Calgary misses out on hosting major international conference due to visa processing delays

Organizers with the International Health Economics Association (IHEA) cancelled plans to have Calgary host their next global congress over worries Ottawa couldn't process hundreds of attendees' visas in time for the July 2025 event.

It was to be hosted at the University of Calgary campus.

Instead, they moved their biennial conference to Indonesia because they say the system there is quicker and easier, providing visas upon arrival.

The head of the IHEA says that means Calgary businesses won't get a chance to benefit from the potential economic spinoffs.

«The economic cost to, you know, to Calgary is enormous, right?» said Kara Hanson, IHEA president and professor of health economics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

«You've got your 1,500 people who were all going to stay in hotels and eat out in restaurants and, I don't know, maybe go to the Stampede, maybe have their holidays attached to this as well,» Hanson added.

One of the Calgary organizers, University of Calgary economics professor Aidan Hollis, says he and others have worked on this event for more than a year — in collaboration with the University of Calgary, the Institute of Health Economics and Tourism Calgary — before finding out earlier this month it was being moved.

«It's certainly frustrating. I think the university has lots to offer (and it ) would have been great for our students,» said Hollis.

Federal minister aware

The head of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, Deborah Yedlin, says the visa processing issue was raised with federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller during his visit to Calgary earlier this month for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities annual conference.

Yedlin says these delays are affecting international students and