Canada, Straining to Accommodate A Huge Influx of Migrants, Refugees, Asylum Seekers

"Under the Liberals,the Interim Federal Health Program [IFHP], the program that provides benefits to asylum claimants, has morphed well beyond its initial intent of providing care to a small number of legitimate refugees who are fleeing to Canada from war zones into a massive boondoggle that provides care to bogus asylum claimants."

"The Liberals are proposing to set up a costly bureaucracy that would still force Canadian taxpayers to foot the bill for 70 percent of the premium health-care costs that failed asylum claimants incur." 

Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner, Opposition immigration critic  

Conservative member of Parliament Michelle Rempel Garner asks a question during question period in the House of Commons (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

 

A report published this month by the Parliamentary Budget Office broke down rising costs of the IFHP. The program has risen from $226 million in 2019 to $1 billion in 2025. The cost is projected to climb to over $1.5 billion by 2030. The number of beneficiaries, according to the PBO, will continue to grow and to expand to over 680,000 eligible beneficiaries in 2029-30. 

 

Coverage  under the program begins with basic and supplemental health care of which the basic coverage is inclusive of hospital services, services from medical doctors, registered nurses and other licensed health care providers along with ambulance services and lab and diagnostic services (including blood tests and ultrasounds). Psychologists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and speech language therapists, as well as assistive devices such as prosthetics, mobility aids and hearing aids, home care and long-term care, urgent dental care and limited vision care, medical supplies and equipment, represent the supplemental portion. On top of which is prescription drug coverage. 

 

All of which represent a pretty exhaustive parade of medical services for people who have never paid into the Canadian tax system that supports these social services. Among whom are those whose claims for migrant or refugee status have been refused, most of whom are either to be deported or are expected to leave the country of their own volition. Again, many among them exhaust all avenues of appeal, which can take years to get through the system. While in Canada they are entitled to claim social services.

 

Canadians welcome Syrian refugees to Toronto. (Photo: stacey_newman/iStock.com)

 

This, at a time when Canadian hospitals are stretched beyond their limits to provide elementary care to Canadian citizens, where wait times at emergency clinics can stretch to 12 hours before a physician can examine people awaiting care after triage investigation instructs them to take a seat in crowded emergency facilities until they can be accommodated. In a health care system where waiting for surgery that can be life-saving can stretch out into months while health conditions continue to fester and become more aggravated.

 

MP Rempel Garner brought forward a motion to restrict health care benefits to failed asylum claimants. Her motion calls on the federal government to find savings through reviewing the program, to restrict federal benefits received by rejected asylum claimants to emergency life-saving health care only, to provide an annual report to Parliament of the IFHP program and pass policies to expel foreign nations immediately who are convicted of serious crimes while in Canada. 

 

 

"We want to still protect those refugees and those people that are claiming the help and need from Canada that legitimately deserves to be protected including the children. We will continue to do that", responded federal Immigration Minister Lena Diab. Leading Rempel Garner to state that the government sits back awaiting failed refugees to respond to deportation orders, many of whose sole source of income in Canada is social welfare.

 

According to data by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Canada's refugee backlog stands at 299,960 from January. Wait times for processing of refugee and migrant claims can vary, depending on the complexity of each case, taking anywhere from months to years for completion. During that time, points out Rempel Garner, applicants can claim various types of benefits. The open question remains the status of rejected asylum claimants who appeal decisions, extending to a much longer process of determination.

 

Retroactive from 2020 the Liberal government has changed refugee rules through its borders bill to make refugee claims ineligible if they are made one year or more after the day of  entry to Canada. The new rule would render some 19,000 to 50,000 asylum claims filed between June and October 2025 ineligible. 

 

 

"An Immigration Plan to Grow the Economy"

"Last year Canada welcomed over 405,000 newcomers - the most we’ve ever welcomed in a single year. The Government is continuing that ambition by setting targets in the new levels plan of 465,000 permanent residents in 2023, 485,000 in 2024 and 500,000 in 2025. The plan also brings an increased focus on attracting newcomers to different regions of the country, including small towns and rural communities."

