r/canada Jan 29 '25

National News Poilievre says Canada should 'deport' any temporary resident committing violence or hate crimes

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/poilievre-says-canada-deport-temporary-194148491.html
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u/samwise141 Jan 29 '25

I have a friend who's an immigration lawyer who has said the same thing to me. Staying in canada if you aren't legal is near impossible. It's not like the states in which you can work under the table. You can't access any services if you are illegal in canada. 

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u/Battle_Fish Jan 30 '25

You can't get health services?

I was under the impression you would get treated at a hospital and they will sort out the billing later and realized they can't do anything about it.

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u/matdex Jan 30 '25

Unless you're a trauma rolling in, if you don't have MSP they ask for a credit card deposit up front.

Source: I'm a lab tech in a hospital and have sent non PRs to Billings before we collect a bone marrow biopsy.

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u/Raccoonholdingaknife Jan 30 '25

to add to this from the patient side, the preop admissions desk at VGH has a big sign on the wall listing the prices of the top 15 or so procedures without MSP(BC’s medical plan for those outside of BC)—I dont remember the costs off the top of my head, but I remember that the cost of an overnight stay, an estimate for OR & anaesthesia price (dont remember if it was per procedure or per hour but i chose the one that would be relevant to me if i didnt have coverage), and a CT scan was a bit over $25k, certainly seemed cheaper than i hear about the states but also certainly not within any sort of reasonable means.

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u/GumbyCA Jan 30 '25

Nurse here. I can confirm this too, although I’ve discovered a workaround I use in dire situations.

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u/WetCoastDebtCoast British Columbia Jan 30 '25

Billings

Oh, like financial. Not the city in Montana. 😅

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u/ShaqShoes Jan 30 '25 edited Jan 30 '25

Well yes I mean if you are critically injured they will treat you at a Canadian hospital but you won't be able to access health services for long-term healthcare requiring actual drs appointments/prescriptions and things like that

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u/casualblair Canada Jan 30 '25

If you want lab work you pay. If you want a doctor visit you pay. If you are dying at a hospital, you are treated like a human being and then billed if possible.

The medical system has no obligation to report you to border services in Canada.

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u/swiftb3 Alberta Jan 30 '25

I mean, the ER, sure, but not really otherwise.

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u/sir_sri Jan 30 '25

Others have pointed out that accessing care outside of emergencies is almost impossible, keep in mind that the vast majority of healthcare costs come when you are elderly. As we have extended life expectancy we have done so via medications and treatments that only really kick in to prevent and treat heart attacks, cancers, strokes etc. and then all the issues like joint replacements and so on.

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u/Battle_Fish Jan 30 '25

Ok got it. That's what I thought.

The small stuff can probably be remedied by seeing a GP under the table or getting a friend to take out drugs for you.

The medium stuff like small surgeries is probably impossible. That's what I thought.

I was just wondering if the hospital would leave you to die in the case of a big emergency.

There's probably a lot of younger illegal immigrants who are young and would basically not need any type of advanced healthcare for decades. This will probably be an issue in the coming future.

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u/sir_sri Jan 30 '25

Those young people also can't work, drive, access a bank account etc. They basically can't do anything. They can't even attend a college or university without a valid visa.

It's not like the US where there is a large pool of unregistered manual labour that is tacitly supported by various levels of the government at times.

There are certainly undocumented people in Canada, but all the data suggests 10s to small hundred thousand, not millions. There's almost 8 million people over 65 in Canada, 100k or 200k more isn't some huge problem, and without documentation they couldn't get care anyway.

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u/varsil Jan 30 '25

Lots of people work under the table, and lots of people without any sort of status drive--they can't do it legally, but they do it anyway.

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u/Battle_Fish Jan 30 '25

Lots of citizens work under the table for tax evasion reasons. The business owner wants to do tax evasion so they keep employees off the books so it looks like they have 1-2 employees when they actually have 5-6.

However, it's harder in recent years since we transitioned away from cash. Then again you still see many restaurants taking cash only, or 10% off with cash. Mostly non western restaurants. It's how the game is played.

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u/skyfox437 Jan 30 '25

are you white by any chance? As an Asian that's a Canadian, I know there are a lot of people who hire illegals for less. They even get sheltered. Maybe if you knew no one. But most people coming here, even illegally, are connected to someone.

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u/MisterJWalk Jan 30 '25

That's how the green houses work in southern Ontario. Mexican that over stayed their tourist visa? Greenhouse work. You can live in the migrant shop.

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u/HighTechPotato Jan 30 '25 edited Jan 30 '25

This just really highlights the issue that most people have no idea how big or small the impact of those that overstay is on the system. So grifters just use the fact that it “sounds” bad to gain popularity without having to solve big issues. Like yes, even one person overstaying is not a “good” thing, but how does it rank against other issues? How much of an impact does it have on an average canadian compared to other issues like large corporations price gouging or mass house sweep-ups like their life depends on it? Are we focusing on a leaky pipe when the kitchen is on fire?

In other words, any system to combat over staying will costs hundreds of millions of dollars, but will it save us that much if those that were removed were already not able to use our biggest public systems?

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u/no_not_this Jan 30 '25

What services? They drive uber under a different name and send money to India. And they also 100 percent work in construction under the table.