Nova Scotia accounted for about $27.2 million of the nearly $42 million in total unpaid bills, all of which were reported as write-offs. Nova Scotia Health also reported $27.4 million in outstanding non-resident accounts as of March 31, 2025, separate from the five-year total of written-off accounts.
Nova Scotia accounted for roughly two-thirds of the Atlantic Canada total, followed by $6.8 million in uncollected bills in New Brunswick, $6.3 million in Newfoundland and Labrador, and $1.4 million in write-offs in Prince Edward Island.
SecondStreet President Colin Craig said the shortfalls add up to a significant cost to taxpayers.
“Tourists not paying their health care bills is costing taxpayers a fortune. Meanwhile, access to health care for Canadians continues to deteriorate,” Craig said.
Craig noted that costs for non-resident health-care services in the Atlantic provinces in the past five years fall far below B.C.’s $200 million loss reported by B.C. health authorities over the same period.
However, he said the numbers in the Atlantic provinces still show that unpaid or written off medical costs from tourists and non-residents pose a “nationwide problem.”
The records cover all patients who were non-residents of Canada and do not distinguish between tourists and other types of non-residents, such as temporary workers or international students. They also do not indicate whether patients intentionally failed to pay, only the amounts that remained outstanding or were written off.
SecondStreet recommended that foreign visitors and non-residents be required to pay before getting any non-emergency medical treatment.
The group also recommended making it mandatory for foreign individuals to get travel health insurance to enter Canada or blocking non-residents with unpaid medical bills in Canada from re-entering the country.
