Health Committee on Feb. 12th, 2026

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I would like to call the meeting to order please.

I call the meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number 22 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health.

We recognize that we meet on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people.

I want to remind participants of the following points. Please wait until I recognize you by name before you speak. For those in the room, including the witnesses, please make sure that you wear your headsets so that you can hear the interpretation. I know that some of you may think you are fluently bilingual, or you may be fluently bilingual, but the bottom line is that putting on your headsets allows you to hear what the other person is saying, in terms of the volume.

You can choose whatever language you prefer: English, French or floor, and the volume control is at the very top. I would suggest that the witnesses do that because we had some problems when people did not wear their headsets and couldn't hear what was said.

Also, as a reminder, all comments should be addressed through the chair. For members in the room, if you wish to speak, raise your hand, and both the clerk and I will try to recognize your hand as soon as it goes up. We will try to manage the speaking order that way.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motions adopted on Tuesday, September 23, 2025, and Thursday, November 20, 2025, the committee will resume the study on the impact of immigration policy on health care and barriers to integrating internationally trained professionals.

I would like to welcome our witnesses, and I want to thank them for allowing us to read their report so that we could digest it before we came to this meeting today.

We have, from the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer, Jason Jacques, interim Parliamentary Budget Officer; Louis Perrault, director of policy; Caroline Nicol, adviser-analyst; and Jason Stanton, adviser-analyst.

The usual routine here is that you get five minutes.

You will have a lot of time to answer questions. You will have a lot of time to make points you might not have been able to make within the five minutes of your presentation when we have the question and answer period.

I'm going to begin with Monsieur Jacques for five minutes.

[Jason Jacques, Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer]

Thank you, Madam Chair and committee members.

We appreciate the invitation to appear before you this afternoon as part of your study.

This morning, we published our report entitled “Projecting the Cost of the Interim Federal Health Program”, the acronym is IFHP.

As many of you know, this program provides limited and temporary health care coverage to certain groups of foreign nationals who are not eligible for health insurance from provinces or territories.

I am accompanied today by the authors of this report.

I want to say at the outset that we thank the committee for requesting this analysis, and we will be very pleased to undertake further work, if so desired by the committee.

Before I outline our findings, I want to quickly establish what our modelling can and cannot say.

I'll start with the can. Our modelling includes all beneficiaries of the program, regardless of their claim status. It assumes that the law and the parameters of program administration are respected. It assumes that intake and exit flows of program beneficiaries are consistent with those observed in 2025. Finally, it places IFHP beneficiaries into three general claim baskets: asylum, overseas resettled refugees and in-Canada resettled refugees.

At the same time, our model does not identify the specific duration of asylum claims, the specific stage of IFHP beneficiaries in the asylum claim process or the specific types of treatments provided to IFHP beneficiaries, such as dental care or vision care.

According to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, or PBO, total IFHP costs will reach almost $1 billion in 2025‑26 and rise to over $1.5 billion by 2029‑30. The PBO projects that the annual increase in IFHP health expenditures will, on average, be well below the average growth observed over the past five years, reflecting both a moderate rise in the number of beneficiaries and a more gradual increase in annual costs.

Budget 2025 indicated that a “modest co-payment model” will be introduced to the IFHP for supplemental health products or services. This change to the program is not reflected in our projection. Including this measure would reduce our estimate of the total cost for the IFHP. Our projection does not include the proposed legislative changes in Bill C‑12.

In closing, I'd like to say that my office remains determined to provide you with clear, timely and impartial analyses to help you in your study of federal expenses and budgetary policy.

We would be pleased to answer your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much, Mr. Jacques. You are well under five minutes.

We're going to the question and answer section. The first round is a six-minute round for everyone. That six minutes includes questions and answers. I try to give you the chance to finish your sentence, but I don't want people to go too much over their time. It's not fair to the others.

We begin with the Conservatives and Mr. Mazier.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Riding Mountain, MB]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you very much for coming out here today. I really do appreciate you stepping up and getting this report done very quickly. We'll soon get to the bottom of this program.

In 2016, the interim federal health program cost taxpayers less than $80 million a year. What do you project the program will cost by 2030?

[Caroline Nicol, Advisor-Analyst, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer]

Our projection assumed that for the fiscal year 2029-30, the cost will be about $1.5 billion.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Riding Mountain, MB]

Is that $1.5 billion every single year?

[Caroline Nicol]

That's the cost for that specific fiscal year.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Riding Mountain, MB]

That's $1.5 billion a year for every single year. Am I correct?

[Caroline Nicol]

Yes.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Riding Mountain, MB]

In 2016, the Liberals expanded this program to cover supplemental health benefits for asylum seekers. According to the government, these benefits include vision care, counselling, assistive devices, home visits, nursing homes, transportation, taxes, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and interpretation services.

Is it your understanding that these supplemental health benefits are covered for asylum claimants under the program?

[Caroline Nicol]

Yes.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Riding Mountain, MB]

Are these supplemental benefits a major contributor to the program's $1.5-billion projected cost?

[Caroline Nicol]

The information we received says that for the last fiscal year, 2024-25, the supplemental benefits represented a bit over 50% of the total health expenditure of the program, and that category was growing as a contributor. In our projection, that proportion would grow.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Riding Mountain, MB]

Wow.

The government's website states that refugee claimants remain eligible for supplemental health benefits even after their claim has been rejected by the Immigration and Refugee Board.

Is that your understanding in the report?

[Caroline Nicol]

Like we mentioned in our opening remarks, our cost estimate includes the cost for all eligible beneficiaries, no matter where they are in the process. We've modelled according to the guidance we've received from IRCC about when beneficiaries would exit the program.

In the case of successful claimants, that would be when they become eligible for provincial or territorial health benefits. In the case of unsuccessful claimants, that would be when they leave Canada after exhausting all avenues of appeal, are judged ineligible at the IRB and ineligible for a pre-removal risk assessment, or have withdrawn or abandoned their claim.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Riding Mountain, MB]

They've been rejected. This is including rejected claims.

[Caroline Nicol]

Yes, some of those beneficiaries would have had their claim rejected.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Riding Mountain, MB]

When an asylum seeker is rejected but remains in Canada, they continue receiving benefits that are better than what most Canadians receive and what they are entitled to. That continues to increase the cost of the program. Is that correct?

[Caroline Nicol]

I'm not going to state about qualifying the benefits, but it's true that until someone leaves Canada, after exhausting all the avenues for appeal, it's our understanding from the guidance we've received that they would still receive those benefits.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Riding Mountain, MB]

According to the government's website, refugee claimants remain eligible for supplemental health benefits through this program “until they leave Canada”. What happens if they don't leave Canada?

[Caroline Nicol]

I'm not necessarily an expert in how the program is administered for specific cases, but the exercise that we've done considered the fact that it's when an individual leaves Canada that their coverage would end.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Riding Mountain, MB]

Yes, once they've left Canada, but if they're still in Canada, they would still continue to receive benefits, right? There's nothing really stopping them from receiving benefits.

[Caroline Nicol]

I suppose that's implied from the information we've received, yes.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Riding Mountain, MB]

Mr. Jacques, CBC reported this:

Mostafa Eldidi came to Canada as an asylum seeker in 2020 and was granted refugee status [in 2022]. He does not hold Canadian citizenship.

He is now facing terrorism charges and is set for trial in 2026.

Would a refugee status holder in that situation remain eligible for supplemental health benefits through this interim federal health program?

[Jason Jacques]

I believe he would, based upon our understanding of the information provided to us by IRCC.