Included in the 2019 federal budget is approximately $283 million in new spending intended on covering the healthcare costs of the recent influx of illegal border crossers.
Since 2017, approximately 42,000 migrants have crossed into Canada at unofficial border crossings along the US border, 96 per cent of them occurring at Roxham Road.
When entering Canada and awaiting their asylum applications, migrants are granted publicly subsidized healthcare access.
The Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP) includes access and coverage for “basic, supplemental and prescription drug benefits”. The policy which covers a variety of treatments and costs also includes mental health/psychiatric services, dental benefits and a variety of examinations.
In addition, illegal border crossers are given access to government housing, social welfare payments, provincial health care services, and they enroll their children in Canadian public schools.
Only a few months ahead of the election, the federal government appears to have taken a harder stance on border security. The same budget also includes $1.1 billion to be put towards increased border enforcement.
Minister of Border Security Bill Blair has also been entertaining a solution to the Safe Third Country Agreement loopholes which allow migrants to cross at irregular points of entry along the US-Canada border.
However, immigration experts who spoke to True North on background agreed it’s highly doubtful America would renegotiate the Safe Third Country Agreement.
With regards to healthcare, the federal government has actually implemented several changes to Canada’s immigration system which makes it easier for immigrants with health problems to enter into the country.
In 2018, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Ahmed Hussen announced a change to admissibility rules which would allow potential immigrants with serious medical issues into Canada.
Former admissibility rules took into account the anticipated healthcare costs immigrants would incur upon the first five-years of their arrival capping them at just under $7,000 per capita. The new Liberal updates nearly tripled the cap which now sits at $20,517.
Critics like True North founder, Candice Malcolm have also pointed out the deep flaws in Canada’s reunification program which allows elderly family members to be granted access to our increasingly strained universal healthcare system.
The government’s mishandling of the crisis at our border has cost taxpayers billions. Keep track of how much Justin Trudeau’s open invitation to the world’s migrants has cost Canadians here.
