A government survey that threatened to cut health care benefits for those failing to complete it is illegal, says Yukon ombudsman Tracy-Anne McPhee.

In a report released Monday, McPhee stated that the 2010 Health Insurance Survey, conducted by the Health department and Yukon Bureau of Statistics, "was not done within the scope of the law.”

In addition to contravening the territory's Statistics Act by not informing recipients their personal information could be shared between departments, revoking health benefits, writes McPhee, "is not an available penalty for failing to respond to a voluntary survey.”

"Some survey recipients clearly saw it as a threat, and this undermined the voluntary nature of the survey,” added McPhee.

Last April, Lib-Vuntut Gwitchin MLA Darius Elias' anger about the survey boiled over in the legislative assembly.

Elias said the letter was scaring some of his constituents who received it, particularly the elderly whose first language is not English.

Waving the offending survey in the air, Elias then called the Yukon government's bluff.

"I want to put the minister on notice right here and right now ... I'm not going to sign it. I'm not going to fill it out, and I'm not going to send it back,” he said.

"So I guess the minister has a decision to make about whether he's going to pull my health care coverage.”

But Health Minister Glenn Hart defended the approach taken by his department to weed out non-residents accessing health care in the territory.

"We've been doing it for 10 to 15 years this way. It has been out in the process and we are doing it to ensure that Yukoners who get Yukon health care are actually Yukon residents,” Hart replied. "That is the main benefit for this process, and we are continuing to do that as we have in the past.”

Today, Hart is in Ottawa for meetings and was unavailable for comment, leaving Health department spokeswoman Pat Living to answer for the government's actions.

"(The ombudsman's office) actually said they want us to give written notices to all whose health care has been revoked as a result of failure to comply,” said Living. "And I have to tell you we've not had one come back and ask to be reinstated at this point.”

Of the 5,113 surveys sent out this year, 376 were returned unopened because the last known addresses, according to Health and Social Services' records, were not current. Living said the department cancelled health benefits to those whose unopened surveys were returned.

"We had a sense of what was going to be coming down from the ombudsman ... and we started to draft the letter,” said Living.

"As we go forward, we will certainly ensure any surveys we do with the Bureau of Statistics will comply with the Statistics Act and the ATIPP (Access to Information and Privacy Protection) offering individuals ability to not share their information.”

Living acknowledged the department received several complaints about the tone of the survey's accompanying letter and similar complaints lodged with the Yukon Ombudsman sparked McPhee's investigation.

McPhee said it was absurd logic to cancel health benefits to those whose last known addresses were inconsistent with Health department records.

"There was a problem with assuming that people who didn't return the survey were no longer Yukon residents,” McPhee told the Star Monday, adding her work on the file is complete and the ball is in the government's court.

"There is no ‘next step' as far as my office is concerned; that's the end of it,” said McPhee. "I recommend that manner in which this can be remedied, and the departments have accepted the recommendations.”

People who live more than 192 consecutive days outside the Yukon do not qualify for health coverage.

Living said her department's health care rolls account for 825 additional beneficiaries than the total number of Yukon residents.