The federal government unveiled its new dental-care plan on Monday — a $13-billion insurance program that will start covering routine dentistry costs next year for people who meet a certain income threshold.
Ottawa will cover kids under 18 and some seniors first before expanding the program to all eligible low- and middle-income Canadians in 2025.
Applications for seniors aged 87 and over will open later this month. Other age groups will able to apply in the new year.
The staggered application process is designed to make the rollout as smooth as possible. The government says it expects millions of people to avail themselves of this new component of Canada’s social safety net.
Coverage will be phased in over time, but some eligible participants will start to receive benefits as early as May 2024. Costs incurred before the relevant start date will not be covered.
This insurance-based program replaces the interim program that has been sending cheques directly to families with kids under 12 for the last year.
To be eligible for the program, a person must have a household income below $90,000 and no access to an existing private insurance plan. The person must also have filed a tax return so the government can verify income.
The plan is most generous for families that have household incomes below $70,000. They face no co-pays to a participating dentist, hygienist or denturist, and Ottawa will pick up the tab for covered services like cleaning, polishing, examinations, X-rays, fillings, root canal treatments and complete and partial removable dentures.
Families with incomes between $70,000 and $79,999 will face a 40 per cent co-pay, and for those in the $80,000 to $89,999 income bracket, the co-pay jumps to 60 per cent. The federal plan will cover the rest of the costs incurred.
Services to be covered under the Canadian dental care plan:
Preventive services, including scaling (cleaning), polishing, sealants and fluoride
Diagnostic services, including examinations and x-rays
Restorative services, including fillings
Endodontic services, including root canal treatments
Prosthodontic services, including complete and partial removable dentures
Periodontal services, including deep scaling
Oral surgery services, including extractions.
Health Minister Mark Holland described the government’s plan as “transformative” because it will provide coverage to the nearly nine million Canadians who do not already have access to dental insurance.
“We know we can have the best health system in the world and today is a monumental step in that direction,” Holland said.
“It’s going to make life better for eligible Canadian residents who won’t have to choose between paying their bills and getting the help they absolutely need,” he said.
$13B dental plan to be ‘transformative,’ minister says
Federal Health Minister Mark Holland says a $13-billion dental-care plan will significantly improve access for millions of Canadians who don’t have access to care through workplace insurance plans.
Citizens’ Services Minister Terry Beech said Canadians do not need to do anything at this stage — the federal government will reach out to eligible people by mail to invite them to apply for the benefit when it’s their turn.
The first letters will go out to invite seniors 70 and up to apply for the plan — those seniors will apply over the phone.
Here’s when seniors can expect to receive those letters:
Seniors aged 87 and above starting in December 2023
Seniors aged 77 to 86 starting in January 2024
Seniors aged 72 to 76 starting in February 2024
Seniors aged 70 to 71 starting in March 2024
Then, in May 2024, the application process will switch from the telephone to online as people aged 65 and older become eligible to apply.
People with valid disability tax credit certificates and children under 18 will be able to apply starting in June 2024.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh claimed the government is only pressing ahead with this program now because his party “forced” Ottawa to enact it as a condition of the confidence-and-supply agreement that could keep the Liberals in power until 2025.
“People are living with pain, people are worried about the cost if they do have to go to the dentist. We’ve been fighting to make sure people get coverage while out-of-touch Liberals and cutting-back Conservatives don’t want to deliver help to people. We’ve forced this government to take action,” he said at a press conference in Toronto.
The Liberal Party’s 2021 election platform made no mention of a dental care program.
“We’ve used our power in this minority government to give people help,” Singh added. “(Conservative Leader) Pierre Poilievre, despite having taxpayer-funded dental care for most of his adult life, voted against kids getting dental care. Conservatives have made it clear what their priorities are — cutting and gutting.”
Filling gaps in system
In a background briefing with reporters, senior public servants responsible for the program stressed that this federal initiative is meant to “fill the gaps” in the system and not replace existing provincial and territorial programs that already cover some oral health services.
But the federal government has received no assurances from the premiers that they will keep their programs operational once the national program rolls out.
Holland said conversations are ongoing with other levels of government. “I think they understand this isn’t an opportunity to shove off costs,” he said.
There’s also a risk of some employers scrapping the dental plans they offer their workers and pushing people onto this new federal plan.
A decision to dismantle those plans would push up the price tag of the dental care plan — in its current form, it is slated to cost the federal treasury about $4.4 billion a year.
Dedicated call centre for queries
The program will be administered by insurance giant Sun Life and dentists, dental hygienists and denturists will directly submit claims to that company for reimbursement. If there’s a co-pay, insured people will pay that cost out of pocket to the provider.
While the program will be run by a third party, the government said people can still work with Service Canada agents to deal with any issues that arise, including eligibility or coverage disputes. There will be a dedicated call centre to deal with dental services.
The government is hopeful that oral health professionals will enrol in the program and accept the Canadian dental-care insurance plan as payment.
Officials said the government will launch an education campaign to brief dentists, dental hygienists and denturists and the organizations that represent them in the new year on how they can sign up to provide covered care.
