Latest News from Ellison

Important - Please Read

June 15th, 2020

On June 10th I updated you with the latest email from Ellison. There was also a letter to give out for your information. Here is that Letter.

June 10th, 2020

We are pleased to advise that Manulife has begun to process the claims we have submitted on behalf of our school groups. We have seen some positive progress over the last few weeks however the claims have been processed much slower than anticipated. Manulife is not currently able to commit to a specific timeline on the turnaround of the claims, as it depends on many factors including the workload of the examiners and the complexity of the claim.

Although they have hired extra staff to assist with this process they are overwhelmed with the number of claims which are over 30,000 to date since March.

We ask for your continued patience as we work closely with Manulife on your behalf. As a school group we know it will be difficult to distribute these funds over the summer months and we wish we could speed up this process for you. Some schools are readying themselves by collecting contact information for the students/families and others are planning to pick up the claims refund process in the fall. Please advise if there is a different contact we should be in touch with about your claim after June or if you will pick up with the administration of the claim in September.

We do understand the stress everyone is under during to this difficult time and hope to have your claim resolved in the near future.

Thank you,

Megan McLellan

Ellison Travel & Tours Ltd., Claims Department

Associate Member of CWT Vacations

311 Main Street, P.O. Box 1990, Exeter, Ontario, Canada N0M 1S7

+1 (519) 235-2000 x 359 / Website: www.ellisontravel.com

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May 11th, 2020

All of the forms for the refund have now been completed. Ellison is now sending the information in to the insurance company to continue the refund process. I will email when I have further info.

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The step below is now complete

Here is the latest info I have received from Ellison Travel about refunding the Quebec payments:

Dear Rob Cairns,

We have begun the claims process with Manulife on behalf of Lester B Pearson regarding the cancellation of your trip due to Covid-19. To finalize the claim, the legal and claims departments at Manulife Insurance Company and Active Care Management require a signature from every participant on the trip (or a parent/legal guardian if the participant is 18 years or younger). We have approval from Manulife to acquire these signatures electronically through a secure and customized link for ease of process. This signature authorizes the insurer to reimburse Ellison Travel & Tours any and all approved funds related to the claim. We will then in turn reimburse the school 100% of the benefits issued by Manulife.

Only once ALL authorizations are received Manulife can finalize the claim and release the insurable funds.

Once the online form is completed and submitted - the summarized information is gathered in an excel document which will allow us to track who has completed the online form. Once we have gathered all the names and e-signatures, we will send the excel document to the claims department. At NO POINT will Ellison Travel & Tours or Manulife use the information provided for any purpose, marketing or otherwise. The personal information is being gathered solely for the purpose of processing the group claim.

Here is your customized link: LINK

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Here is the latest email from Liz Cooper, who is our contact at Ellison for our Quebec refund claim, to Mrs. Baker and myself:

Re: Claim Update: Lester B Pearson – Group Policy#CWT0008223G

Liz Cooper

11:44 (3 hours ago)

Good morning,

Hope you're both doing well and staying safe.

Just a quick update on this, we have cancelled the final payment for the trip with the online system. Please let parents know that they do not have to worry about any withdrawals from Ellison Travel. As I get additional updates, I will let you know.

Thank you for being so patient and understanding during this time.

All the best,

Liz Cooper

Update Due to Covid-19

• Thames Valley Board has cancelled all end-of-year trips.
• You will be refunded all payments to date, other than the cost of the insurance policy.
• It may be a while though before you receive the refund due to the number of cancelations.
• Ellison Travel is currently doing the paperwork to the insurance company on behalf of all of Thames Valley trips.
• As well, Ellison is preparing a letter to come to all parents with instructions on how to recoup their payments. The letter will explain the process to make your claim for a refund.
• You will sign into a portal, note this is a different portal than the one we used for our specific trip, and there you will fill in the details about our specific trip for your claim.
• At this point we do not know the timeline for all of this happening. If and when we receive more information, it will be posed here and a link will be sent out so that you can see the next update.
• Stay safe and hope to see all of you soon!

Letter from Ellison

• We now have the letter from Ellison with the details of what to expect in the next while.
• We do not yet have information about logging in to make the claim.
• Mr. Cairns is designated as the group claim administrator for Pearson.
• Please see the letter below.

End-of-Year Trip Survey Results

We have the outcome of the grade 8 End-of-Year Trip Survey that was presented to you in September. The results indicate that the majority of parents prefer the trip to Quebec.

