The Ben Mulroney Show - Toronto wins the NHL draft / Refugee health care co-pay small print

Episode Date: May 6, 2026

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This podcast is brought to you by the National Payroll Institute, the leader for the payroll profession in Canada, setting the standard of professional excellence, delivering critical expertise, and providing resources that over 45,000 payroll professionals rely on. Well, hello there. It's been a while. I hope you're doing well.

I want to thank Lisa Rait for sitting in this chair yesterday and taking care of the Ben Mulroney Show family while I was away at a conference where I was asked about trust in the media. And I said, why would you ask me? Nobody trusts me. I kid. I kid. No, we had a very good conversation.

I said that there is a delta and there's a gap between the people and the media. And a lot of it has to do structurally with what we thought we were doing was solving a problem, which was the lack of revenue coming into our traditional media. And the solution that we brought to bear on that issue ended up. creating this problem, or at least fueling this problem, which is direct subsidies from the government to newsrooms. And whether it's real or perceived, people can point to that and say that's the problem. And then they will go out and find whatever evidence they need to support it because the tools exist online. So that was what I brought to the conversation yesterday. And believe it or not, I didn't scream once. Not once. Didn't raise my voice once. I think I surprised

a lot of people in that room. You didn't look into an imaginary can. camera, and start going, let me tell you. No, I was very happy that the destination Toronto on Radio Days people brought me in. I sat with Fasci Capulose, who is, and I pointed this out too. I think she's as close to the model of what could be viewed as fair and balanced when she does interviews, because sometimes I think I know where

she's coming from, and other times I don't. I've known her for a very long time. Yeah. And had the utmost respect for it. No, no, so do I, and she was just a terrific to be with, and another, an American who came in talking about the value of independent journalism. But regardless, all in all, it was a great day, and I'm glad that Lisa was here to hold down the fort with Intrepid. And I missed a lot, but I'm, see, I'm caught up in Habs fever, right?

I've now watched them win. That sounds like a disease. Oh. Doesn't it, Joy? That sounds like a disease. Habs fever? You would think, we're in Toronto here. I know, you say, see, you're caught up in a whole other thing.

You hate the new GM, but then there was, then there was the lottery, right? And I think the, the Leafs had the draft lottery. The draft lottery. They had like an 8.5% chance of winning the lot, like getting the number one draft pick. And, well, let's listen to see how that went. 12. Wow. The number 12.

The number 12, the Toronto Maple Leafs have won the NHHLT out. draft lottery, and Matt Sundeen is smiling ear to ear. One day after the official announcement, it appears. But now to make it official, Pam Kelleher and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daley. I can confirm it as official. Toronto has won the first draw in the 2026 draft lottery, and as a result of winning the draw, they have the number one overall selection in the 2026 draft. And look, that's why you do.

lotteries, right? Like sometimes sometimes the guy with the 8.5% chance of winning wins the lottery. But there were mixed reactions as you might expect. Oh my God. Oh my God. The Leaves have the first pick. The Leaves have the first overall pick.

Holy F***. We were manifesting this all year and we did it. So look, man. That's one side. Let's listen to some fans from Boston. That is a sham rigged. Rigged, rigged, rigged, rigged. Sniff, Joe.

Give us the sniffer. That is awful. That is such a, I'm out. That's such a rigging. I can't, that is, you cannot convince me that draft lotteries are not rigged. How do we know that's live? Explain to me how that's live. How does anybody in this room right now know that that going on right now is live like they claim it is?

So here's what I want to say. How much did you love that? I did. I did. But here's what I want to say. Did you hear the hope springing eternal in the voice? of that leaf fan. Did you hear that? All of those leaf fans, yes. That is what I, that's what we have. It is what I admire most and what I pity most in Leafs

Nation, which is a willingness to just clean the slate at the end of every year and just say, hey, we'll get them next year. And then at the beginning of every, yeah, nobody is harder on Leaf Nation than Leaf Nation. Until the season starts again. And then you're all there. I've said, I often, I've said, Yeah, they were true fans. Look, look. I'm not making light of anything here.

So let me just say this. So no one come at me here. You're in an abusive relationship. It's true. You're in an abusive relationship. You get that. It's emotionally abusive. You get the dirt kicked out of you emotionally every year.

And then, and then during the off season, oh, sweetie baby. It'll never happen again. And you believe it. And you take them back and they come back and this happens every year. They bring us back into their ample bosom and it's lovely for a week. I wasn't going there. I mean, you really got quite specific.

I'm just saying. What I'm simply saying is you have options. You have options. They do not include cheering for the habs. Lisa Ray yesterday you said, oh, yeah, the habs are Canada's team. No, no, no, no, no. It's not, hey, I'll cheer for Winnipeg.

I love people in Winnipeg. Calgary, Edmonton, a lot of great people in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver as well. For some reason, because I lived in Montreal for a couple years, and because so many of my friends are Montreal Habs fans, and they're just insufferable. I just, it cannot be. When I first... It's like cheering for the Yankees.

