Sources close to the government’s proposed $5.3 billion dental care program say the Liberals are planning a temporary fix that involves giving money directly to patients to fulfill their promise to the NDP while they work on a permanent response.
The Liberals promised the NDP a new dental care program for low- and middle-income families in March as part of a supply-and-trust deal to avoid an election before 2025.
The government has until the end of the year to provide some kind of coverage to children under 12 with an annual household income of less than $90,000.
The NDP has promised to withdraw from the agreement if the deadline is not met.
Four sources with knowledge of the government’s plan, but who are not authorized to speak publicly, say the government is unlikely to meet its deadline and is planning a stopgap solution until a permanent incarnation of the program is implemented.
Although details are scarce, sources say the temporary fix would involve giving qualifying families money directly to fund their dental health services while the government works on an expanded, more permanent program.
In a statement, the health minister’s staff did not confirm or deny the temporary plan, but said it is on track to meet the dental care commitment as outlined in the deal with the New Democrats.
NDP health critic Don Davies also did not directly address the temporary plan, but said in a statement that the party has “identified various ways to ensure that targeted groups can access dental care within identified timeframes.”
The NDP is now focused on lobbying the Liberals to introduce dental care legislation when Parliament reconvenes in the fall, Davies said.
“That legislation will provide the necessary resources to help children under the age of 12 see a dentist and take care of their teeth this year,” he said.
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh echoed the health minister’s faith in meeting the deadline last week.
“We are very confident that we can achieve that before the end of the year, as our agreement states,” Singh told a news conference last Thursday.
The agreement is not prescriptive on how coverage is to be achieved, and the government has not yet committed to any particular means of administering the program.
The office of Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos has repeatedly said that the department is looking at various options to meet its commitment and year-end deadline.
The NDP originally envisioned a federal program that works similarly to the federal health benefits program for uninsured First Nations and Inuit people.
The federal government could also offer money to provinces and territories to take over, since many already offer similar programs and dental care has traditionally fallen within their jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, the Liberals submitted a formal request for information (RFI) to members of the insurance industry two weeks ago to explore what role private companies could play in administering the program.
In that RFI, the government says that if a contract is awarded, the winning company would have six months to prepare before processing claims. That timeline would be impossible to achieve before the end of December.
According to the Duclos staff statement, they are still consulting on the best way forward.
The Liberals promised to extend the program to qualifying teens, seniors and people with disabilities next year and to everyone else at the qualifying family income level by the end of the supply and trust agreement in 2025.
“It is not surprising that the Trudeau government is not living up to the commitment it made to buy the support of the NDP,” conservative health critic Michael Barrett said in a statement.
Barrett said Canadians should be concerned that the government is not committed to maintaining the current health system, “much less adding a complex and expensive new program to it.”
The government set aside $5.3 billion over five years for the program, but the Parliamentary Budget Officer’s estimate is nearly double the $9 billion.
Once the program is fully implemented, the Liberals’ 2022 budget predicts it will cost about $1.7 billion per year, which is in line with the PBO estimate.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on August 8, 2022.