Madam Speaker, before I speak on the motion today, I would ask for the Speaker's indulgence to acknowledge the four-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I pray for peace and an end to the war.
I rise today to speak on the very important Conservative motion calling on the federal government to review the interim federal health program and put Canadian taxpayers and the health care of Canadians first. At a time when six million Canadians are without a family doctor and wait times to access health care have doubled in the past 10 years, the Canadian health care system is in crisis.
At the health committee, we have heard testimony from a variety of witnesses, be they health associates, health care professionals, those seeking to become health care professionals or government officials at all levels and more. Everyone acknowledges that the health care system in Canada is not operating at its best, and that this must change. However, this change can only happen if there is courage from those at the top, including the federal government.
Federal government officials often like to punt responsibilities to the provinces for health care and, indeed, health care is delivered by our provinces. However, when a federal program like the IFHP is funding health care for non-Canadian citizens and proven bogus asylum claimants through our provinces, that is when tensions arise between our provinces and the federal government, which brings me to the motion Conservatives have put forward today.
Our motion is simple. Conservatives believe that Canadians deserve the best health care their taxes are funding. It is the responsibility of the federal government to ensure that those tax dollars are being spent in a way that puts Canadians first. Canadians are compassionate people, but that does not mean that their compassion should be taken for granted and abused. That is exactly what the interim federal health program under the Liberal government has been doing.
Here are a few facts from the Parliamentary Budget Officer. Between 2020-21 and 2024-25, the cost of the program ballooned from $211 million to $896 million. That is four times the amount in just four years. The PBO estimates that, in total, the IFHP will reach almost $1 billion in 2025-26 and rise to over $1.5 billion in 2029-30. The current number of eligible beneficiaries qualifying for the IFHP today is 624,000. In 2029-30, that number is expected to grow and reach over 680,000.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer also reports that since 2016-17, the cost per in-Canada beneficiary under the interim federal health program has risen at a significant rate. During questioning at committee, I asked the PBO to compare the health cost increase for the IFHP beneficiary with the increase for a typical Canadian over the same period. The response indicated that IFHP beneficiary costs grew by 14%, compared to just 5% for Canadians. In other words, health care costs for foreign nationals and fake asylum claimants covered under the IFHP grew at nearly triple the rate of the cost increases for average Canadians.
What kinds of health care costs are we talking about here? According to the Government of Canada's IFHP website, coverage includes what the government is calling “basic” care: hospital services; services from medical doctors, registered nurses and other licensed health care professionals; ambulance services; and lab and diagnostic services such as blood tests and ultrasounds. It also covers “supplemental coverage” like psychologists and counselling therapists; occupational therapists, physiotherapists and speech language therapists; assistive devices like prosthetics, mobility aids and hearing aids; home care and long-term care; urgent dental care; limited vision care; and medical supplies and equipment.
To put it into perspective, a Canadian citizen facing mental health challenges may be offered MAID by the Government of Canada, but a potentially fraudulent refugee claimant receiving taxpayer-funded health care under the IFHP can access psychologists and counselling therapists. There is something deeply disturbing about that.
To make matters worse, government officials are not even aware of how many of the over 600,000 people in this country who are eligible for these IFHP benefits are receiving them fraudulently and abusing the system. The government has no clue how many people applied for asylum fraudulently, how many have been denied asylum and are still receiving health care, or how many are set to be deported but are still in this country and receiving health care.
It must be said that without the Conservatives probing into this issue at the health committee, Canadians would not have been made aware of the significant abuse that has been happening every day in this country. This is why it is so important that at committee, later today, we will be resuming debate on a Conservative motion to request that the PBO prepare an updated report and demand that the Department of Immigration and the Department of Health reveal all the information they have, and if they do not have the information, they must find it.
In fact, all members around the table agreed that an updated report would be beneficial to understand how new measures would impact the program and also to dig deeper into the details about the number of fraudulent asylum claimants. Unfortunately, the Liberal members received orders from the PMO and abruptly changed their minds. They decided to filibuster the meeting and stalled on getting answers for Canadians. Some are calling it a $1.5-billion cover-up. We will see later today whether the Liberal members of the health committee will put the health care of Canadians first.
What can be done about this massive Liberal fraud and abuse? There are some things that may be changed quickly, but others will take time. For instance, rejected asylum claimants should immediately have benefits under the IFHP restricted with the exception of emergency life-saving treatments only. There is absolutely no reason that an individual who has knowingly faked an asylum claim to stay in this country should be receiving public health care.
Another immediate change would be to expel foreign nationals convicted of crimes in Canada. The removal of individuals from our country who are deemed ineligible to remain here is just as important as ensuring they are not eligible to receive public health care paid for by Canadians.
Unfortunately, after 10 years of broken Liberal immigration policies, the long-term solutions are not a simple fix. Currently, there are nearly 300,000 people in Canada with pending refugee claims. This number, according to the PBO, is also set to grow given that the Immigration and Refugee Board is hearing cases at a pace that is slow and bureaucratic. Getting faster processing times is crucial both for legitimate refugee claimants who are fleeing war and persecution to get an answer, but also so that Canadians are not funding fraudulent asylum claimants. It is both compassionate and fair.
Unfortunately, we have heard at other parliamentary committees and through news reports that rather than enforcing our laws and ensuring fraudulent claims are not valid, nearly 25,000 refugee claimants were admitted without a single in-person interview by the IRB and its file review policy. That is not right. It is federal bureaucrats avoiding responsibility so they do not have to do the paperwork. It is potentially dangerous for Canadian public safety and also incentivizes more abuse from fraudsters who know they will be able to game the system.
Canada has a problem at every point of the immigration system. At the starting point, our streams are being overwhelmed by fraudulent claims of asylum. At the midpoint, while these fraudulent asylum claims are being processed, taxpayer-funded resources like housing and health care are being provided to these fraudsters. At the end point, whether or not the Immigration and Refugee Board decides to do its job properly to screen applications, the problem is twofold: The backlog could grow because of slow processing and more fraudulent claims, or the IRB could decide to turn a blind eye and rubber-stamp anyone and everyone.
The interim federal health program is a symptom of a much greater problem. For a decade, our immigration system has been abused and, in turn, has turned our health care system into an unworkable mess. We hear testimony at committee that the federal government has no oversight or accountability for billing under the IFHP, meaning that health care providers could bill up to five times the amount they can for a Canadian. This incentivizes abuse at the provider point, as fraudulent health care claimants could be treated before Canadians.