Immigration bureaucrats were told to avoid describing Canada’s medicare as “free,” according to internal emails obtained through Access to Information. Officials said the word carried “sensitivities” about advertising taxpayer-funded services to foreigners.“The word ‘free’ should be avoided,” read one message circulated among staff. Blacklock's Reporter said a communications advisor, Lindsay Tessier, wrote that “marketing removed that word from their ads as they are too public facing.” Managers instead approved a tweet on October 13 that said, “Learn about health care in Canada. Thinking about moving to Canada? Did you know Canada has public health care? Learn how it works.”.The minister’s office declined to comment on the wording change.The emails reveal Ottawa’s ongoing caution around how it promotes access to medicare for non-citizens. Illegal immigrants and refugee claimants continue to qualify for benefits under the Interim Federal Health Program, which covers medical, dental and prescription costs. That program will spend $598 million this year, according to budget estimates tabled Friday.The Conservatives tried to rein in those costs in 2012. Then-immigration minister Chris Alexander told Parliament the program was meant “for genuine refugees,” not failed claimants or visitors. .“We are not going to give funding provided by Canadian taxpayers to fraudulent or failed refugee claimants nor to all the visitors to Canada,” Alexander said at the time.Cuts to the program targeted “failed claimants and those from safe countries like the United States,” but a federal judge struck down the move in 2014, calling it “cruel and unusual.”Under immigration rules, all legal entrants must pass a medical exam and can be denied if their health costs exceed the national average of roughly $7,000 a year. About 1,000 applicants are rejected annually on that basis..In 2021, cabinet proposed loosening the rule to admit applicants with chronic illnesses such as HIV or heart disease, so long as their projected medicare costs stay below $106,000 over five years. The department said the change would help promote “participation, inclusion and positive contributions,” though it acknowledged it would add “a cost burden on provincial and territorial governments.”Critics say the government’s mixed messaging — cautioning staff not to call medicare “free” while expanding eligibility — shows the tension between Ottawa’s immigration goals and the rising price tag of Canada’s health-care system.
