Alberta cuts health-care access for some foreign workers, raising concerns in tourism sector

Javiera Sepulveda moved to Canada on a workings holiday visa and would feature been eligible for provincial wellness insurance coverage below Alberta’s previous rules. But a quiet policy change left her without access to care.

She moved from Chile to Banff in October, where she now works as a housekeeper at a local hotel.

Based on information on Alberta Health’s website, Sepulveda was eligible for provincial coverage in early January, after working in the province for three months. She went to the Banff registry at that time to apply.

Days later, registry staff called her to say she was no longer eligible.

“I was kind of speechless because on the website they have all the requirements and I was meeting all of those,” she said.

The change means people on International Experience Canada (IEC) Type 58 work permits, including working holiday and young professional visa holders, are no longer eligible for Alberta’s public health system.

The move is prompting particular concern in the Bow Valley, where tourism businesses rely heavily on international workers to fill jobs in hotels, restaurants and other service industries.

The ministry says the federal government requires these workers to have private insurance, and so it says providing public health care is "considered redundant and has been discontinued."

Yin-Yuan Chen, a professor at the University of Ottawa who studies immigration and health law, says public health care and private health care insurance serve very different purposes.

"The federal government's requirements for private health insurance is not a comprehensive form of health-care coverage like provincial health insurance," he says.

Chen says there are gaps in the types of coverage provided by private insurance and public health care, “and that gap has real consequences for people."

Sepulveda is experiencing that already.

She hurt her neck weeks ago and the pain has persisted. Normally, she would go to the doctor, but she says the issue is not a medical emergency, so it is not covered through her private travel insurance.

"I know I probably need an X-ray or something, but it's too expensive right now," she says.

Natasha Lay from the Bow Valley Immigration Partnership says workers are worried about losing access to routine and preventative care, services she says are essential for both individual and community health.

She also stresses how essential foreign workers are to maintaining the tourism towns in the region.

She estimates there are hundreds of people currently on temporary work visas in the valley. According to the 2021 federal census, about one in three Bow Valley residents were born outside of Canada.

Chen says under the Canada Health Act, provinces must provide publicly funded health care, but each province sets eligibility requirements.

Chen says there may be economic consequences to this policy change as temporary residents might move to other provinces that cover health care.

He also raised ethical concerns around not providing health care to residents who are paying into the public health-care system through taxes.

That's what irks James Neill-Tadman.

"I'm living here, I'm working here and I'm paying towards a public health system, and they're not giving us any level of access to it unless we pay for it fully upfront," says the U.K. Citizen, who has lived in the Bow Valley since 2023 on a working holiday visa.

He has had access to Alberta health care for years but was turned down when he went to renew his health card a few weeks ago.

Neill-Tadman says what makes it worse is that foreign workers were given no time to prepare for the change.

"You've got to communicate with people, and you've got to have respect for people," he says.

Lay agrees the lack of public information has caused a lot of stress and anxiety for people on these visas.

She is calling on the province to provide clear public information, especially as the Banff area prepares for the summer tourism surge.

"What we know is that with more international workers arriving to fill some essential roles for the summer soon, that clarity around healthcare is pretty urgent," she says.

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