Question Period Note: Dental Care

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• Government of Canada commitment on dental care.
• While most Canadians have dental coverage through their employment health plans, we know there are unmet dental care needs in Canada.
• Budget 2022 sets out the Government’s commitment to expanding dental care with funding of $5.3 billion over five years, starting this fiscal year with $1.7 billion per year ongoing, to provide dental care for Canadians.
• Children under 12 who do not have dental coverage and who are in families with incomes below $90,000 a year will be the first to have access to support for care, through an interim Canada Dental Benefit starting in 2022.
• The Canada Dental Benefit would provide direct payments to eligible applicants totalling up to $650 per year per child for dental care services for applicants with a family income under $70,000, $390 for those with a family income of $70,000 to $79,999, and $260 for those with a family income of $80,000 to $89,999.
• By putting this benefit in place, the federal government is taking an important first step towards improving dental care for Canadians.

The Liberal Party of Canada and NDP’s supply and confidence agreement committed to launching a national dental care program. The agreement identified “launching a new dental care program for low-income Canadians” as the first priority action under the health care stream of the agreement. The program is restricted to families with an income of less than $90,000 annually, with no co-pays for anyone earning under $70,000 annually.
This commitment to a national dental care program is reminiscent of the NDP’s Motion M-62: Federal Dental Care Plan in 2021 and the NDP’s “denticare” platform commitment from the 2019 federal election campaign.

The 2019 Speech from the Throne and the 2019 Minister of Health Mandate Letter committed the Government to “work with Parliament to study and analyze the possibility of national dental care.” In February 2020, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health (HESA) agreed to undertake a study on the development of a national dental care program, although the study did not begin before Parliament was prorogued in August 2020 and HESA has not pursued the idea since.

Budget 2022
Budget 2022 proposes to provide funding of $5.3 billion over five years and $1.7 billion ongoing. The $5.3 billion over 5 years is broken out as: $300 million in 2022-23, $600 million in 2023-24, $1.2 billion in 2024-25, $1.5 billion in 2025-26, and $1.7 billion in 2026-27.

Current Dental Care Programs in Canada
According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, $15.9 billion was spent on dental services in 2018: 55% was covered through private insurance; 39% was paid out-of-pocket; and 6% was publicly funded. About two-thirds of Canadians receive dental coverage through employment-based private health insurance plans.

Provinces and territories (PTs) provide emergency, in-hospital medically necessary surgical dental care for all residents. Additional PT programs vary in eligibility and coverage, and are limited to select services for groups such as those with low incomes, people with disabilities, children, and seniors.

Federal support for dental care includes:
• The federal government provides recognized First Nations and Inuit with dental coverage for services not available under other programs. The Government also provides some dental services to inmates in federal penitentiaries, and some veterans and refugee claimants.
• Federal public servants are provided with dental coverage through the Government of Canada’s employee benefits program and dental services are provided to Canadian Armed Forces personnel.
• The Canada Health Transfer is providing $41.9 billion to the provinces and territories in 2020-21, which is used to support health services (including PT dental programs if they choose).
• The federal government supports Canadians with private health insurance by not including the value of these insurance plans in the taxable income of employees. In addition, the income tax system provides assistance through the Medical Expenses Tax Credit, and through a refundable medical expenses supplement available for working individuals with low-incomes and high medical expenses.

Comprehensive data does not exist on unmet dental care needs at a national level in Canada. A campaign led by the Canadian Association of Public Health Dentistry suggests that 1 in 5 people (6 million Canadians) are not receiving needed dental care due to cost, and that only Canadians with financial resources or insurance can experience good oral health.

According to the Canadian Dental Association, an estimated 2.26 million school days are missed each year due to dental-related illness, and tooth decay accounts for one-third of all day surgeries performed on children between the ages of one and five in Canada. As well, much of the burden of dental disease is concentrated in disadvantaged children: those from low-income families; Indigenous children; new immigrants; and children with special health care needs.

• Budget 2022 confirmed the Government’s commitment to expanding dental care with funding of $5.3 billion over five years, starting this fiscal year with $1.7 billion per year ongoing, to provide dental care for Canadians.
• Work is underway to implement this commitment, but launching a new national dental care program is a complex endeavour that will take time.
• On September 13, 2022, the Prime Minister announced the intention to introduce legislation that would create an interim measure called the Canada Dental Benefit.
• If passed, the bill would create a temporary benefit to cover children under 12 in 2022 and 2023 who do not have access to private dental care coverage. The program will be restricted to families with an income of less than $90,000 annually.