Conservatives press Liberal government to limit health care for some refugee claimants
CBC
MPs in the House of Commons will vote Tuesday on a Conservative motion that asks the Liberal government to review the health-care benefits available to asylum claimants and restrict benefits for those whose claims have failed.
Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner's Opposition day motion also pushes the Liberal government to "pass policies to immediately expel foreign nationals convicted of serious crime in Canada."
Rempel Garner said she wants the health care that failed claimants receive restricted to "emergency, life-saving health care only," echoing a similar move by the Harper government in 2012.
Refugees in Canada receive health care from the federal government through the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP) which covers most of the medical care that Canadians get under their provincial or territorial health services.
Basic services provided by the IFHP include access to hospital, doctor, ambulance and lab diagnostic services, such as blood tests and ultrasounds.
Supplemental coverage includes access to counselling, occupational therapists, prosthetics and mobility aids, urgent dental care and limited vision care among others.
Rempel Garner says this supplemental coverage is a step too far because it pays for things that aren't covered for Canadians.
"Failed asylum claimants, people who made refugee claims but had their claims invalidated through Canadian due process, are given access to better health care than Canadians," Rempel Garner said.
She also called out the rising annual costs of the IFHP which the government pegged at almost $900 million annually in 2025-26.
A recent report from the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) found that between 2020-21 and 2024-25, the cost of the program grew from $211 million to $896 million "as both the number of beneficiaries and the cost per beneficiary increased significantly."
That report predicts the cost of the program will increase to $1.5 billion annually by 2029-30.
The PBO said that while the overall costs of the IFHP will continue to rise between 2025-26 and 2029-30, the growth rate in those years will be just over 11 per cent, compared to the almost 34 per cent average annual growth in costs for the previous five years.
"This slower growth reflects both a moderated increase in the number of beneficiaries and a more gradual rise in average annual costs," the report said.
The report did not take into account cost-saving measures coming this spring.
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