Immigration Costs Canada BILLIONS : Fraser Institute

[qorax]

Retirement

International Pension Benefits
The International Benefits program may provide retirement, disability or survivor benefits to eligible individuals who have lived or worked in another country, or the surviving spouse, common-law partner or children of eligible individuals who have lived or worked in another country.

Old Age Security Identification Card
Service Canada also provides information about the Old Age Security (OAS) Identification Card, which is sent to seniors when they receive their OAS benefits. In order to protect seniors' security, cards issued after January 1, 2008, no longer have a Social Insurance Number on them. Service Canada offers information about how to order a card that does not have a Social Insurance Number, as well as how to order a replacement card.

Old Age Security (OAS)
This pension provides a monthly taxable benefit to persons 65 years of age and over.

Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS)
This program provides a monthly non-taxable benefit to low-income Old Age Security recipients.

Guaranteed Annual Income System for Seniors
This system provides a monthly income supplement to seniors (aged 65 and over) who receive full or partial Old Age Security and/or Guaranteed Income Supplement benefits and whose income falls within provincial guidelines.

Lifetime Medical Support/Assistance
After the age of 65, every Canadian has assured medical support [whatever the ailment be], 24/7, all free - including the cost of drugs.

Old age homes
Funded by the Govt. At 2/3rd the amount of CPP [Canadian Pension Plan] an elderly can have an assured home, with excellent benefits/comfort. Even if our kids do not take care, the system would... and life would go on...

TTC@door
Elderly, disabled, medical condition, cannot reach the bus stand? The system takes care of u... TTC special vehicles WILL REACH your door, wherever u r. [beat that !]

Ambulance
Free - after the age of 65. Ditto for the hospital services. Eg. Bypass surgery? - FREE.

Must reads:
http://www.seniors.gc.ca/
http://www.canadabenefits.gc.ca/
http://www.senioropolis.com/

 

[Sans_May2010]

Worth read qorax !

Sans_May2010

 

[zulkfal]

I just start reading the study and would like to criticize it, wait for comments. :'(

 

[qorax]

I just start reading the study and would like to criticize it, wait for comments. :'(

Sir,

Criticizing is good... but do we have any of those in our countries [many countries]? Mine doesn't. Canadian healthcare system is awesome, Obama is studying its efficacy to try & systematize in the US as well. And retirement? Canada is a boon to/for the "elderly" - one of the [many] reasons we r settling down here. Our life is respected in this part of the world, especially if we have seen the heydays !

Qorax

 

[Adroit]

fantastic Qorax Sir.

great job.

thanks, +1 for u respected Sir.

 

[qorax]

fantastic Qorax Sir.

great job.

thanks, +1 for u respected Sir.

Thanx Sir!
And I like your tagline...

 

[pittabread]

Sir,

Criticizing is good... but do we have any of those in our countries [many countries]? Mine doesn't. Canadian healthcare system is awesome, Obama is studying its efficacy to try & systematize in the US as well. And retirement? Canada is a boon to/for the "elderly" - one of the [many] reasons we r settling down here. Our life is respected in this part of the world, especially if we have seen the heydays !

Qorax

I agree Canadian health system is far more better and superior than any 3rd world country....

 

[GreenLeaf]

Dont Worry Captainji some are there to critize only, but for us ur no.1

There will be few Mahatma's, rest all ........ hmmmm hmmmmm i think no need to say .

We have to carry our good job, not to listen to others and stop good work.

Sir,

Criticizing is good... but do we have any of those in our countries [many countries]? Mine doesn't. Canadian healthcare system is awesome, Obama is studying its efficacy to try & systematize in the US as well. And retirement? Canada is a boon to/for the "elderly" - one of the [many] reasons we r settling down here. Our life is respected in this part of the world, especially if we have seen the heydays !

Qorax

 

[pittabread]

somebody has just posted the following. What do you make of it qorax? Is it false? thanks

FRASER IMMIGRATION STUDY MISLEADING TO CANADIANS

http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/fraser-immigration-study-misleading-to-canadians-t72216.0.html

http://www.stthomastimesjournal.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3133940

 

[qorax]

The Honourable Thomas Clement Douglas in 1945

Tommy Douglas
-The legendary 'Father' of Canadian Healthcare System

Thomas Clement "Tommy" Douglas, PC, CC, SOM (20 October 1904 – 24 February 1986) was a Scottish-born Baptist minister who became a prominent Canadian social-democratic politician. As leader of the Saskatchewan Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) from 1942 and the seventh Premier of Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1961, he led the first social-democratic government in North America and introduced single-payer health care to Canada.