When I first moved here, I was working right off of Young Street. So when I came out after work at 11 p.m., I'm walking in the midfall. And I walk out the street. I see this makeshift parade going south on Young Street. And I say, hey, what's going on? And these guys go, we just made the playoffs. And I thought, you low expectation so and so.

Like, shame on this team. Shame on this front office. That that is something worthy of celebration. Now, I'll, I say this. And it sounds like I've got the, the, the memory of a goldfish, because I know what the last few years have been like for the Montreal Canadians.

They've gone through some hard times. Every Canadian time has. I enjoyed every year of that. You're a misanthrope. Yes. Yeah. Well, I guess, listen, so I tell you, I'm going to be enjoying tonight's game. I'm going to be in Montreal.

This is going to be a dozy, Canada, because on Friday, I'm not going to be on the show, because I'm hosting the Montreal Children's Gallup, Montreal Children's Hospital Gala. I've been doing it for five or six years now. It's a wonderful event. And they are celebrating the end of P.K.

Suban's massive donation to that hospital. A lot of people thought he might not do the donation after he got traded to Nashville. No, true to his word, he donated every penny. So they're honoring him at this thing. And they've raised a ton of money every year. However, it's the second game of the series. Yeah. And honestly, I can absolutely see a person say,

Well, I donated the money. I donated the money. So they have my money. But unless they're going to be showing me the game during that gala, I won't be in attendance. Now, it's well deserved, honoring him like this, absolutely well deserved. However, I will say this.

As I've seen him on, he works for ESPN now in the States. If you've seen any of his outfits, I would hope that they would in Montreal give some of the money back. So then he can buy some different clothes because he is dressing like, I don't even know to describe it. It's called peacocking. Oh, my God, it's beyond that. It's called peacocking.

Have you seen those shiny outfits and the big pants? Yeah. The crazy huge... I was like, this is interesting. Hey, he predicted an Edmonton Montreal final with Montreal winning. Well, I guess that didn't really... Our friends in Edmonton, sorry to see. I was cheering for you.

That wasn't their fault. That was Mark Carney wearing the tie. Yeah. It's the curse of Carney for sure. Yeah, he can't. I guarantee you, there's a... are people in his in his caucus saying we can't lose Quebec. Whatever we do in the next election, we can't lose Quebec.

So whatever you do, don't say their name. Don't go to a game. Don't say if you're asked a question, do not be baited into saying the names, Montreal, Canadians. You can't win. You can't win with that. Either way you go. You're going to get called it.

Just don't do it. Do nothing. Do nothing. For the sake of everyone, Mark Carney. You'll get a lot of goodwill will will be opened up in Quebec. And in this one man's heart, if you just stay away from that team. and the words. Keep their name out your damn mouth.

Okay. We are going to take a quick break. And when we come back, oh, we are doing, we're looking into the fine print on a story we talked about on Monday. We always say the devil's in the details. We found the devil. And he is a doozy. Some crimes are so shocking.

They don't just make headlines. They forever change our society. I'm Katie Ring, host of America's most infamous crimes. Each week, I take on one of the most notorious criminal. cases. Each case unfolds across multiple episodes, release every Tuesday through Thursday, from the first time that something was wrong to the moment the truth came out or didn't. Listen to and follow America's most infamous crimes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

We have a policy on this show that will bring you a story, and we probably, it's not a rule. It's a, it's a rule of, uh, it's a suggestion. We probably won't bring it to again unless we can markedly and significantly move the story forward. Like we're not going to try not to repeat ourselves unless it's repetition with an eye of moving the conversation in a new direction or towards something new. And on Monday, a little bit of good news was out there because it looked like the prime minister and this liberal government had acknowledged that we needed to feel we, we the taxpayer, needed to feel like we had been listened to and that the government understood

that we have so many different crises and so many fires that we have to put out in terms of government policy and government budgets and making ends meet. That, especially as it relates to health care and new Canadians and new arrivals to Canada putting pressure on the already stressed health care system, that the new plan was in this interim federal health program.

Refugees in Canada must now pay $4 for each prescription, a copay, if you will, and 30% of the cost of dental care, vision care, counseling, and medical equipment like wheelchairs. Doctors and refugee support organizations have warned a whole bunch of stuff, as you would expect. These co-pays will deny care. They will not. Worse in health. Don't see how that's possible. and push much more people into emergency rooms.

That is possible. But frankly, with these new Canadians, the consensus here was, Canadians need to know that these new arrivals are buying in, are paying into the system. And as a reminder, because we talked about it as well, Canadian low-income seniors pay on average $2 per prescription. Middle-income seniors, $6 to $10 per prescription.

So these are people who have been paying into the system with their taxes, their entire lives, in some cases, for 50 years or so. So people paying into the system for 50 years, $2. People who pay not one red cent, $4. If that's a bridge too far for some people, maybe we should cool it on the conversation and reconvene later. So that's what we told you. A good idea.

