Photograph by: Richard Lam, PNG
For many refugees, reaching Canada truly is like arriving in the promised land. As a part of our generous policies for processing refugees, they are afforded free, immediate and unlimited health care, dental care, welfare, lawyer and translation services and sometimes even transportation.
But the freebies don’t end there. Although most Canadians are used to paying for their own prescription drugs, according to a CBC report, Quebec pharmacists have been supplying drugs to refugees on taxpayer dime for years. And because it often takes so long to get reimbursed for the drugs, they’re now putting a foot down.
A Quebec association is urging the 1,734 pharmacists it represents across the province to refuse supplying prescription drugs unless paid up front, saying it can take up to three years for Citizenship and Immigration Canada to reimburse them under the Interim Federal Health Program.
Hm, wouldn’t it be nice to get in on that program? Sadly, if you’re a Canadian citizen you’re out of luck.
According to the article, a refugee worker argued it makes sense to financially inconvenience pharmacists rather than have refugees not take their medication, resulting in hospitalization that will end up costing everybody more anyway.
Interesting how social services are always used as a weapon when justifying the exorbitant and unjustifiable costs of something. For instance, if you criticize a government program that spends taxpayer money to distribute heroin needles to drug addicts, the argument is always that it’ll save money in the long run from fewer transmitted diseases. It never seems to occur to people that the single-payer health system is the problem.
Not that refugees have to pay for health care costs or premiums either, since they’re not legally entitled to work. Emphasis on the word “legally.” Most of them wind up working under the table while waiting the three or four years before their case is approved or rejected, all the while accumulating the best social services your money can buy.
A family of three people or more earning $30,000 or greater in British Columbia are required to pay $121 per month for medical services premiums, an added health care expense of $1,452 each year or a 4.8 per cent health surtax. That’s a lot of money for three people trying to survive on $30,000. Many people have to forgo prescription drugs because they don’t have a plan that covers them.
None of these problems are faced by refugees who have everything provided for them up front. The average refugee claim incurs $29,000 in processing costs and social benefits according to the immigration minister himself. That means the taxpayer bill for the MV Sun Sea Tamil ship is roughly $14.2 million.
With a median family income of $68,860 (2008), that’s enough money to sustain 206 Canadian families for one year. And using the 2010 Low-income Cutoff (LICO) for four people in Canada ($39,455 according to Statistic Canada), it’s enough to sustain 360 low-income families in Canada for one year. That $14.2 million would provide a $2,000 subsidy to 7,100 families in Canada.
It’s time for the government to get its priorities straight. And they begin with Canadian citizens.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Donna , Adrian MacNair. Adrian MacNair said: Refugees asked to ante up for freebie drugs http://bit.ly/ffm5XE (It has to stop, this is insanity) [...]
Last year I lost my ID and then replacing it was a nightmare. Since Toronto is the hub for Immigrants and Refugees, it also meant they got many Government jobs.
Not only did I have to re-explain to many workers that I lost my ID and didn’t have any to show who I was so I could get my new ID, but I was treated with disdain and contempt as if it was my fault for being Born in canada to canadian parents that were born here.
As I worker to prove I was born here to replace my ID , I had read about the boat load of non-Canadians with no ID that showed up ib B.C. demanding a “Refugee” claim. Now I’m all in favour of true Refugees and even tolerate the American Soldiers that are smuggled into canada by Pro-Refugee advocates(along with Mexcians smuggle into canada too) while in Active Duty in a Foreign Military prior to entering canada.
BUT…I was at risk for no Health care coverage or any Social support if I fell on hard times,so imagine how I felt to see 500 people with no ID be greeted with open arms and handed all our Welfare and Social hand-outs and then get free-housing until my Government Prints-up all their ID so they can be let loose among us for decades as they avoid Deportation if found to be a bogus Refugee or Tamil Terrorist.
What stuck me as really odd was how the RCMP and Border Security/Coast Guard claimed they had no clue who these poeple were but back in Toronto we had Pro-Tamil Tiger groups asserting that they were all Tamils fleeing oppression in Sri Lanka.
Now we hear of another boat load with 400 Tamil Tiger supporters wanting the same hand-outs and Government issued ID to get the Cash-4-Life refugee claim with little fear of being deported.
With 6’500’000’000 non-Canadians outside of canada that are all protected by the Charter Of Rights as Refugees, how many can we take in to bankrupt or Health care and Welfare system. AND, what happens when our seniors are homeless and die on our streets right ouside the Refugee Apartments with the fully furnished Units,TV,Air Condition,Legal Aid,clothing allowance,free drugs,free dental care,and even a job illegally to send money back home that may support the Freedom Fighter that kill civilians via Suicide bombers.
I think if Harper announced that all new refugee money will be taken from the University grants funds, these Leftist Liberals will change their stance when it THEIR throat having a knife held to it to get more money for non-citizens to sponge off the system while laughing at us fools for letting them in.
This gold ribbon treatment of claimants is very unfair and must be stopped!
Nice to see the actual numbers of the expenses.
One can easily see that it takes many taxpayers to keep one tax spender.
$29,000 exceeds the median single income, so you’re right.
» Refugees Asked To Ante Up For Freebie Drugs Unambiguously ……
Here at World Spinner we are debating the same thing……