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Negotiations underway with Luxembourg-headquartered company: premier
Published Feb 07, 2026 • Last updated 22 hours ago • 5 minute read
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Dr. Hanif Chatur, co-founder and CEO of eVisitNB, along with chief operating officer Amy McLeod, accept the 2024 Public Sector Award for Innovation from Premier Susan Holt at the annual InnovateNB Awards. eVisitNB won the annual award designed to recognize ‘the adoption of an innovative solution for the delivery of a service offered to the public.’ SUBMITTEDArticle content
The Holt government isn’t renewing its contract with eVisitNB this spring following a comprehensive review of virtual health-care services.
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Dr. Hanif Chatur, co-founder and CEO of eVisitNB, told Brunswick News Sunday that he learned the news last week after the conclusion of a request-for-proposal process.
Chatur isn’t sure why the provincial government decided against renewing its contract with eVisitNB – a New Brunswick-based virtual health-care startup – and instead opted for another company through an RFP process.
A contract has yet to be signed with the successful bidder, the province confirmed to Brunswick News on Friday, but the government has said that “New Brunswickers can trust there will continue to be a virtual care option available to them.”
In a social media post Sunday afternoon, Premier Susan Holt stated that negotiations have started with Foundever, a Luxembourg-headquartered company. The brand was created in 2023 after Florida-based Sitel Group acquired its Florida-based competitor, Sykes Enterprises Inc., in 2021.
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When asked by a member of the public why a decision was made to not go with a New Brunswick-based company, Holt said, “We don’t take this lightly, as I would want to see NB companies thrive in GNB procurement. I am still looking at this one and asking questions.”
Since news broke Friday of the looming change, Chatur told Brunswick News Sunday that his inbox has been flooded with messages from concerned eVisitNB patients.
“I’m deeply worried about these people. They are my patients and they’re pretty upset, so I’m trying to reassure them,” Chatur said in an interview.
eVisitNB is continuing to serve its patients through to the end of its contract on March 31, according to Chatur, who is an emergency room doctor at Upper River Valley Hospital in Waterville.
Chatur said his team is ready to facilitate a smooth transition to the new service provider, but he can’t promise eVisitNB patients that “whatever’s coming in April will be what we have here today.”
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“I’m getting texts and calls,” Chatur said. “A 91-year-old emailed me and said, ‘What am I going to do?’”
About 55 per cent of eVisitNB’s daily users don’t have a family doctor, Chatur said, noting eVisitNB sees an average of 750 to 1,000 people daily.
More than one million consultations have been provided to 325,000 New Brunswick patients over the last four years, according to eVisitNB, which operates with a team of more than 165 nurse practitioners from New Brunswick and from across Canada.
The virtual care service was first launched in January 2020 as an out-of-pocket health-care option, but since January 2022, through a government contract, New Brunswickers have been able to use the eVisitNB service free of charge by presenting their Medicare cards.
More than 127,000 people were on New Brunswick’s waitlist for a primary care provider as of Jan. 1, but the number of unattached patients is actually believed to be much higher when those who aren’t signed up on the waitlist are factored into the equation.
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Founded by Chatur and Stanley-based family doctor Jonathan Clayton, eVisitNB won the 2024 Public Sector Award for Innovation. The annual InnovateNB award “recognizes the adoption of an innovative solution for the delivery of a service offered to the public.”
“My job now is to finish the contract and have a conversation with whoever’s taking this over,” Chatur said of the future of eVisitNB. “This is not easy. It took five years to figure out how to do this and even then it’s a work in progress.
“What we’ve done is not easy, it’s not simple.”
Parties disagree over resolution of language issues
New Brunswick’s health department wouldn’t confirm Friday the identity of the successful RFP bidder or provide details of the new agreement.
“The vendor selected has over 28 years of experience serving New Brunswickers in both official languages 24/7,” government spokesperson Sarah Bustard said in an email.
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“More details will be available once the new agreement is signed and operationalized, but New Brunswickers can trust there will continue to be a virtual care option available to them.”
On Saturday morning, Progressive Conservative MLA Bill Hogan issued a statement, urging the Holt government to “stop, reconsider and choose New Brunswick.”
“Susan Holt says she is all for New Brunswick companies. She says the health care of New Brunswickers is her number one concern. Once again, what she says and what she does are completely opposite,” said Hogan, PC health critic and MLA for Woodstock-Hartland.
Holt later weighed in Saturday after Hogan shared his statement on Facebook.
“We put out a competitive tender for comprehensive virtual care services,” Holt wrote in a Facebook post. “Eleven companies responded. They were evaluated, compared and shortlisted. U.S.-headquartered companies were weeded out.
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“We are now negotiating with the bidder that put forward the solution that best met what NBers are asking us for. It is a bidder that NB has been working with for 28 years.”
Holt added that the RFP process didn’t result in a “bidding war.”
New Brunswick’s health department noted that it undertook its comprehensive review “to ensure we could continue to provide virtual care to New Brunswickers in both official languages.”
In 2024, New Brunswick’s official languages commissioner sounded the alarm over what she described as “serious breaches” of the Official Languages Act related to eVisitNB.
Following an investigation, commissioner Shirley MacLean found that seven francophone eVisitNB patients weren’t able to receive the taxpayer-funded service in their language of choice contrary to provincial law.
Both the Department of Health and eVisitNB indicated to MacLean at the time that they were working to address the issues raised in the seven complaints filed with her office between October 2022 and February 2023. Those complaints were the subject of a 2024 investigation report.
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In an email, Chatur told Brunswick News that eVisitNB and its technology provider, Maple, “took immediate measures” to address the concerns “to the satisfaction of the Department of Health.”
“On January 21, 2025, the DOH confirmed that all of the French-language commissioner’s concerns highlighted in her report were successfully addressed as of summer 2024 with no new complaints since,” Chatur said.
“Furthermore, the DOH also explicitly stated that there has never been a complaint regarding the quality-of-care parity between English and French services.”
But the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages for New Brunswick told Brunswick News that it’s still receiving complaints about eVisitNB since the release of the 2024 investigation report.
“The issues with the platform have not been rectified,” said Ashley Beaudin, spokesperson with the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages for New Brunswick.
More to come…
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