Come to Canada for Free Health Services!

"[A] surge in population growth [is leading to the] degradation [of Canadian health care.]"

"That the current government would tweet this out while our hospitals are overcrowded and people can't get a family doctor tells you exactly what's going on in Ottawa."

Conservative MP Jamil Jivani 

 

"If it wasn't for immigrants, our health-care system would be totally overrun."

"I would like to personally thank all the immigrants who came here and who have helped our health-care system rather than trying to demonize them as being a problem."

Liberal MP Marcus Powlowski 

In January of 2017, then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau used Twitter to send a message when during the first installation of Republican President Donald Trump saw a crackdown on illegal migrants and refugee claimants in the United States; refuting that 'anti-humanitarian' hunt to remove undocumented, illegal residents of the United States, literally inviting them -- one and all -- to come to Canada: "To those

fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada".

 

The result was fairly predictable, illegal border crossings increased exponentially, as those in the U.S. fearing the new crackdown, packed up their belongings and headed north to Canada. A deluge of migrants responding to Justin Trudeau's open invitation to 'come to Canada!' Those migrant border-crossers have never quite given up, and President Trump's renewed governing mandate encouraged more migrants to bypass Canada's legal immigration system to declare themselves haven seekers.

 

During those years, housing costs spiralled, Canada's universal medical system, already under stress, began to crumble, with long medical appointment and surgical wait times and hospital emergency rooms understaffed and coping saw 8-hour wait-time delays before emergency treatment could be expected. Millions of Canadians and Canadian residents are without the services of a general practitioner. Medical-Health personnel in all branches of public health care are deficient in numbers to care for a growing population.

 

Cue another social media post to invite foreigners to consider emigrating to Canada where they can take advantage of the country's 'public health care'. "Thinking about moving to Canada? Did you know Canada has public health care?" Thus reads a post uploaded to social media by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). This post at a time of record-high health-care wait times and the linkage of a migration influx. 

 

Stressed nurse    Open Access Government / WS file photo

 

The House of Commons standing committee on health saw Conservative MP Dan Mazier recommending an official probe on "the impact of immigration policy on health care". A senior Health Canada official was asked by MP Mazier whether the health system would be capable of coping with "record levels of immigration". And they have been record levels; under the two Liberal governments -- that of PM Justin Trudeau, and now PM Mark Carney -- record numbers of immigrants, migrants, refugees, temporary workers and foreign students have entered Canada -- up to a million a year latterly. 

 

In lock-step with skyrocketing housing costs, overworked medical community, a lack of hospital beds, hospital emergency room closures, and municipal authorities coping with an influx of new residents requiring temporary housing, using housing meant for Canada's own homeless population. To MP Mazier's question, the deputy minister of Health Canada, Greg Orencsak, replied that it was the provinces that must decide; no federal data weighs immigration against health-care capacity; a gross oversight in the circumstances. 

 

An annual wait times survey compiled by the Fraser Institute last December reported the average Canadian now waits 30 weeks for treatment following a physician referral; the "longest ever recorded", considering that wait times had been 9.3 weeks back in 1993. Shortages of doctors and allied health-care staff have led to a wave of emergency room closures; local residents advised to seek care at hospitals elsewhere.

 

"Canadians are paying the price for the Liberals’ out-of-control immigration policies."

"Immigration is important, but the government must have control over it. Right now, they have zero control."

"It is wrong to set immigrants up for failure in a country that does not have the capacity to support them."

"Last year the Liberals brought in nearly half a million permanent immigrants, while 6.5 million Canadians still don’t have a family doctor."

Member of Parliament Dan Mazier