Health Minister Holland: Nearly 650,000 People Now Benefiting from the Federal Dental Care Plan

The Liberal government will still work on policies it promised to pursue under its now defunct deal with the NDP, Health Minister Mark Holland said Monday.

A week ago, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh ended the pact between the New Democrats and the minority Liberals, before some of the measures they agreed to work on had come to fruition. 

Those include a yet-to-be-tabled safe long-term care act and the implementation of a pharmacare bill that is still being studied in the Senate. 

If the legislation passes, the government aims to negotiate deals with the provinces for the provision of free diabetes medication and birth control to anyone with a health card. Singh takes credit for forcing the Liberals into it. 

“These are things that we deeply cared about, where we found intersection with what the NDP was caring about,” Holland said at a news conference in Toronto. 

He was at the University of Toronto’s dental faculty, in its largest clinic, to share an update on a signature NDP-Liberal policy, the national dental-care program. 

Up to 650,000 Canadians

Holland said nearly 650,000 people have taken advantage of the dental-care program so far and four-fifths of dental-care providers are participating. The update comes a month after the minister touted a 75 per cent participation rate.

Uptake was in doubt earlier this summer, when less than half of dentists, hygienists and denturists had registered to offer care and associations warned there were flaws in the program’s design.

Holland rejigged the process in July so dental offices could skip registering in advance and process individual claims instead.

The government began taking claims for seniors in May, and has since expanded eligibility for the program to qualifying children under the age of 18 and people who qualify for a disability tax credit.

Now that the New Democrats’ support in Parliament is not guaranteed, the Liberals will have to find a partner for each individual vote. 

“The NDP has made a political decision and that’s theirs to do, but now we’re operating on a case-by-case basis,” said Holland.

The minister said he talks “all the time” with the Bloc Québécois, along with the NDP, about how they can work together. Talks with the Conservatives haven’t been as productive, he said.

The Bloc indicated this week that it is willing to prop up the minority government in exchange for moves it sees as gains for Quebec. 

House leader Alain Therrien said in the lead-up to a caucus retreat that his party is happy to regain its balance of power, calling the current situation a “window of opportunity” to pursue its priorities.