DEFEND REFUGEES:

The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne
Minister of Finance and National Revenue
Department of Finance Canada
90 Elgin Street
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0G5

Dear Minister Champagne: 

Re: Pre-Budget Submission in Advance of Budget 2026 — Protecting LGBTQI+ Refugees and Asylum Seekers 

We are writing on behalf of Defend Refugees, a campaign launched by The 519 and Rainbow Railroad, calling on the Government of Canada to strengthen protections for LGBTQI+ refugees and asylum claimants. Together, our organizations provide critical support for the 2SLGBTQI+ community.  

For fifty years, The 519 has supported LGBTQI+ newcomers and refugees in Toronto through specialized settlement services, immigration and refugee legal support, refugee-hearing preparation, housing and shelter navigation, and peer and community programs that help newcomers build connections and navigate employment, health care, and life in Canada. 

Today, we support over 10,000 people annually.  

Over the past two decades, Rainbow Railroad has built and maintained pathways to safety for at-risk LGBTQI+ people internationally.  Through resettlement support, grassroots mobilization, cash assistance and other programs, Rainbow Railroad helps some of the world's most vulnerable people, who face serious persecution and danger due to their sexual or gender identity, find safety. This work is as important today as ever. In 2025 alone, Rainbow Railroad received more than 20,000 requests for help, the highest in its history.  

Both organizations, along with a growing coalition of refugee and 2SLGBTQI+ service providers, are seeing first-hand how gaps in federal policy and funding are putting queer and trans refugees at heightened risk. 

As the Department finalizes its recommendations for Budget 2026, we ask it consider the three priorities below. 

Recommendation 1: Expand federal funding for safe housing for queer and trans refugees 

Queer and trans refugees and asylum claimants face acute barriers to safe housing, often arriving with no local support network and facing discrimination or violence in general shelter settings. Community organizations and municipalities that are prepared to provide safer, dedicated housing options for this population do not have the funding to do so at the scale required. 

We recommend that the federal government renew and expand the Interim Housing Assistance Program beyond March 31, 2027, with dedicated funding to develop and sustain safe housing and shelter capacity for LGBTQI+ refugees and asylum claimants, including community-led models. 

Recommendation 2: Fully reverse cuts to the Interim Federal Health Program and eliminate co-payments 

Since May 2026, most people eligible for the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP) have been required to pay 30% of the cost of some health services, devices, and supplies, plus $4 per prescription. On July 31, 2026, the government reversed co-payments for a limited set of items and services. This partial reversal does not extend to other critical services such as trauma counselling and other mental health care. The 30% co-payment is out of reach for many refugees and asylum claimants.  

We recommend that the federal government complete the reversal of IFHP co-payments so that trauma counselling, HIV treatment, gender-affirming care, and all other critical health services and supplies are fully covered for refugees and asylum claimants, without exception. 

Investments in these crucial interventions will lower upstream healthcare costs borne by the healthcare system. The Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) estimates that co-payments will cost refugees an additional $157.1M per year. IRCC itself recognizes that timely health coverage helps prevent serious health issues and costly emergency interventions caused by delays in seeking care. Restoring full IFHP coverage is therefore both a health-equity measure and a prudent use of public health resources. 

Additionally, Defend Refugees recommends that the exclusion of gender affirming surgery from IFHP coverage should be removed, as it is essential for many trans refugees and asylum claimants. 

Recommendation 3: Waive the full work permit fee for asylum claimants routed to a Pre-Removal Risk Assessment 

Bill C-12, the Strengthening Canada's Immigration System and Borders Act, bars asylum claims made more than one year after a claimant's entry to Canada from being referred to the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB); those claimants are instead routed to a Pre-Removal Risk Assessment (PRRA). Because LGBTQI+ claimants frequently need more time to safely disclose their sexual orientation or gender identity and gather supporting evidence, they are disproportionately likely to fall outside the one-year window and be diverted to the PRRA stream. 

This diversion carries a direct financial cost that IRB-track claimants do not bear. Claimants referred to the IRB have their open work permit fee waived in full. Claimants routed to a PRRA currently have only the $100 open work permit fee waived; they must still pay the underlying $155 work permit processing fee, for a net cost of $155 out of a total permit cost of $255. As Bill C-12 routes a growing number of claims to the PRRA stream, community organizations within our coalition are reporting that this gap is affecting many more claimants than it previously did, and it falls hardest on LGBTQI+ claimants already facing the greatest barriers to disclosure and legal support. 

We recommend that the federal government extend the existing work permit fee waiver to cover the $155 work permit processing fee for all asylum claimants routed to a Pre-Removal Risk Assessment, so that these claimants are not financially penalized relative to claimants whose cases proceed to a full IRB hearing. 

Conclusion 

Along with the above recommendations, Defend Refugees supports the asks in the budget letter from Queer Momentum, containing a number of recommendations that will have a meaningful impact on the 2SLGBTQI+ community in Canada and abroad. 

Defend Refugees has also submitted detailed comments on the regulations implementing Bill C-12's asylum system reforms, recommending an exemption for LGBTQI+ claimants and survivors of gender-based violence from the one-year bar and first-entry rules. We raise the work permit fee gap separately here because it carries a direct relation to the federal budget. 

We would welcome the opportunity to meet with you or with officials at the Department of Finance and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to discuss these recommendations further. Thank you for your consideration. 

Sincerely, 
Defend Refugees campaign