Clarifications Always In Order

"I've always said resettled refugees would continue to receive comprehensive health benefits.  It was never our intention to eliminate certain drug coverage....  When we realized that the initial policy wording from about a month ago led to some ambiguity, we immediately decided to modify the language to make it clear that our intention has been to provide for the same kind of drug coverage for resettled refugees as they would receive in UN camps."  Federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney

The government has a mind to cut back on its expenses.  In its original statements it appeared that what they were planning to do under the Interim Federal Health Program was to dramatically pare back medical, dental and drug coverage for newly-arrived immigrants to Canada.  The very thought of something that drastic occurring appeared to outrage doctors, and immigrant-aid groups.  Their reaction to the announcement was immediate and denunciatory.

We tend to think of government resources as being bottomless.  Find a cause and government will fund it.  Government funding, needless to say, comes from a single source.  And that is the people whom they serve, the very people who come out to the polls to vote them into government.  And whom government is pleased to tax. So it is reasonable to assume that when austerity measures are undertaken there will be some social sacrifices.  The idea being the cut-backs as was originally stated, was to ensure fairness.

And that fairness principle should apply to everyone who benefits from government initiatives, and those who suffer as a result of benefits being curtailed or withdrawn.  The country will not be improved as a result of some of the government-announced cut-backs, those relating to the environment, the scientific  community, the fisheries and any number of other 'efficiencies' in government expenditures announced in the last little while.

If conditions are less than absolutely ideal for new immigrants and refugees awaiting provincial coverage and relying on the federal program to take up the slack, they are also not entirely catastrophic, since basic coverage has not been withdrawn.  And, as the Minister of Immigration stated earlier, it makes no sense that people brought into Canada through humanitarian initiatives and aspiring to landed immigrant status receive better and more complete coverage than Canadians of long standing.

When immigrants arrived in Canada in the early-to-mid 1900s and earlier there were no such government programs.  There was no universal medicare.  People had to manage on their own however they could, and they did.  Our current generous resettlement and social-aid programs to new immigrants are generous to a fault.  Few could possibly find fault with what greets them when they arrive in Canada.

The temporary health benefits given refugees and asylum seekers under the Interim Federal Health Program will continue.  Despite the impression given when Minister Kenney announced in the spring there would be a reduction in coverage because "we do not want to ask Canadians to pay for benefits for protected persons and refugee claimants that are more generous than what they are entitled to themselves."

Refugee advocates and medical practitioners were quick to pounce on this statement, making the assumption that government-assisted refugees were to be included in the prospective cuts in health coverage.  The Minister has since clarified the issue, informing that the level of care given to government-assisted refugees will remain as it has been.  And that this group was not targeted for diminished health care.

Despite which the doctors who have been behind the protests to government on behalf of the demographic they feel is in need of the assurance of urgent care when and as required, while viewing the latest announcement clarifying the government's position as a pressure-induced retraction by government and therefore a win for them, pledge to "keep the pressure on and hope that, whether it's done quietly or with a big announcement the C.I.C. will further reverse the cuts they've made."

It's a tough one.  On the one hand, most people want to offer people who have fled their countries of origin because of poverty, oppression or strife, everything possible to introduce them to their new lives in Canada.  On the other hand, government had no intention of shutting out those qualified from all medical care; emergencies would be covered, and an assessment of needs would determine how much care was needed.

Doing what we can with what we've got and making the most of it is not a recipe for failure.