Reverse these cuts
To the relief of millions of Canadians, the mandatory census is back. It took the new Liberal government just one day to reinstitute the detailed profile of the nation the Conservatives chopped five years ago.
There is a second ill-judged cutback that could be reversed almost as fast: the withdrawal of refugee health benefits. Since 2012, the federal government has denied life-saving medicine, access to emergency care, prosthetic limbs and pre-natal care to asylumseekers awaiting their hearings.
The Harper government ended a 58-year tradition of providing basic health care to refugee claimants “to defend the interests of Canadian taxpayers.” Doctors, nurses and therapists from coast to coast fought to reverse the cancellation of the Interim Health Program. The Federal Court ruled the cuts unconstitutional. The provinces appealed to Ottawa. Still the Tories refused to budge.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised to “fully restore the Interim Federal Health Program.” His health minister, Jane Philpott, a family physician who worked in Africa, is on board. His immigration minister, John McCallum, opposed the Tory cuts vigorously. “We think it’s unconscionable that the government would impact the most vulnerable refugee applicants in this way.”
All it would take is a cabinet order-in-council to restore compassion and decency to Canada’s refugee system. “It would be a quick win for the Liberals” said Meb Rashid, medical director of the Crossroads Clinic for refugees at Women’s College Hospital. “Bureaucratically, I don’t think it would take much to restore it.”
Rashid and his colleagues at Canadian Doctors for Refugee Care are urging the government to act before thousands of Syrian refugees start arriving in the country. Under the existing rules, those who are privately sponsored — those brought in by churches, schools, non-profit organizations, community groups and citizens — would be ineligible for health coverage. (Those sponsored by the government would be insured.)
It would cost approximately $85 million to restore the program. Surely a nation with a $300-billion federal budget can afford that. The savings were mostly illusory anyway. Six provinces stepped in to ensure that no refugee claimant in need of urgent health care would be turned away, shifting the burden to their taxpayers.
No doubt a handful of disgruntled taxpayers would complain. But they never opposed the program until then-immigration minister Jason Kenney whipped up discontent about “bogus refugees receiving gold-plated health care benefits.” In fact, most Canadians didn’t know it existed.
To correct the record, the Interim Federal Health Program provided exactly the same coverage as low-income Canadians get. It tided refugee claimants over until their status was determined. It allowed doctors to treat diseases before they became life-threatening. It was the mark of a civilized nation.
Most of the Liberal platform will take time, money and legislation to implement. This commitment could be fulfilled in a day. It would “appeal to the better angels of our nature” as Trudeau promised in his election-night speech.