Q &A

What prompted you to launch Medicard Finance (now iFinance Canada) 20 years ago, and how has your business model evolved over the years?

In 1996, the indications were that Canada would be moving towards a two-tiered healthcare system, and as a result, more people would be paying for things out of their own pockets. If someone wanted to get, say, laser eye surgery, how would they finance that procedure? I founded Medicard to fill this gap.

This was also right at the beginning of the cosmeticenhancement boom. Certain cosmetic procedures were just coming on the market and were now acceptable to talk about. Initially, cosmetic surgery was our biggest line of business. A few years later, we expanded our model and moved into Petcard, which finances pet procedures (anyone who has a pet