Military stint
After the outbreak of World War II, Douglas enlisted in the wartime Canadian Army. He had volunteered for overseas service and was on a draft of men headed for the Winnipeg Grenadiers when a medical examination turned up his old leg problems. Douglas stayed in Canada and the Grenadiers headed for Hong Kong. If not for that ailment, he would have been with the regiment when its members were killed or captured at Hong Kong in December 1941.

Medicare
Douglas's number one concern was the creation of Medicare. In the summer of 1962, Saskatchewan became the centre of a hard-fought struggle between the provincial government, the North American medical establishment, and the province's physicians, who brought things to a halt with the 1962 Saskatchewan Doctors' Strike.

The doctors believed their best interests were not being met and feared a significant loss of income as well as government interference in medical care decisions even though Douglas agreed that his government would pay the going rate for service that doctors charged. The medical establishment claimed that Douglas would import foreign doctors to make his plan work and used racist images to try to scare the public.

Douglas is widely hailed as the father of Medicare, and took the opportunity to take his cause to the federal stage. Thus, in 1961, he retired from his position as Saskatchewan's premier and turned over this job Woodrow Lloyd, taking leadership of the federal New Democratic Party.

The Saskatchewan program was finally launched by his successor, Woodrow Lloyd, in 1962. The success of the province's public health care program was not lost on the federal government. Another Saskatchewan politician, newly elected Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, decreed in 1958 that any province seeking to introduce a hospital plan would receive 50 cents on the dollar from the federal government.

In 1962, Diefenbaker appointed Justice Emmett Hall - also of Saskatchewan, a noted jurist and Supreme Court Justice - to Chair a Royal Commission on the national health system - the "Royal Commission on Health Services". In 1964, Justice Hall recommended the nationwide adoption of Saskatchewan's model of public health insurance.

In 1966, the Liberal minority government of Lester B. Pearson created such a program, with the federal government paying 50% of the costs and the provinces the other half. So, the adoption of healthcare across Canada ended up being the work of three men with diverse political ideals - Tommy Douglas, John Diefenbaker and Lester Pearson.

The beginning of coverage
It was not until 1946 that the first Canadian province introduced near universal health coverage. Saskatchewan had long suffered a shortage of doctors, leading to the creation of municipal doctor programs in the early twentieth century in which a town would subsidize a doctor to practice there.

Soon after, groups of communities joined to open union hospitals under a similar model. There had thus been a long history of government involvement in Saskatchewan health care, and a significant section of it was already controlled and paid for by the government. In 1946, Tommy Douglas' Co-operative Commonwealth Federation government in Saskatchewan passed the "Saskatchewan Hospitalization Act", which guaranteed free hospital care for much of the population. Douglas had hoped to provide universal health care, but the province did not have the money.

In 1950, Alberta created a program similar to Saskatchewan's. Alberta, however, created Medical Services (Alberta) Incorporated (MS(A)I) in 1948 to provide prepaid health services. This scheme eventually provided medical coverage to over 90% of the population.

In 1957, the Diefenbaker federal government passed the Hospital Insurance and Diagnostic Services Act' to fund 50% of the cost of such programs for any provincial government that adopted them. The HIDS Act outlined five conditions: public administration, comprehensiveness, universality, portability, and accessibility. These remain the pillars of the Canada Health Act.

By 1961, all ten provinces had agreed to start HIDS Act programs. In Saskatchewan, the act meant that half of their current program would now be paid for by the federal government. Premier Woodrow Lloyd decided to use this freed money to extend the health coverage to also include physicians. Despite the sharp disagreement of the Saskatchewan College of Physicians and Surgeons, Lloyd introduced the law in 1962 after defeating the Saskatchewan Doctors' Strike in July.

Medical Care Act
The Saskatchewan program proved a success and the federal government of Lester B. Pearson, pressured by the New Democratic Party (NDP) who held the balance of power, introduced the "Medical Care Act" in 1966 that extended the HIDS Act cost-sharing to allow each province to establish a universal health care plan. It also set up the Medicare system.

In 1984, the Canada Health Act was passed, which prohibited user fees and extra billing by doctors. In 1999, the prime minister and most premiers reaffirmed in the Social Union Framework Agreement that they are committed to health care that has "comprehensiveness, universality, portability, public administration and accessibility."

