Evidence of meeting #13 for Health in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was immigration.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Dental Association
I would have to get back to you on the details of that. It has been a while since I've treated refugees under that program as well as publicly. There are many different classifications of individuals coming in. Each one one of those may have a different approach.
Conservative
Helena Konanz Conservative Similkameen—South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC
Do you think you could table that information for me when you receive it?
Conservative
Helena Konanz Conservative Similkameen—South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC
That would be great.
I have one more question.
Actually, I think I'm going to turn my questions over to Mr. Mazier at this point.
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
Thank you.
Madam Chair, I have the floor. I would like to move the following motion since we're getting close to one o'clock.
I move that, given that the cost of the—
Conservative
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
I move:
That, given that:
The cost of the Interim Federal Health Program has increased from $66.3 million in 2016-17 to $797.2 million in 2024-25; an increase of more than 1,100% in less than 10 years.
The total number of users that incurred Interim Federal Health Program claims has risen from 84,967 users in 2016-17 to 426,750 in 2024-25; an increase of more than 400% in less than 10 years.
In Quebec alone, the number of users that incurred Interim Federal Health Program claims has risen from 11,900 users in 2016-17 to 108,440 in 2024-25; an increase of over 810% in less than 10 years.
During the health committees’ study on the impacts of immigration policy on health care in Canada, the committee heard testimony regarding a lack of program oversight, questionable billing practices, and a sharp rise in program usage and costs for the Interim Federal Health Program;
the committee:
a) instruct the chair to write to the Auditor General of Canada, suggesting that she conduct a comprehensive audit on the federal government’s Interim Federal Health Program to examine the significant increase in costs, usage, and impacts on provincial health care systems by February 07, 2026;
b) instruct the chair to write to the Parliamentary Budget Officer requesting that he conduct a fiscal analysis of the Interim Federal Health Program to project future expenses and assess the drivers behind recent significant cost and usage increases by January 30, 2026; and
c) invite the Auditor General of Canada and Parliamentary Budget Officer to appear before the committee separately to present and discuss their respective findings if they publish a report.
From what we've heard here over the past committees, I think this is a very important subject. We really do have to get a handle on this important subject.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
I have a list of speakers. There's a motion on the floor.
Go ahead, Mr. Bailey.
Conservative
November 20th, 2025 / 12:50 p.m.
Liberal
Maggie Chi Liberal Don Valley North, ON
Thank you, Chair.
If I may, I believe this is out of order. We're still dealing with the witnesses. We were just in the middle of a questioning round.
I just got the notice of motion. Don't we need an advanced period of circulation before we vote on it? That's my understanding of the orders.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
I'm sorry, Ms. Chi. If you want to suspend to look at the motion, I'd be happy to do that.
This is in order because it is a subject we're discussing right now.
I will suspend to look at it. Is that what you're asking for?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
You just want to discuss it. Okay. I won't suspend.
Ms. Chi, you have the floor.
Liberal
Doug Eyolfson Liberal Winnipeg West, MB
Thank you.
I need clarification as to whether this is a point of order. Do we not need to be formally in committee business in order to raise a motion like this?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
If there is a motion pertaining to the issue under discussion right now—and this motion is—it is allowable as a motion. It means that I may just have to.... Given the time and the list of people I have, it might very well be that I have to thank our witnesses for appearing and for their excellent interventions.
You may leave if you wish because we're discussing this now. Thank you.
Go ahead, Doug. Did you want to speak to this or not?
Liberal
Marcus Powlowski Liberal Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON
I certainly want to speak to this, especially with the witnesses being here. I think we're kind of getting to the heart of the problem and how we can address this problem of foreign credentialing. We have some excellent people here whom I would like to be asking questions of. Instead, we're going down this rabbit hole, which is really a spending issue. We're the health committee and this is an issue of spending and the efficiency of spending.
There are a whole lot of health issues we could be talking about. I'd like to do our cancer study. There's the opioid crisis study that we could be addressing. There are a lot of health issues we could be addressing. We're going after this Conservative notion that we're wasting money on these foreigners who are coming in here and using our health services—I know that appeals to a certain Conservative base that wants to hear that there are too many foreigners and that we're spending Canadian dollars on foreigners—instead of doing what we actually should be doing as a health care committee, which is addressing health issues. Therefore, I totally disagree with us spending money and time on this issue.
Conservative
