licensed funeral providers in Canada and in the receiving country.

  With your member card

• Burial or cremation in Canada

  With respect for the rites of your faith and your culture.

  With your member card

• Funeral planning in advance

  Decisions made calmly, written down, and shared with the family.

  With your member card

• Final-expense insurance

  Offered through licensed insurers, who issue the policies.

  With your member card

• Bereavement travel

  Urgent travel for the family, in either direction.

  With your member card

• Grief support in your language

  Counsellors and community elders who understand what was lost.

  With your member card

• Affairs in two countries

  Referrals to licensed professionals for settling an estate here and abroad.

  With your member card

Member associations also stand together under the Mutual Aid Compact, which is mutual aid, not insurance, and creates no right to payment.