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Government of Canada

 

"It's hard to see  how the increased demand for both  health and housing that would accompany large increases in immigration [assuming  no other policy changes] would not further strain both systems."

"We need immigration for other economic reasons."

Arvind Magesan, economist, University of Calgary

 

"Government talks about immigrants as if they're going to the immigrant store and picking up a few."

"Even people born within a privilege situation in Canada are finding it hard to move beyond renting and working. Immigrants are coming and they're even less privileged."
"That doesn't seem to be a concern that's registering with the government. It's a very predatory situation."

Stephen Punwasi, co-founder, data journalism website Better Dwelling

Canada is aiming to welcome 500,000 newcomers in 2025, and one of the goals is to help fill jobs with skilled workers. (Patrick Morrell/CBC)

"According to the federal government’s own website, a skilled tradesperson applying to come to Canada today would have their application processed within 47 months – one month shy of four years. The express program for provincial nominees stands at 15 months."

"There is a strong need for skilled trades but someone facing a four-year wait just to be processed is likely to look elsewhere. Demand for immigrants is high in developed countries and Canada will need to improve its system to compete."

"We also need to do more to ensure the people we do welcome can flourish once here. The immigration department’s own website states that 'Overall immigrant and refugee earnings match the Canadian average about 12 years after arrival'."

"How can Canada attract the best and brightest with processing times like this?

"A 12-year timeframe for immigrants to catch up to Canadian-born citizens is too long. Part of the reason is there are too many barriers still in place stopping people from being able to find meaningful and lucrative work once they arrive."

"There are also problems we haven’t touched on like the lack of housing and transportation infrastructure to handle so many new people each year and, sadly, the Trudeau government too often stands in the way."

Toronto Sun editorial

Pew Research found through a global survey in 2019 that Canada  stood out among its peer countries with the belief that immigration "makes our country stronger". Canada was ranked the world's most migrant-friendly nation through a Gallup survey of 2020. A 2022 poll by the Environics Institute found 58 percent of Canadians backed the belief that Canada "needs more immigrants".

 

While many countries are increasingly suspicious of migration, Canadians tend to welcome immigrants into their neighbourhoods, generally unconcerned whether immigrants are prepared to integrate into Canadian society, and they view immigration critical to the future of the country. Recently the Angus Reid Institute asked Canadians if they felt immigrants were taking their jobs and 71 percent responded "no". 

Among Canada's political parties there is no anti-immigration sentiment. Recent months, however, have seen an opposite trend among Canadians with respect to the government's new accelerated immigration numbers that have risen over 40 percent in the past few years. A record-breaking 431,645 permanent residents entered Canada last year. On a per-capita basis, Canada now brings in four times more immigrants than another historically high-immigration country, our neighbour to the south.

Canadians are now concerned with the nation's universal health care system, with housing and with social welfare infrastructure. Health care in Canada, already overstretched in capacity before the pandemic struck, has since been barely limping along, failing dismally to look after the health needs of the population, with surgeries cancelled and delayed and hospital emergency wards closing down, unable to cope with the influx of emergency cases.

 

Getty Images

 

A November poll commissioned by the Association of Canadian Studies saw half of respondents expressing the belief that Canada was welcoming "too many" immigrants. 75 percent of all respondents expressed "concern" relating to what the immigrant surge could result in for the country's immediate future. Most of the skepticism stems from a fear that two of the country's most defining crises -- housing affordability and health-care shortages -- will be negatively impacted by greater immigration numbers.

Canada has the distinction of having the most acute housing shortage of any country in the G7; home prices since 2000 have become too steep for normal people to buy up available stock. Canada came last in the OECD's ranking of housing prices in comparison to average incomes last year. Wait times for health care --never very reassuring -- are so acute now that Canadians are treated to news of patients dying in hospital emergency rooms.

 

A poll by the Institute for Canadian Citizenship last year found that among recent university-educated immigrants now in Canada, up to a quarter were re-thinking their future, making plans to leave the country, disappointed in their experiences to date. "Many new Canadians are having a crisis of confidence in Canada -- and that should be ringing alarm bells all over Ottawa", remarked ICC CEO Daniel Bernhard.

About one in four Canadians came to the country as an immigrant     Getty Images