EDITORIAL: Fixing high cost of lavish health plan

Some steps taken to deal with a massive taxpayer-funded expense.

Published Jul 01, 2026  •  Last updated 17 minutes ago  •  2 minute read

Canadian $100 bills. Photo by Andrzej Rostek /Getty Images

The law of unintended consequences as it applies to journalism is that sometimes a news outlet may produce a story it thinks supports the viewpoint it’s describing. The supporting documentation it provides, however, may make a stronger case to the contrary.

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A recent CBC sob story lamenting federal government cutbacks to mental health sessions for asylum seekers and refugee claimants is one such example.

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On June 22, the state broadcaster reported that the federal government had introduced health co-payments for asylum seekers and refugee claimants this year. The story says the federal government also “quietly” introduced a 10-hour cap on mental health sessions for them.

“No cap previously existed, meaning both groups have lost a system of potentially unlimited mental health sessions, virtually overnight,” laments the article. Some might think open-ended mental health counselling for newcomers who may not have been approved to live in Canada is a bad thing. Others will laud the government for sensibly shutting the stable door on a massive taxpayer-funded boondoggle.

In a February report, the parliamentary budget officer estimated that the cost of the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP), if unchanged, will soar to $1 billion in 2025-26 and skyrocket to $1.5 billion by 2029-30.

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The news story quotes a person who received 100 hours of mental health counselling over 16 months after arriving from the Bahamas: “Being able to go to a mental health specialist, a therapist and just sit for an hour and express myself and vocalize my trauma and receive help, expanded for over a year — it was something I never had before.”

The Bahamas is a parliamentary democracy. Democracy watchdog Freedom House rates it as “free” and gives it 90 out of 100 points on the overall scale of liberty. While it’s true that gay marriage isn’t legal, that’s no different than where Canada was 25 years ago. So how does someone coming to Canada from the Bahamas qualify as a “refugee” or “asylum seeker?”

Once upon a time, if you came here from another democratic country, you were called an “immigrant.” You signed a declaration saying you wouldn’t be “a burden on society” — meaning you wouldn’t claim government benefits.

And you counted your blessings that the freest and best country in the world had opened its arms to you.

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