TORONTO — Dozens of people demonstrated in Toronto on April 14, 2026, as part of a national day of action against planned cuts to the Interim Federal Health Program, which provides healthcare coverage to refugees and asylum seekers in Canada. The cuts are set to take effect on May 1, 2026.
Under the changes, people receiving coverage through the program will have to pay $4 per eligible prescription medication and 30 percent of the cost of supplemental services such as dental care, vision care, and counseling. A spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said the changes could result in savings of 126.8 million Canadian dollars in 2026-2027 and 231.9 million Canadian dollars in subsequent years.
"Introducing co-payments for supplemental health products and services helps manage growing demand, keeping the IFHP sustainable over the long term," the spokesperson said. "This approach will allow the government to continue supporting eligible beneficiaries while keeping the program fair and consistent with other publicly funded health insurance programs that provide supplemental benefits, including those available to many social assistance recipients," the spokesperson added.
"We want to make sure that we have a universal healthcare system, and we also don't want a system that punches down against vulnerable people and migrants," Dr. Ritika Goel, a family doctor, said at the Toronto protest. "We want to support a system that provides care to everyone," she added.
Canadian Medical Association President Margot Burnell wrote in a letter to the health minister that the co-payments would affect frontline providers. "When patients cannot afford medications or essential supports, preventable conditions worsen and ultimately require emergency or hospital care, increasing both human suffering and system-wide expenditures," Burnell wrote. "The new co-payments will also create additional administrative burden for frontline providers, including pharmacists, dentists, optometrists, and physicians, further straining a healthcare system already under pressure," she added. "The changes would amount to a de facto denial of care for patients living in poverty," she wrote.
"Certainly, it can have the result of preventing or discouraging people from seeking healthcare supports and services that they need," Aisling Bondy, president of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, said. "That is very concerning," she added.
The cost of the program rose from 211 million Canadian dollars in 2020-2021 to 896 million Canadian dollars in 2024-2025 as the number of beneficiaries and cost per beneficiary increased, according to the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer. The program is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 11.2 percent through 2030, compared with 33.7 percent over the past five years, according to the same office.
The changes come as the government, led by Prime Minister Mark Carney, who took office in March 2025, seeks to cut 60 billion Canadian dollars in public spending over five years. The government has also reduced the number of temporary visas for international students and foreign workers and passed a law in March 2026 that introduced restrictions on access to asylum.
The program has been subject to political and legal dispute before. In 2012, then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper made cuts to the program, prompting widespread protests and a legal challenge. The Federal Court of Canada ruled in 2014 that those cuts amounted to "cruel and unusual" treatment and violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The cuts were later rescinded by the Liberal Party after it defeated the Conservative Party in the 2015 federal election.