• The response for the 4 day trip to Quebec was 95%.
• We have been in contact with Ellison Travel and have arranged for a four day tour to begin Tuesday, June 16th, 2020 and returning Friday June 19th, 2020. (Note: This year's itinerary is already available. click the following link: Pearson Quebec Itinerary 2020)

Cost and Potential Labour Difficulties

Assuming all 56 student attend the trip, the cost for this year will be a bit lower than last year, $1201.28 There are no other expenses except for having to provide a bag lunch on the first day.

In order to avoid any difficulties with potential labour disputes, payments are being made directly to our travel agent, Ellison Travel. The trip will go ahead regardless of the labour situation.

• Ideally everything is settled by the trip and it proceeds as usual.
• In the event of continued difficulties, we do not want the students to miss this end-of-year tradition, so Mrs Baker and parent volunteers would take over the trip.

Payment Details

Price: $1201.28 Canadian funds per paying person, based on 56 students.

** Should our numbers change from the above, the tour cost will be re-calculated accordingly**

• 1st payment of $250.00 per person due on or before December 6, 2019
• 2nd payment of $250.00 per person due on or before February 21, 2020
• Final payment due with the balance of the trip, less any fundraising, on or before May 8, 2020
• All payments received by Ellison Travel & Tours are 100% non-refundable
• $40.00 service fee for NSF transactions
• We do have some financial assistance available. Please contact Mrs. Baker or Mr. Cairns.

Registering for the Trip

A deposit of $250.00 is needed by Friday, December 6th, 2019 to register for the Quebec Trip. The following link will take you to the Pearson's page on Ellison's website. All the details listed here are also available on that website.

• https://www.ellisontravel.com/et503-20/
• Our tour number is: 503-20

Fundraising

• Little Caesars Pizza Kit Fundraising - We are trying a new fundraiser this year with the Parent Council, the pizza fundraiser. Although this is a Parent Council initiative, any profit raised by Gr. 8 students will go directly to their individual trip.

Note: Online ordering for this fundraiser is available. To order online follow these steps:

• Go to https://www.pizzakit.ca/fundraising-products?shop=1&t=landing
• Click the top green box "Purchase & Support a local fundraiser"
• Enter our ID code. It is: 378002.
• You will get a message to confirm that it is for "Lester B Pearson . School for the Arts"
• Click confirm and you can then create an account that will apply the fundraising to Pearson.

Rheo Thompson Mint Smoothies - In December and in the spring, toward Easter, mint smoothies for Quebec fundraising will be available on a first come, first serve basis. Here is how it works:

• Each bag contains 20 mint smoothies and costs $60.
• Sell the mint smoothies to reimburse yourself. They sell for $3 each.
• From the $60, $27 ($1.35 each) goes to paying for the mint smoothie, and $33 ($1.55 each) goes toward your individual Quebec trip. (55% profit!)
• Yes, you may purchase multiple bags.
• We will send out information when this fundraiser is posted through School Cash Online.
• We will do preorders to guarantee you receive the quantity that you would like, then a limited number will be available for additional purchase.

Note: All fundraising profits will be sent to Ellison to come directly off students' individual trips. They will appear in your Ellison payment portal.

Any other fund-raising ideas that you have are also welcome. If you have any questions please contact us.

Last Year's Trip Details

• The trip is Tuesday June 18th to Friday June 21st 2019.
• Permission forms will be sent home closer to the trip.
• Arrival time on Tuesday June 19th is 6:15am for a 6:30am departure. The buses will be out front of the school, so please use the parking lot.
• Important - As we are not allowed to collect health card numbers due to privacy laws, the students will need to have either:
  • the original health card
  • a photo copy of the health card
  • the number written down on something they will not lose.
• Students should bring a packed lunch for the first day.
• Spending money is at the discretion of each individual family. All meals other than lunch on the first day are covered so no additional money is needed. (Note: We stop at a picnic area for lunch on the first day, there is no opportunity to buy lunch.)
• We walk outdoor, regardless of the weather. Students should bring appropriate attire. Here is a link to the current weather in Quebec City:
• http://www.theweathernetwork.com/weather/canada/quebec/quebec

Here are some of the highlights of the tour that we will be seeing:

• Sainte-Anne de Beaupre Basilica Cathedral
• Montmorency Falls
• Musee du Fort
• Québec Martello Towers National Historic Site of Canada
• La Citadelle du Quebec
• Cabane a Sucre Pierre Beauce