Devil is in the details. Well, we looked at the details. And well, before we go, a little bit of announcement. BMS looks at the fine print. Yes, indeed. We look at the fine print. And boy, did we look at the fine print. Here is what we learned from the Canada.ca website under the header Immigration Refugees Citizenship. Starting May 1st, 2026, we encourage IFHP.

That's the Interim Federal Health Program, what we just described to you. IFP, IFHP beneficiaries to continue to choose a health care provider registered under the IFHP using the IFHP provider search tool. Ask their health care provider whether a co-pay will apply before receiving care. Confirm how much they will need to pay. Keep receipts for any copayments made. So do you understand what I just read you? The prime minister gets out there.

and says this is going to happen. The government says this is going to happen. They get all the credit for that. And then they pawn off the responsibility on enforcing this on the doctors. So, and they're giving a roadmap to guilting the doctors on their website. Ask your health care provider whether a call payment will apply before receiving care. Confirm how much they will need to pay. Yeah, that's it.

This isn't a rule. it's a suggestion. And if the doctors want to get paid, they have to act like the heavy and say, yes, sorry, refugee. But yeah, I do have to, are you going to charge me the $4? Yeah, sorry, I have to.

Or maybe, oh, you know what, I feel bad for you. I'll eat the cost. This is not something deserving of fanfare. This is nothing resolved. This is not a rule. This is not a rule. This is a loose suggestion.

Like I said off the top with my rule about not talking about these things. It's a loose suggestion. and they hope it happens. But if it doesn't, it's on the doctor. It's on the doctor. And here's the result that we've heard of, at least anecdotally. Doctors sign up with what's called the MetaV Blue Cross to be one of these health care providers so that they can appear in this IFHP provider search tool.

And refugees can find them through the website. What's happening at least anecdotally is that a growing number of doctors, are delisting from the site. If you put onerous conditions on them, far more onerous than they already are, I mean, every stretch thin, a lot of doctors leaving because of burnout, now you're telling them that you have to put them in a position.

They have to be the ones to tell refugees that they now have to pay out of pocket. How does that make any sense? You want credit for the system, but when it comes time to enforcing it, you're putting it on the doctors. Instead of the doctors being able to say, You know what?

My hands are tied. I'm sorry, these are the new rules. I wish I could do something. I wish I could, but I can't. These are the rules. No, now you're putting it at their discretion. And some doctors are just nicer people than others. And they're going to say, okay, no problem.

I'll leave the cost. You're asking them to take a 30% haircut. 30% haircut. And to anyone out there saying, well, doctors get paid enough. Really, because we've got, we don't, we're overflowing with doctors in this country. That's what's going on. We have, we have too many. We're sending them away because this is the best place to practice medicine.

Okay. Yeah, this is, this is, this is not right. This is, this is the details. This is a big, another one of these, God, I really don't like doing this, but they make me do it. This is, this is the liberal way. Make a big giant announcement and then just make sure that you don't close the loop. I've said it a million times and this is another one of those. This is not a rule.

If it were a rule, it would be easy to enforce because you'd just say, there's nothing I can do this. There's no option for me not to charge you. That's what a rule is. I click on the drag down menu and there's nothing. If you're a refugee, this is what you pay. Leaving it to the discretion of the doctors means the nicest ones are going to take a hit.

And the bad ones, or the ones that aren't so nice, are still going to be in a position where they are going to tell refugees, that you have to pay something that they didn't use to pay for. So they're going to be the ones suffering the reputational damage. I've said it about bans in cell phones in schools. Unless it's an outright complete ban, you are putting pressure on the teacher that they did not deserve.

It has to be an outright ban for cell phones clear across the board so that when a parent or a student or someone wants an exception to the rule, and everyone thinks their kid's exceptional. And oh, I need my kid needs to have his cell phone because I need to contact him because he's gluten-free and I need to know what he wants for dinner tonight. Everyone has an exception in their life. And the only way to support teachers with a cell phone ban

is to say, I'm sorry, the rule is the rule. If you have a problem with it, take it up with the Minister of Education. The rules from on high are no cell phones in the classroom full stop. If you have an issue with that, go see your son at the principal's office because he was giving me guff. you were empowering them to do their jobs. Doctors should be empowered to do their jobs here. And now you're going to have them squabbling and bickering

with people who think that there is a negotiation going on. There should be no negotiation. The rule should be the rule. And it was presented as such on Monday. That's what I don't like. Another one of these disingenuous, what we're showing you isn't exactly what we're giving you. This was supposed to be a new rule.

And instead, it's a grand celebration that makes, look, I know, because I fell for it. This government is different from Justin Trude. Look at that. They're seeing the economic realities in front of us, in front of these government programs. And this is the happy medium where we're getting a little buy-in from the refugees, and it makes all of us feel better.

It puts a little more trust in us in these institutions, as well as the government. So they get the halo effect from that. And the people who have to enforce this thing are the doctors. That's, that is, uh, that's shady, shady stuff. That's shady stuff. And I'm, I'm not here for it. I'm not here for it.