Immigration minister slammed for healthcare perks to rejected asylum seekers

Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab is under fire after a Conservative MP blasted the Liberal government for giving rejected asylum claimants better health benefits than many Canadian citizens

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab is under fire after a Conservative MP blasted the Liberal government for giving rejected asylum claimants better health benefits than many Canadian citizens.

During a House of Commons’ health committee meeting on Tuesday, MP Matt Strauss questioned Immigration Minister Diab after she couldn’t provide data on the number of rejected refugee claims. Strauss said he was “dumbfounded” that the minister lacked the information.

Strauss asked Diab if an individual continues to receive health care support from the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP) after their refugee claim is denied. The minister initially said “no” but quickly added that “it follows through the process” and “once the process is concluded, it ends.”

In September, Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel Garner noted that the IFHP funds services that many Canadians do not receive or must pay for themselves, such as pharmaceuticals, vision care, counselling, assistive devices, prosthetics, home care, nursing homes, and physiotherapy and occupational speech therapy.

The fund has ballooned to more than 12 times the amount taxpayers paid for it just nine years ago. Government data shows that taxpayers paid $66 million to the fund in 2016-17, compared to a preliminary estimate of $821,191,548 for the 2025-26 fiscal year as of September—a 1,144 per cent increase.

“This program, the $900 million program, includes pharmaceuticals and vision care and mental health counselling and assistive devices and physiotherapy and occupational speech therapy and all sorts of things that seniors in Kitchener do not get unless they have supplemental health coverage,” Strauss said during the committee.

The IRCC website states that refugee claimants will receive IFHP coverage if their refugee claim has been rejected and they are still in Canada.

“I asked you, if somebody’s refugee claim is denied, do they continue to get all of this coverage? And you said, No,” Strauss said. “So did you lie to the committee, or is your website lying?”

Diab, offended by the insinuation, said lying was “not in her dictionary” and clarified that the program is meant to provide “temporary health care coverage” to address “urgent and essential” medical needs of refugees and asylum claimants while they wait to become eligible for provincial and territorial health insurance.

“ I said they continue to receive claims until all the refugee process is concluded,” Diab said, but admitted she was unable to answer what happens after the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) denies an asylum claim.

She deferred the responsibility for that part of the process to the IRB itself, though Strauss noted that federal funds go to the program, and federal ministers should be responsible for how taxpayer money is spent.

“I’m to understand that you, as the minister who looks after this interim federal health program, who is the Minister of refugees, don’t know what part of the process comes after the IRB denying your refugee claim?” Strauss said.

Diab said that people can appeal their claims, and there could be “other considerations” for why a rejected asylum seeker may still be in the country and require access to Canada’s healthcare system.