Correspondence contradicts province’s reasoning for cancelling virtual care contract with N.B. company
When the New Brunswick Department of Health (DOH) confirmed eVisitNB’s contract for virtual on-demand, non-emergency medical services would not be renewed, it cited language as a key reason for the change.
In an emailed statement on Friday, Feb. 6, the DOH’s Director of Communications, Sarah Bustard, said that the decision was made after a “comprehensive review of virtual care services was conducted to ensure we could continue to provide virtual care to New Brunswickers in both official languages.”
In 2024, the province’s language commissioner issued two investigative reports related to 2023 complaints about eVisitNB, which operates on the Maple platform.
Shirley MacLean said the platform’s lack of French-language services could have “dangerous consequences” for those seeking medical or mental health care who are denied service in their preferred language.
The reports said the deficiencies stemmed from clients complaining about the quality of the French-language service and about their inability to choose a French-language option on the app, an issue Maple said was due to a ‘glitch’ it had since fixed.
Woodstock-Hartland MLA and Opposition Health Critic Bill Hogan says the department’s reasoning doesn’t add up.
“My understanding is that there were seven complaints,” he told the River Valley Sun. “That’s out of a million visits. That’s not a crisis, in my eyes. I also remember that the issues brought to government were being discussed and rectified.”
A Jan. 21, 2025, email from the DOH to an Acadie Nouvelle reporter confirms Hogan’s assessment.
Tanya O’Callaghan, then Communications Manager with the DOH, responded to a request for an update on the French-language complaints highlighted by the language commissioner’s office.
“In this case, the department has already implemented the recommendations made by the Commissioner of Official Languages of New Brunswick, and the latest updates were made in the summer of 2024,” wrote O’Callaghan. “Since then, the department has not been made aware of any new complaints. The department continues to monitor services.”
In the email, she detailed French and English language service levels, satisfaction and wait times, noting that the English and French services “are equivalent,” that the “service satisfaction rate reported by users in both French and English is above 90 per cent,” and in “both cases, the target service level for wait times is met and exceeded.”
She ended the email by telling the reporter that the “department worked with the provider to ensure they have staffing capacity in both official languages for each shift.”
MLA Hogan said that at the time of the original complaints, his government had asked the language commissioner to clarify whether there were seven complaints from one person or seven individual complaints.
“I don’t dispute the complaints, but it would be nice if they could disclose whether this was from one person or seven. She wouldn’t say. I would argue it makes a difference to see if it’s widespread or just one or two people,” Hogan said.
Responding to social media comments on Facebook Sunday, Feb. 8, Premier Susan Holt said that the contract had not been finalized, “but the company we are negotiating with is global – headquartered in Luxembourg, founders are from France, offices in multiple countries, including Canada and the US. We tendered for services and received 11 bids. The American firms weren’t eligible for selection as per our govt’s policy of last year.”
Holt noted that she doesn’t take this “lightly” and is “still looking at this one and asking questions.”
On Friday, Feb. 6, the River Valley Sun learned that Foundever Group would be taking over the virtual care contract on April 1. Foundever Group, through its subsidiary, Assistance Services Group, operates New Brunswick’s 811 Tele-Care contract. The service was originally provided by Florida-based Sykes Enterprises, which had operated 811 for the province since 1997. That company was acquired in 2021 by a Florida-based competitor, Sitel Enterprises, which merged into the Foundever Group. The company maintains a dual presence in Luxembourg and Miami, with its Florida office serving as the operational base for its North American operations.
In a written statement to the River Valley Sun, eVisitNB co-founder Dr. Hanif Chatur confirmed the 2025 DOH email.
“All issues raised by the Commissioner were resolved to the Government of New Brunswick’s satisfaction in the summer of 2024. Since then, there have been no new complaints. Furthermore, the DOH explicitly stated that there has never been a complaint about the quality of care between English and French services provided by eVisitNB,” Chatur wrote in the email
The news that eVisitNB’s contract would not be renewed caused panic for some patients.
“I’ve been fielding calls and getting messages since this news broke,” said Dr. Chatur. “All I can tell them is we’ll be here and will facilitate a smooth transition, but I can’t guarantee what kind of service they’ll have after April 1.”
At the end of 2025, there were approximately 127,000 patients on the provincial primary care wait list. Dr. Chatur said eVisitNB serves an average of 750 to 1,000 patients per day. More than half of those don’t have a family doctor.
“Over the past four years, eVisitNB has completed over one million consults to over 300,000 patients with our team of over 165 Nurse Practitioners from New Brunswick and across Canada,” Dr. Chatur wrote in an email. “We will let the government explain their decision, but we are very disappointed that it decided to pass over the only New Brunswick company involved in the selection process.”
In a news release issued on Saturday, Feb. 7, MLA Hogan called on Premier Holt to ‘STOP! DON’T SIGN,’ referring to the upcoming contract with Foundever.
“If nothing changes, the Holt government will be dumping our New Brunswick company for a company called Foundever, a European headquartered company with their corporate office in Miami, Florida,” Hogan said in the release.
“When you have a premier that won’t put New Brunswick first, we’re in big trouble,” he told the River Valley Sun Monday.
“We are not in a position to provide further comment beyond what has been provided by the province,” wrote a Foundever spokesperson when contacted by the River Valley Sun.
eVisitNB, founded by Woodstock ER physician Dr. Hanif Chatur and Stanley-area family doctor Jonathan Clayton, began operating as a pay-per-service model at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was initially created to help patients access medical care when New Brunswickers were urged to avoid hospital emergency rooms across the province.
The provincial government later funded eVisitNB, so New Brunswickers without a family doctor and those unable to access their doctor right away can get virtual care at no cost. EVisitNB operates from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily and is for non-emergency medical concerns.
