Anik F1R will not be replaced, and is going to be out of service sometime no later than 2021. Shaw saw little reason to spend money on a new satellite. Most traffic has already been moved to Anik F2 or Anik G1. F2 has an end of life sometime in the 2027 or 2028 area. G1 was launched in 2013, so should be around longer than that. Shaw Direct made a conscious decision several years ago to switch to MPEG-4 to effectively double their channel capacity. Getting rid of standard definition signals helped create more space, as almost all Canadian locals were converted to HD. Shaw split their local signals between G1, with limited coverage, and F2, which covers well into northern Central America. If you check which local signals are on F2, one should find Toronto and Vancouver markets well represented, so there is an East Coast as well as a West Coast presence for snowbirds. A few selected other CDN locals can also be found on F2, but the majority of stations are on limited coverage Anik G1. US HD networks are now limited to Seattle and Detroit, with PBS Spokane and Buffalo also being available. What has resulted is a mix where most popular channels are available on at least one channel for Snowbirds, on Anik F2. It was a complicated balancing act, but it means that two satellites will be used for the foreseeable future.
An XKu LNBF only changes the frequency configuration on the 107 satellite (Anik F1R/G1), but leaves the 111 satellite (Anik F2) in the same frequency setup as a regular Ku-band LNBF. Once traffic is completely removed from Anik F1R, those folks in Phoenix and elsewhere in the southern provinces will be limited to Anik F2. With the exception of some minor future channel shuffling, that is already in place. Existing installations with 60E or 75E antennas that are now working will continue to work. If you took ANY equal or larger sized offset Ku-band antenna, equipped with a regular Ku LNB F w/10750 local oscillator, and pointed it at Anik F2 (111 West), it would pick up everything that is transmitting on F2. As long as the receiver is setup with an authorized subscription and mapped for F2, there should be nothing else to worry about.
Added info....I agree with you on the answer to the poster from FLA. Existing satellites will not be redirected while everything is in normal operation. What may have happened is that there may have been a recent channel shuffle affecting just a few signals, and in the remapping...there could have been a hiccup getting to the final satellite and channel configuration. As more traffic is offloaded from F1R as it ends its operational lifetime, there will be transitions to F2 and G1. If you cannot receive G1, any channel that transitions to that satellite will be lost to "southern" viewers.