Evidence of meeting #22 for Health in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was point.
A video is available from Parliament.
Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
— rather than the November date that you cited.
Liberal
Maggie Chi Liberal Don Valley North, ON
Yes, that's totally fair, and I appreciate it.
The report suggests that the recent growth in overall program costs has been driven by both increased intake and an extended determination timeline. From a fiscal perspective, how significant is the duration of eligibility as a driver of total program expenditure?
Advisor-Analyst, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
Our modelling very much focuses on the number of beneficiaries, and it doesn't directly model duration. Essentially, because the length of coverage for an asylum claimant beneficiary is a direct function of how long their determination process is, the longer the determination process, the higher the health care cost associated with that beneficiary.
Liberal
Maggie Chi Liberal Don Valley North, ON
If intake levels exceed processing capacity at the Immigration and Refugee Board, would it be fair to say that individuals remain in the program longer than originally intended, and that this dynamic alone increases the total cost, even if per person spending remains modest?
Advisor-Analyst, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
That's correct.
Liberal
Maggie Chi Liberal Don Valley North, ON
In other words, is the more prudent policy question not whether temporary bridge coverage should exist, but how to align intake processing capacity in system design so that temporary programs do not become prolonged programs?
Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
We don't...so the mandate of the parliamentary budget officer, interim or otherwise, is not to opine upon policy. We only crunch numbers.
Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
Policy is done by members around this table.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thank you.
I'm going to go now to Monsieur Blanchette-Joncas for six minutes, please.
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I want to return to my question about the share of funding that Quebec receives with respect to asylum claimants.
In comparison with Ontario, for example, Quebec receives many more asylum seekers than its demographic weight. As for the allocation of program funding, Ontario's share is double that of Quebec, which nonetheless receives a lot of asylum claimants.
Can you explain this?
Advisor-Analyst, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
You're talking about the costs per province for the program.
Is that right?
Advisor-Analyst, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
Costs are related to billing requests. It's related to the invoice. If costs are higher in Ontario, the assumption would be that billing per asylum claimant in Ontario is higher than in Quebec.
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC
We see in the data that Ontario surpassed Quebec only in 2024.
Advisor-Analyst, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
I don't have the data on those billing dynamics, but that would be my assumption.
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC
According to my hypothesis, either asylum claimants in Ontario get sick more often, or treatments and health care in Ontario are more expensive.
How can we confirm whether Quebec or other provinces are being penalized in terms of the allocation of funds?
It's a matter of fairness within the federal government.
Director of Policy (Costing), Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
To address this issue, we would definitely need much more granular data if we are to provide you with explanations and answers to your questions. For now, this isn't something we've looked at in the time frame that—
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC
That’s understood.
I want to talk now about pre-departure care outside the country. The federal government now covers some care outside Canada before individuals arrive.
Do you have data on the impact that these costs have on the entire IFHP budget?
Advisor-Analyst, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
Yes, the portion of health care costs for that part of the program was about 3% for the 2024‑25 fiscal year.
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC
Okay.
Can we have a breakdown of costs by country, by region of origin or by type of pre-departure care covered?
Do you have any data on that?
Advisor-Analyst, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
We don’t have a breakdown of the costs, but as we understand it, the main expenses are related to pre-departure medical examinations and public health care.
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC
Okay.
A portion of the program's expenses is incurred abroad even before these people arrive in Canada.
Is that right?