1200% spike in funding for group that includes possible bogus asylum claimants
Canadians are a compassionate people, but unvalidated asylum seekers should not get better benefits than Canadians do.
Today, Conservatives uncovered startling new data related to the cost of the Interim Federal Health program (IFHP).
In Canada, when someone claims asylum, they immediately become eligible for coverage under a program called the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP). Originally, this program was meant mainly to provide screening and medically necessary procedures to provide urgent care to people who arrived in Canada from places like conflict zones.
In information obtained via an Order Paper Question posed by Conservative Member of Parliament Rachael Thomas, it was revealed that the total cost of the program ballooned from roughly $66 million in fiscal year (FY) 2016-2017 to over $800M in FY 2024-25 so far.
Instead, the Liberals expanded the IFHP to include services that many Canadians don’t receive or have to pay for themselves like pharmaceuticals, vision care, counselling, prosthetics, assistive devices, homecare, nursing homes, physiotherapy and occupational speech therapy. The data received today shows this type of coverage has increased under the program to $456 million in 2024, a staggering 1,186% increase since 2016.
That’s because so far in FY 2024-2025, over 400,000 people have used services included in the IFHP. The number of those who sought coverage under the IFHP grew from 84,313 in 2016 to 402,128 to 2024, a 377% increase. Out of control demand continues to accelerate, with at least an additional 41,848 people seeking coverage in 2024 compared to 2023.
The backlog for asylum claims has grown from 9,999 in 2015 to over 287,000 in 2025, with a massive spike of claims being made by people who illegally crossed the border into Canada after the Liberals tweeted #welcometoCanada in 2017.
This dramatic cost and usage level of the IFHP should raise questions of fairness for all Canadians, particularly when it’s added to the other benefits provided to asylum seekers, including the billions of dollars the Liberals spent to provide housing (and hotels) for asylum seekers, many of whom don’t have valid claims to begin with.
Canadians have been paying into our healthcare system for their entire lives. Our seniors deserve to reap the rewards of that hard work by getting access to healthcare when they need it. Instead, our healthcare system is already overwhelmed and over-capacity, and Canadian seniors can’t get the treatment they need.
For example, overall health care wait times have increased 20 weeks in 2016 to 30 in 2024. In 2023-24 alone, at least 15,474 Canadians died waiting for health care. During that same period, the Liberals spiked overall immigration levels, and have done little to dissuade people from using the asylum system as a backdoor for economic immigration.
Particularly troubling is that the yearly costs associated with “extra coverage” in the IFHP has grown from $35.5M in 2016 to $456M thus far in 2024, a 1,186% increase. Cumulatively from 2016-2024, the government spent $1.37B on coverage for those eligible under the program to get services that Canadians are not eligible for. There was a 58% jump in spending from FY 2023-2024 to (year to date) FY 2024-2025.
Said differently, the Liberals allowed the asylum system to be turned into an unregulated backdoor system for economic migration, while effectively providing these migrants long-term benefits that were initially designed to be short term and for the world most vulnerable. In many cases now, people with what will ultimately be a bogus asylum claim can receive access to better benefits than many Canadians can.
This is unsustainable. Canadians are a compassionate people, but unvalidated asylum seekers should not get better benefits than Canadians do. Immediate reform is needed.
Over to you, Lena.
**I questioned the Minister on this topic today, you can watch the exchange here.**