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.
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC
Okay.
Now, I'd like to talk about the changes that took place from 2016 to 2025.
In 2016, the federal government did not cover any pre-departure care outside the country. In 2025, approximately 50,000 people benefited from it, at a cost of approximately $22 million.
In your opinion, what specifically changed in the policy or administration of the program to explain this growth?
Advisor-Analyst, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
For this particular category, the demand is related to immigration targets. These are candidates who will obtain permanent residency, but who are not yet in Canada. According to the policy, these people can receive coverage, primarily for medical examinations.
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC
Okay.
It's not just an increase in volume. There was a change in the parameters of the program.
Is that right?
Advisor-Analyst, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
I don't necessarily have the details on the policy changes. For now, that's how it is.
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC
Okay.
If you could give us a response in writing about that, we would be grateful.
I want to talk to you about administrative and processing costs.
Beyond the costs for care, administrative costs related to the program and the processing of applications have also increased.
In your opinion, what are these increases mainly attributable to?
Jason Stanton Advisor-Analyst, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
As part of the administration costs, a lot of it would be the agreement with a third party. Blue Cross would be administering it, so that would be a portion of the administration costs. As more people make claims and there's more billing, there would be an increase in administration costs.
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC
Okay.
I just want to fully understand certain things.
Is it related primarily to the addition of staff, overtime or external contracts?
Is it due to the increased complexity of processes? Do you have any information about that?
Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
No, we don’t have any information concerning administrative costs.
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC
Okay.
However, we agree that the fiscal trajectory also greatly depends on management choices and administrative capacity. It's not just about the care provided.
Is that right?
Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
That’s right.
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC
Great.
In recent years, have the actual costs of the program exceeded the initial projections?
Advisor-Analyst, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
We don’t necessarily have specific data on past projections. They weren’t available. However, we can note that there are references to additional funding for the program in various budget documents.
I think Mr. Stanton can provide more details on that.
Advisor-Analyst, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
Amounts were allocated to the program in the 2023, 2024, and 2025 budgets. It was really temporary. It may have been for the current year and the following year. It was like a top-up to offset the increase in costs.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thank you, Mr. Blanchette-Joncas.
I go next to Mr. Bailey for the Conservatives.
You have five minutes, please, Mr. Bailey.
Conservative
Burton Bailey Conservative Red Deer, AB
Thank you, Madam Chair.
First of all, I want to thank each of you for your work on this document. It really has clarified some of the questions I have.
I have just a few brief questions.
Over six million Canadians are lacking a family doctor, and it's growing. The committee got testimony from health care professionals indicating that billing for asylum seekers under the interim federal health program can be up to five times higher than it is for Canadians.
Mr. Stanton, you indicated that Blue Cross is in charge of the billing. Did I hear you correctly, or is it just administering the program and the physicians are billing directly to the federal government?
Advisor-Analyst, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
It would be the latter. They would be administering it.
Conservative
Burton Bailey Conservative Red Deer, AB
That's what I thought, but I wanted to clarify it.
This points to the Liberal government's lack of oversight and accountability, potentially incentivizing abuse, providing inflated bill amounts and prioritizing IFHP patients, while claimants could stall their own process to extend their stay and eligibility. As a result, bogus asylum claims could receive superior health care through the supplementary coverage—like physiotherapy, home care, counselling and many other health services that taxpaying Canadians and seniors don't even receive.
In your analysis, did you observe any accountability or oversight measures to ensure that bogus asylum claimants would not be abusing this program?
Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
A key part of the analysis—I mentioned it in the opening remarks—is that we are observing, as part of the historical data, total spending and total billing on the program. We didn't go through the details regarding whether or not any of that might be ineligible or might be overbilled. We also assume that the program is being administered in a manner consistent with its intended purpose.
Conservative
Burton Bailey Conservative Red Deer, AB
In April 2025, it was reported that a Mexican national with alleged cartel ties crossed into Canada through an unofficial port of entry and then claimed refugee status. A decade earlier, this individual told an undercover B.C. RCMP officer that he had worked as a hit man for hire. At one point, he was also arrested for possession of a controlled substance.
If this person were to claim refugee status, is it your understanding that he would be eligible for Canadian taxpayer-funded health care under the interim federal health program?
Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
Do you mean while the claim is being adjudicated? Yes.
February 12th, 2026 / 4:50 p.m.
Conservative
Burton Bailey Conservative Red Deer, AB
Okay.
My understanding is that we still don't know, from your analysis or from any data that we've seen from the immigration department, how many eligible IFHP beneficiaries have been denied their asylum claims and how many denied asylum claimants are still in Canada.
Did the department provide data on these denied claimants? Is there any transparency from the department on this, or does it even know?
Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
Jay, do you want to take this question?
Advisor-Analyst, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
We didn't necessarily seek that information. We just looked for a number of annual beneficiaries, not necessarily at where they were in the process.
We didn't ask for the data from IRCC in terms of those specific cases, so it did not provide it. This was just because it wasn't what we sought as part of the information to do this report.
Conservative
Burton Bailey Conservative Red Deer, AB
In the analysis, you stated, “Since 2016-17, the cost per in-Canada beneficiary has increased at a significant pace.” What is the relative medical cost increase for an asylum-seeking IFHP beneficiary as compared to the health care cost increases for the average Canadian?
Advisor-Analyst, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
Over the last five years, the per capita health expenditure for a core age Canadian grew by an annual average of 5%, and the average cost in Canada for IFHP beneficiaries grew by 14% annually.