Health committee  Nobody is responsible for finding a health care professional. This works as insurance, and it's up to the client to find their own health care provider. Through the claims administrator, we then pay for the care.

Health committee  That's right. Our role is only to provide payment. We have a mandate to provide payment for the services, not to ensure access.

Health committee  Well, our department is quite involved in working with service providers and looking at issues of integration and language. But that doesn't come under my area of responsibility; I am responsible for health. So if you are interested in issues of integration and the health aspects of integration, then I would have to ask a colleague from our integration branch to talk to you.

Health committee  The claims administrator we currently have has been working under the same contract for a period of three years, but they also had the contract before that. It wasn't the first time they had the contract. This new contract is going to be for five years, with the possibility of being renewed twice for two years at a time.

Health committee  We could provide you with the cost per client also. We have that information. If you wish, we could also provide you with that information. The cost per client has increased. The number of claims has increased. The number of clients has increased. We haven't drilled down into more of an analysis.

Health committee  Yes.

Health committee  In most cases, we try to align exactly to the provincial fee schedules. In some cases, we do pay more and in some cases we pay less. It depends on the service. We can provide that in the analysis that we will be providing to you.

Health committee  We are trying to align as much as possible to the services offered by the provinces. I wouldn't put it exactly the way you're putting it, though, because the provinces are relatively aligned between themselves too. You wouldn't have a situation where in one province you would receive mental health services and in another you wouldn't.

Health committee  I wouldn't know the differences offhand. If you wish to have that, I would have to do an analysis and provide it to the committee.

Health committee  Okay.

Health committee  I'm not aware that differences in our payments have created challenges for our clients. What I'm aware of is that our clients, as well as other clients, have challenges receiving services and having access to services if they are in an area where there are challenges for other recipients.

Health committee  That's correct.

Health committee  At this point, I should also say that we have a new contract with a new claims administrator and that we are in a period of transition between the old claims administrator and the new one, who will be starting next January. We do the oversight through the requirements that we had when we issued our request for proposal for the contract.

Health committee  Thank you for your question. The first thing you can see, if you have your table of program expenditures in front of you, is that the number of clients rose quite significantly. It went from 71,000 clients in 2000-2001 to 128,000 clients in 2009-2010. We don't have the number, but there has also been an increase in the number of claims per client.

Health committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning. Thank you for inviting me to speak to you today. I am the Director General of the Health Management Branch of Citizenship and Immigration Canada. My branch holds the responsibility for delivering the Interim Federal Health Program, also referred to as IFH.