TWCC to operate Canadian Dental Care Plan customer contact centre

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This article was published 22/11/2024 (330 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An Indigenous-owned Winnipeg corporation has teamed up with Sun Life Financial Inc. to provide customer contact centre services for clients of the recently launched Canadian Dental Care Plan.

Tribal Wi-Chi-Way-Win Capital Corp. has signed a three-year agreement with Sun Life, with two, one-year extensions. Alan Park, longtime CEO of TWCC, said unless something terrible happens, the contract will be for at least five years.

“This partnership is very significant,” Park said Friday. “It is way more valuable than the dollars and cents.”

The partnership — which Park said was a result of Sun Life reaching out to TWCC — came together quickly and has meant the creation of 175 new positions in Manitoba. The Manitoba-based employees have already fielded 60,000 calls since launching in early May.

The contract will be worth between $30 million and $50 million throughout the five years of the arrangement, he said.

Both Park and Marie-Chantal Côté, senior vice-president, group benefits with Sun Life, said it is “just the beginning.”

Established in 1993, TWCC has been operating a call centre operation for more than 20 years. The agreement with Sun Life calls for at least 33 per cent of the call centre staff to be Indigenous.

Currently about 40 per cent of TWCC’s call centre operation staff are Indigenous, the company said. TWCC customer contact operation also provides services for Indigenous clients of the Canada student loan program.

Assembly of First Nations Grand Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak was present at an event announcing the partnership Friday.

These type of partnerships should be happening every day, she said.

“There are more and more of them happening, but the Indian Act itself often provides a hindrance,” she said. “But 20 years ago, we would not even be having these conversations and it is a hopeful sign that we are having them now.”

Woodhouse Nepinak also noted she would like to see more Indigenous people on corporate boards, something lagging amidst other economic reconciliation activities.

TWCC is owned by five Manitoba tribal councils and certain independent First Nations.

In addition to the contact centre, TWCC also operates a business called Aski that provides short-term loans to employed First Nations individuals who might otherwise have to patronize payday loan companies. TWCC also operates a commercial lending business, though on a smaller scale.

As well, it recently exited the insurance business. (However, Park said it intends to get back into it in the new year.)

The arrangement with TWCC is part of the terms and conditions of Sun Life’s role as administrator of the national dental program, but Côté said it is also part of its own commitment to engage with more Indigenous suppliers and partners.

“This is one of the those strategic partnerships. Yes, the federal government was looking to support Indigenous communities, but this is part of our DNA. It was a perfect opportunity for us,” she said.

Côté said it will be important for the country when these types of partnerships are part of the normal course of business, but in the meantime, “We are at a time when you need to highlight these collaborations.”

Sun Life has some other partners for its work on the Canadian Dental Care Plan, but much of the work is being done internally, leveraging its existing group insurance benefits operation.

More than one million people have already accessed the program designed to provide dental care for Canadians not currently enrolled in employer-sponsored programs and for those whose family income is less than $90,000.

In addition, a further 2.7 million have registered for the program. It is estimated nine million Canadians would be eligible.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca