Health Committee on Nov. 20th, 2025

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Winnipeg West, MB]

All right. Thank you.

Ms. Park, you said that you consult with provinces regarding their labour needs. Is this all labour? Specifically, do you consult with the provinces regarding their medical labour needs in granting permits?

[Soyoung Park]

It's not necessarily at the level of granting permits.

However, there are annual consultations that happen related to the immigration levels plan and also in relation to economic immigration and the types of labour market needs that provinces and territories would have. There is regular communication with our provincial counterparts to make sure that our programs are aligned.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Winnipeg West, MB]

Thank you.

Ms. Voisin, you said that there's a national database of health care needs by province. Do the provinces have ready access to this database?

[Jocelyne Voisin]

I talked about a national registry of physicians—

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Winnipeg West, MB]

Yes.

[Jocelyne Voisin]

—which is not about health care needs. It's a regulatory database of physician licences that will allow labour mobility across the country. That is being onboarded by regulators across the country.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Winnipeg West, MB]

Good. Every province will have access to this database so that they can better plan for their own health care needs.

[Jocelyne Voisin]

Absolutely. They have access to the database, especially when physicians are applying to move from one province to another so that they understand the licensing status of those physicians.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Winnipeg West, MB]

Would a system of, if not a single Canadian licence, at least agreements between provinces that would allow a licencee in one province to practice in another assist with these labour needs within different provinces?

[Jocelyne Voisin]

Absolutely, it would. I think labour mobility would be very helpful in addressing some of our workforce shortages, especially in rural and remote communities where they are in need of locums, physicians who come in to do temporary work placements.

It would also be helpful in the retention of our health care workers in general if they had the opportunity to follow their family by moving from one place to another and also to serve in emergency events so that we can move our health care resources across the country when there is an urgent need.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Winnipeg West, MB]

Thank you.

Ms. Park, when we talked about rejected refugee claimants, the word “bogus” was used. That's defined as fake or not genuine.

Would that word be an accurate description of all rejected claimants? Are they all fake?

[Soyoung Park]

No, not necessarily. It is a word that has been used, but we talk about the actual refusal rate, as opposed to the acceptance rate, at the Immigration and Refugee Board. That would probably be a better assessment.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Winnipeg West, MB]

Thank you. I believe that's my time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you. That was well done.

Ms. Larouche, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Ladies, there are important requests for Quebec concerning the two departments you represent.

I will first turn to Ms. Baird or Ms. Park.

The government of Quebec is requesting $733 million for the reception of asylum seekers and $500 million to cover social assistance. It is also requesting compensation for all services, including schooling and support services.

Will you agree to Quebec’s request? Have you discussed with Quebec the reimbursement of these sums spent on asylum seekers?

[Louise Baird]

Yes, Quebec has accepted a fairly high number of asylum claimants over the last several years. The federal government has compensated Quebec for some of those costs, including through the interim housing program. To date, since 2017, the total amount has been about $1.1 billion.

As you mentioned, there is an additional ask from Quebec for more recent costs that they have incurred. The program that we have at IRCC is specifically for interim housing costs, so we're reviewing the request and looking at some of the costs that Quebec has put forward.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

I will now turn to Ms. Voisin or Ms. Owen.

The latest budget mentioned investing in infrastructure, such as hospitals, but no additional funds were allocated to health transfers, as requested by the Bloc Québécois. It is not enough to have new infrastructure; we also need human resources.

Do you plan to allocate funds not only to infrastructure and hospitals, but also to health transfers?

[Jocelyne Voisin]

What I can tell you is that the budget allocates funds to health services. Quebec will receive $38.3 billion over 10 years, based on the working together to improve health care for Canadians plan.

This has also been confirmed in the budget.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

I now go to Ms. Konanz for five minutes, please.

[Helena Konanz, Conservative, Similkameen—South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Thank you, Chair.

I have a question for Ms. Baird or Ms. Park.

There's been a lot of defence around the table of Saudis training in our hospitals who need to go home after the training, and for sure their spots would not be taken if they weren't here, which is very interesting, because there are thousands of people looking to train in hospitals who would stay here in Canada. It's a very interesting situation for sure that we're trying to follow up on.

One of the things I'd like to know is this: How many work permits does the immigration department plan to approve for Saudi-funded visa trainees this year?

[Soyoung Park]

I will say that there is no plan, or there is no target, for the number of visas under this category. The actual visas are issued based on the applications that we receive, and the agreements, as I said, are between the medical faculties and the foreign governments and also do not just include Saudi Arabia.

I will also add that this program is actually not unique to Canada. There are other countries, like the U.S. and the U.K., that have similar programs.

[Helena Konanz, Conservative, Similkameen—South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Again, just to follow up on that, how many Saudi-funded visa trainees are here right now, and how many are going to be required to leave?

[Soyoung Park]

I don't know how many on hand are specifically from Saudi Arabia.

[Helena Konanz, Conservative, Similkameen—South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Okay. Could you find that information, please, and table it to this committee? Thank you.

Another question I have is this: For the IFHP-provided health care, can you please table numbers broken down by categories of groups that are eligible for this health care? The groups on your website are refugee claimants, protected persons in Canada, resettled refugees, victims of family violence, detainees, individuals under specific temporary public policies and individuals who have been granted eligibility at the minister's discretion.

Can you break those down according to category and table that to the committee?

[Soyoung Park]

Yes, we can.