The new federal dental insurance plan will be phased in gradually over 2024, with the first claims likely to be processed in May, government officials said ahead of a formal announcement scheduled for Monday morning.
Applications are expected to open as early as next week, starting with qualifying seniors over the age of 87, but it will take months before they can start to claim the benefits, the officials said in a briefing provided to The Canadian Press on the condition they not be named.
The insurance plan is a condition of the Liberals’ supply-and-confidence deal with the New Democrats to secure the opposition party’s support on key votes.
The deal calls for a plan that would offer dental benefits directly to low- and middle-income Canadians without private insurance.
Eligibility will gradually expand over the course of the year to include all qualifying seniors over the age of 65 by May 2024, then children under the age of 18 and people with disabilities by June.
The first people to enroll in the program are expected to be able to start claiming dental services in May.
The government aims to make the program available to all qualifying Canadians in 2025.
Once the program is fully expanded, it will be available to roughly nine million people, making it the government’s largest social program. It is budgeted to cost $13 billion over the first five years.
To qualify, applicants must be Canadian residents with a household income under $90,000 and no private insurance. Those with an annual family income under $70,000 will have no copays.
Eligibility for people with disabilities will be based on whether they have an active disability tax credit, at least until the program is expanded to all people who fall under the income threshold.
The Liberal’s pact with the New Democrats calls for the program to be launched for seniors, children under the age of 18 and people with disabilities by 2024.
Though enrolment will be phased in over the next year, NDP health critic Don Davies said his party is ecstatic to have a concrete program in motion by the deadline, especially if a gradual approach means a smoother rollout.
“If you think back to beginning, people thought there were constitutional hurdles, they thought that the speed of it was too ambitious, they didn’t think that stakeholders would co-operate,” Davies said in an interview Sunday evening.
“Here we are today, poised on the eve of the single biggest expansion of the health-care system in a generation.”
The NDP have pledged to monitor the program carefully, and have called for regular reviews to track what is working and what isn’t.
The services offered, including preventive teeth cleanings, treatments and removable dentures, will closely reflect the services offered to registered First Nations and Inuit people under the Non-Insured Health Benefits Program.
Dental cosmetic procedures will not be covered.
Davies said the new program is closely modelled on the NIHB, though they have implemented some lessons learned from the federal program for First Nations and Inuit people.
“We have to make sure that the plan is really efficiently administered,” Davies said.
“That was something I heard over and over again about current federal plans, is that administrative inefficiencies are a real barrier. And so we want to make sure as we design this from the ground up, that it’s efficient, it’s fair, and it’s comprehensive.”
Once the new federal program is up and running, people will be able to bring their benefits card to registered dental-care providers who will submit the claim on their behalf.
The Liberals intend the coverage to mesh with existing federal and provincial dental health benefits, but the government is still in the process of negotiating with individual provinces which program would be the primary payer.
People receiving existing federal dental benefits, including refugees, veterans and First Nations people, will still qualify for the new federal program. So far, there are no plans to amalgamate the programs.
The government signed a $750-million contract with Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada to administer the claims. Procurement Minister Jean-Yves Duclos previously announced a $15-million agreement with the company to lay the groundwork in September.
A copy of that agreement, obtained through access-to-information legislation, shows that work includes preparations for enrolling dental-care providers and setting up a website and call centre to answer questions from oral-health providers and plan members.
The government expects to start mailing out letters to the first cohort of potential applicants next week, and has set up its own call centre to enroll seniors in the program.
In May, the enrolment process is expected to move to an online platform.
Once the government confirms the applicant’s eligibility, Sun Life will start the enrolment process.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
