Thank you, Chair.
It's great to have folks here from the immigration department's social programs and asylum policy branches.
I want to talk about the interim federal health program, which provides gold-plated health care coverage that Canadians themselves don't even receive.
The IFHP was designed as a limited and temporary health program for vulnerable foreign nationals not eligible for provincial health coverage. The latest PBO report came out last month, and it projects the program costs will rise to over $1.5 billion by 2029-30.
Would officials agree that this is no longer a small, short-term emergency program but a major permanent cost centre for taxpayers?