April 16, 2018: The Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced today important changes to the medical inadmissibility provision of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to ensure that our immigration policies better align with Canadian values and reflect the importance that the Government places on the inclusion of persons with disabilities.
This is one of the Government of Canada’s priorities to ensure greater accessibility and opportunities for Canadians with disabilities. Therefore, the new policy on medical inadmissibility strikes a balance between protecting publicly funded health and social services and updating the policy to bring it in line with current views on the inclusion of persons with disabilities. The changes include:
- increasing the cost threshold for medical inadmissibility to 3 times the previous level, and
- amending the definition of social services by removing references to special education, social and vocational rehabilitation services and personal support services.
Increasing the cost threshold will facilitate immigration for applicants with health conditions that typically require a limited range of health and social services and have relatively low health and social services costs. It is expected that this would dispense with a majority of the medical inadmissibility cases seen in Canada today. Amending the definition of social services will bring the policy in line with Canadian values on supporting the participation of persons with disabilities in society, while continuing to protect publicly funded health and social services. This would also benefit applicants with intellectual disabilities, applicants with hearing or visual impairments, and others.
In addition, the issue was studied by the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, which recommended eliminating the policy. Going forward, the Government agrees with the Standing Committee’s recommendation to eliminate the policy and will collaborate with provinces and territories towards its full elimination.
Source: IRCC website.
