Pledges to cover fertility treatment as elections play out across Canada

Danielle and Dustin Howe have been together for a decade. For eight of those years, the New Brunswick couple has been trying to have a baby.

“Trying to be patient. But there’s some days where it’s, you know, physically, mentally, emotionally exhausting,” Danielle said.

Danielle, 30, and Dustin, 35, face infertility. They’ve spent thousands on drugs, but it’s just led to frustration. They’re now turning to fertility procedures at a clinic in Moncton, but it’s costly.

“We have had to remortgage our house twice. Just kind of, in general, hoping that costs will come down where we can afford, you know, IUI or IVF,” Danielle said.

As provincial elections play out in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick this month, there are pledges to provide more fertility treatment coverage.

The Saskatchewan Party is promising a 50 per cent tax credit, up to $10,000 for a first-time fertility treatment. Liberals in New Brunswick vow to cover one full cycle of IVF treatment, while the Conservatives in B.C. pledge to pay for two cycles of IVF after the NDP set aside funding for one round of the procedure in its last budget. In April 2025, B.C. will begin to cover one cycle of IVF.

“My hope is that policymakers are listening,” said Carolynn Dubé, executive director of Fertility Matters Canada, who highlighted that one in six Canadians experience infertility.

“When fertility benefits exist, whether you are an employer or you are a province, we know that it attracts and retains young people,” Dubé said.

Dr. Marjorie Dixon, CEO and medical director of Anova Fertility & Reproductive Health, said there’s a lot of stigma around infertility but the main barrier to accessing care is cost.

“It’s a substantial amount of technology and science and expertise and time that goes into this,” Dixon said.

The average cost of a single in vitro fertilization cycle in Canada is around $18,000, she said.

“And the reality is that most people will not necessarily get pregnant on their first cycle of IVF,” said Dixon, noting patients often have to pay for more than one cycle, plus medications. “There is a dire need for assistance. This is a medical condition.”

Seven provinces currently offer some form of coverage, but it’s not consistent or complete. Ontario and Quebec fund one round of IVF but Ontario doesn’t cover medications. Nova Scotia and Manitoba offer tax credits of up to 40 per cent of a procedure. Alberta and Saskatchewan currently don’t provide any public funding for fertility treatments.

The proposals by politicians to increase the coverage comes as data from Statistics Canada shows Canada’s fertility rate dropped to an all-time low of 1.26 children per woman last year.

In November 2023, a study of nearly 1,000 Canadian employers found that 53 per cent do not offer any fertility benefits.

Of the 47 per cent of businesses which do offer benefits, less than two per cent offer both drug and treatment coverage for procedures such as IVF, sperm, eggs and testing. The study found the median lifetime coverage limit for fertility drugs is now $6,000.

“So that does create a tremendous amount of inequity in an individual’s accessing care. And if you look at the kaleidoscope of beauty that makes up Canada’s family landscape, there are a lot of individuals also who might not be seen or heard in this family building plan,” Dixon said.

The reproductive endocrinology and infertility specialist noted how the path to parenthood can be complicated for a lot of people, including those in the LGBTQ2S+ community, single individuals, as well as those of different ethnicities who might not be able to access care.

Danielle Howe tells CTV News she and her husband plan to first pursue intrauterine insemination before trying in vitro fertilization.

“But it’s a less likely guarantee. I’m hopeful but also nervous that in the end we’re going to have to do IVF anyways,” she said.

She hopes politicians stick to their promises but isn’t waiting on an election result to move forward.

“We’ve been waiting eight years. We have to move on, and we have to make it work somehow,” Danielle said.