For Immediate Release
Ottawa, ON: February 18, 2016 – Citizens for Public Justice (CPJ) welcomed a commitment today from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister John McCallum and Health Minister Jane Philpott to fully reinstate refugee health care. This fulfills the government’s campaign promises to reverse the cuts to the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP) as well as repeated calls from health professionals, churches, and CPJ’s own membership.
As the federal government continues to work resettle Syrian refugees in this country, Canadians, churches, and community groups are also answering the call. Private refugee sponsorship has received wide-spread and increased support from people and community groups across Canada. To recognize and honour this hard work and sacrifice, CPJ has repeatedly called on the government to fully reinstate the IFHP for refugees and to include all privately-sponsored refugees in the program. Today that call has been answered.
The cuts to refugee health care have had an impact on sponsors ability and willingness to help. According to CPJ’s study, Private Sponsorship and Public Policy, approximately one-third of church-connected Sponsorship Agreement Holders (SAHs) report that their sponsoring groups decreased or ended their involvement in private sponsorship program as a result of the added liability for health costs.
“These cuts put the health of refugees at risk,” said Joe Gunn, Executive Director of Citizens for Public Justice, “but churches and sponsoring groups have also been put at risk.” According to the study, 72 per cent of SAHs in Canada are churches or church-connected groups. With these cuts in place, private sponsors have been on the line for vision and dental care, prosthetics, mobility devices, and medication. “This is a huge financial risk for refugee-sponsoring churches,” said Gunn.
Private Sponsorship and Public Policy, CPJ’s report, also asked sponsoring groups to identify the biggest challenges they face in refugee sponsorship. The top three were: long wait times, health care cuts, and a lack of government consultation.
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Contact: Brad Wassink, Communications Coordinator, Citizens for Public Justice, at 613 232-0275 x.225 or brad@cpj.ca.