His legacy
- He became a member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada on 30 November 1984.
- In 1998, he was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.
- Douglas was voted "The Greatest Canadian" of all time in a nationally televised contest organized by the CBC in 2004.
- Douglas was also the subject of a 1986 National Film Board of Canada documentary "Tommy Douglas: Keeper of the Flame", which received the Gemini Award for Best Writing in a Documentary Program or Series.
- In 1985, he was awarded the Saskatchewan Order of Merit.
- In 1980, Brandon University created a students' union building in honour of Douglas and his old friend, Stanley Knowles.
- Douglas died of cancer on 24 February 1986 at the age of 81 in Ottawa... still an active member of the Douglas-Coldwell Foundation

Order of Canada
Douglas was appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada on 22 June 1981. His citation reads:
"When in 1934 a young Baptist minister entered Saskatchewan politics, a trend began which was to place Tommy Douglas at the head of the first social democratic government in Canada. This led to new initiatives in the arts, health, industry, road building, energy, and justice. Later, as federal leader of the New Democratic Party, he continued his strivings in the wider arena. He is now president of the Douglas-Coldwell Foundation, dedicated to the study of government.


Uh, what a man - what a legend !
Qorax

Ref:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Douglas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_Canada

 

[qorax]

somebody has just posted the following. What do you make of it qorax? Is it false? thanks

FRASER IMMIGRATION STUDY MISLEADING TO CANADIANS

http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/fraser-immigration-study-misleading-to-canadians-t72216.0.html

http://www.stthomastimesjournal.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3133940

Uh, that's an 'opinion-comment' -- it isn't a "study"... Fraser's is. Besides, comments r always welcome - they relate the perception of the masses... And the poster already commenced his post doubting the immigration need to the country!

Qorax

 

[txboyscout]

Unfortunately Qorax is right about the view on immigration on the ground here in Canada.

A majority of the people I come into contact with want Canada's immigration system curtailed (there are quite a few who even want some of the new immigrants to be sent back!).

There is currently a world-wide recession going on and it has affected Canada as well. People are finding it hard to find and keep good jobs esp. those that pay enough to adequately support themselves and their families. This creates a lot of anger and frustration esp. one sees immigrants coming in and taking good jobs (lets not talk qualifications because this does not factor into their thinking). In their rather simplistic (my view) of things if there were no immigrants they would get these highly skilled and specalized jobs even if they were not qualified for them.

It does not help matters that some immigrants try to "milk" the government for as much as they can. I have a recently immigrated co-worker who was sponsored by his Canadian citizen brother who has been unemployed for over a year and is getting every government benefit out there for himself, his spouse and two minor children. All this while he is over in the Gulf making thousands of dollars a month and his family is back in their homeland living it up. His parents have "retired" to their homeland whlist pulling in every old age benefit available to them and my co-worker plans to do the same as soon as he has been her long enough to apply for citizenship. Meanwhile the rest of Canada works hard and pays taxes to support people such as these.

As a potential immigrant it angers me when I see current immigrants so balantly taking advantage of the system-one day the government will just throw their hands up and say enough is enough.

 

[explorer101]

Immigration helps Canadian economy, and I dont believe in Fraser report. How-
1. Immigrants brings their personal wealth to Canada. Helping Canada to get much needed foreign exchange.
2. Immigrants helps in raising the demand of houses, first rented and the house buying.
3. Immigrants increases the demand of food and other consumer goods, which helps in creating more jobs in economy.

No matter how one arrives at any kind of report, immigration do help Canada.

 

[zulkfal]

Sir,

Criticizing is good... but do we have any of those in our countries [many countries]? Mine doesn't. Canadian healthcare system is awesome, Obama is studying its efficacy to try & systematize in the US as well. And retirement? Canada is a boon to/for the "elderly" - one of the [many] reasons we r settling down here. Our life is respected in this part of the world, especially if we have seen the heydays !

Qorax

I agree that we don't find this type of social system in many countries mine as well, but in west it took them time to implement this system. The main blocks of this social system 1) Government revenue 2) Accountability
Underdeveloped countries (as their is no definition for third world I prefer this world as economist) miss these blocks, but economics, public economics tell us the as the nation accumulate knowledge things change and that's happening in two countries India and China. Will agree it will take time may be little longer but it will be there sooner or later. Same time the developed countries are losing their stock of knowledge by transfer of knowledge to emerging countries and to keep the pool at a certain level they need immigration.

 

[zulkfal]

Immigration helps Canadian economy, and I dont believe in Fraser report. How-
1. Immigrants brings their personal wealth to Canada. Helping Canada to get much needed foreign exchange. the amount brought by SW immigrants doesn't have much impact on economy
2. Immigrants helps in raising the demand of houses, first rented and the house buying. inflate the housing market, and is very dangerous for economy
3. Immigrants increases the demand of food and other consumer goods, which helps in creating more jobs in economy. the conclusion is right but the reasoning is not

No matter how one arrives at any kind of report, immigration do help Canada. its true, argument in reply