Paperwork Paperwork Paperwork

Getting everything in order for my family's application to the new apartment was rough. After we did our tour, we were instructed to apply through their online system. Reasonably, it asked us to give two valid pieces of photo ID per applicant. This was where we learned that all of Mom's ID was expired.

We went down to Service Ontario, which is the most depressing place I can imagine. They told us that if she had one piece of ID, they could use it to renew the other. But because her's were so out of date, she needed to give three years of tax returns to prove she had been in the country.

Fortunately, that wasn't too difficult and we were able to get both pieces update. Of course, they couldn't print them at the office and had to give her temporary licenses in the meanwhile. But Canada Post is on strike right now so it will take a while to get those cards.

It wasn't just her. I applied alongside her as a guarantor, so I also needed to issue some photo ID. This was right when I was getting ready to test for my G2 driver's license. I'd been issued what I thought at the time was an extended temporary license, as I'd registed for my test before expiry but was scheduled after. But what I actually had was just the application for a temporary license. This is what would get me barred from testing on the day.

Of all times that I would need two pieces of ID, it had to happen during the few weeks after the five years it was valid. If I hadn't tried to get my G2, I would have just renewed my G1 and there wouldn't be a gap. Anyway, everything during the day of the test shook out and I did test for and receive a new temporary G1 license. I have to wait for the official card, but of course that's frozen by the Canada Post strike as well.

In the end we had to submit three temporary licenses along with the outdated versions of them, which is legal but weird looking.

We had to issue bank statements. Mom's account is old enough that it was set to receive paper copies. I guess TD stopped offering that service down the line and it automatically reset to give no statements. I set it to give them electronically in the future, but for the present this meant that we were not able to fulfil the requirements of the apartment application. We did offer the same information in the form of copies of her account activity, which was accepted.

All that and they didn't ask to check our credit ratings. I remember that being important, last time I looked for places. Slightly disappointing, as my rating is a bit of a feather in my cap.

It was messy, but in the end the apartment was approved to us. I figured that even if they didn't take us, we'd be better equipped for future places now that we'd ironed out our information. But we wound up getting the first place that we tried for.

In addition to the apartment application, this week at work we're getting QAM'd. That stands for Quality Assurance Measures, and is basically the auditing system for developmental services. Apparently they used to come by almost every year, but I've been working my job a little over six and have never seen them. The pandemic happened jost over a year into my position, which created a huge backlog, slowing everything down.

Everyone I know who's been through a QAMing is nervous though. We'd heard they were in the area and only gave one agency 24 hours notice. They gave us a week, so it could have been worse. Everybody's spent last week checking to make sure everything is up to code. We're pretty good, but it's still a lot to review, especially when your usual duties don't lighten up at all.

I went through everything I'm responsible for last week, but I'm taking this one off. I'm terrible for keeping track of my vacation time and often wind up needing to spend it near the end of the year. This time I was proactive enough to take a week off to see my grandparents, but since I had my five year work anniversary, I now get an extra week so I'm still in the same position.

Considering the unexpected appearance of QAM, I didn't want to take this week off out of solidarity. But my boss said that everything I can do is in the lead up, and the during the actual check there isn't anything I can do. Still, I feel like I should be sharing the stress with the team.