There will be a set “fee schedule” for services — but the costs reimbursed by Ottawa will vary from province to province.
The government said the fees paid are “relatively generous compared to other public plans across the country,” which should provide an incentive for providers to participate.
Holland acknowledged the government “still has work to do” to guarantee the country’s dentists will provide services to publicly insured clients.
“The core success of this plan is making sure oral health professionals are signing up,” he said. “I’m extraordinarily optimistic there is going to be very strong uptake.”
Holland said he met recently with seniors in Nova Scotia and they didn’t seem hopeful that the proposed dental program would actually materialize.
They had been living with the same set of dentures for decades, he said.
Holland assured them the program was coming and seniors would be able to tap the insurance program to help cover dental costs.
“That was one of the most powerful moments for me politically, to see that look of optimism and joy and what that dignity means. The dignity of being able to get new dentures,” he said.
NDP MP Don Davies is the party’s health critic; he helped to design the framework of this dental care initiative. He praised the program’s rollout as “a truly historic moment.”
“We are building on the legacy of Tommy Douglas who laid the foundation for our country’s public health care system,” Davies said of the former NDP leader who called for “head to toe” health coverage.
NEW GLASGOW, N.S. – Police in New Glasgow, N.S., say a 44-year-old woman faces fraud charges after funds went missing from the Pictou East Progressive Conservative Association.
New Glasgow Regional Police began the investigation on Oct. 7, after Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston reported that an undisclosed amount of money had gone missing from his riding association’s account.
Police allege that a volunteer who was acting as treasurer had withdrawn funds from the association’s account between 2016 and 2024.
The force says it arrested Tara Amanda Cohoon at her Pictou County, N.S., residence on Oct. 11.
They say investigators seized mobile electronic devices, bank records and cash during a search of the home.
Cohoon has since been released and is to appear in Pictou provincial court on Dec. 2 to face charges of forgery, uttering a forged document, theft over $5,000 and fraud over $5,000.
Police say their investigation remains ongoing.
Houston revealed the investigation to reporters on Oct. 9, saying he felt an “incredible level of betrayal” over the matter.
The premier also said a volunteer he had known for many years had been dismissed from the association and the party.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2024.
PICTOU, N.S. – A Nova Scotia excavation company has been fined $80,000 after a worker died when scaffolding collapsed on one of its job sites.
In a decision released Wednesday, a Nova Scotia provincial court judge in Pictou, N.S., found the failure by Blaine MacLane Excavation Ltd. to ensure scaffolding was properly installed led to the 2020 death of Jeff MacDonald, a self-employed electrician.
The sentence was delivered after the excavation company was earlier found guilty of an infraction under the province’s Occupational Health and Safety Act.
Judge Bryna Hatt said in her decision she found the company “failed in its duty” to ensure that pins essential to the scaffolding’s stability were present at the work site.
Her decision said MacDonald was near the top of the structure when it collapsed on Dec. 9, 2020, though the exact height is unknown.
The judge said that though the excavation company did not own the scaffolding present on its job site, there was no evidence the company took steps to prevent injury, which is required under legislation.
MacDonald’s widow testified during the trial that she found her husband’s body at the job site after he didn’t pick up their children as planned and she couldn’t get in touch with him over the phone.
Julie MacDonald described in her testimony how she knew her husband had died upon finding him due to her nursing training, and that she waited alone in the dark for emergency responders to arrive after calling for help.
“My words cannot express how tragic this accident was for her, the children, and their extended family,” Hatt wrote in the sentencing decision.
“No financial penalty will undo the damage and harm that has been done, or adequately represent the loss of Mr. MacDonald to his family, friends, and our community.”
In addition to the $80,000 fine, the New Glasgow-based company must also pay a victim-fine surcharge of $12,000 and provide $8,000 worth of community service to non-profits in Pictou County.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Investigators found the remains of a 77-year-old American man on Wednesday at the scene of a fire that destroyed a hotel in western Newfoundland on the weekend.
Eugene Earl Spoon, a guest at the hotel, was visiting Newfoundland from Kansas. His remains were found Wednesday morning during a search of the debris left behind after the fire tore through the Driftwood Inn in Deer Lake, N.L., on Saturday, the RCMP said in a news release.
“RCMP (Newfoundland and Labrador) extends condolences to the family and friends of the missing man,” the news release said.
Spoon was last seen Friday evening in the community of about 4,800 people in western Newfoundland. The fire broke out early Saturday morning, the day Spoon was reported missing.
Several crews from the area fought the flames for about 16 hours before the final hot spot was put out, and police said Wednesday that investigators are still going through the debris.
Meanwhile, the provincial Progressive Conservative Opposition reiterated its call for a wider review of what happened.
“Serious questions have been raised about the fire, and the people deserve answers,” Tony Wakeham, the party’s leader, said in a news release Wednesday. “A thorough investigation must be conducted to determine the cause and prevent such tragedies in the future.”
The party has said it spoke to people who escaped the burning hotel, and they said alarm and sprinkler systems did not seem to have been activated during the fire. However, Stephen Rowsell, the Deer Lake fire chief, has said there were alarms going off when crews first arrived.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2024.
