44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 18, 2022 10:00AM
Madam Speaker, I had a meeting this morning with representatives from the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association. They raised a concern about the government introducing an alternative to dental insurance. A lot of companies, particularly SMEs, will withdraw from group insurance programs. That could have major consequences for access to several types of insurance that are not limited to dental insurance. Access to such insurance is a major competitive advantage for employees and employers.
If government dental insurance is imposed, our businesses may no longer have access to insurance plans. Has the minister considered this possibility?
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Madam Speaker, I would like to reiterate a question that has already been asked of my colleague and I would like a clear answer.
Many have asked if the provinces were consulted. Did the provinces ask, yes or no, for this type of dental program that is presented in this grand bill that contains all kinds of things? The question is simple and I would like my colleague, who is good at dodging answers, to answer it.
Yes or no, did the provinces ask for this? Yes or no, were the provinces consulted on this program?
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Madam Speaker, I am very happy that my colleague asked that question.
All of Canada's health ministers have had the opportunity to speak with one another quite regularly over the past several months. We did so again a few weeks ago, and I did so several times over the summer.
We have spoken frequently about this dental insurance program since it was first announced a few months ago. My officials and provincial and territorial government officials speak with each other very regularly in order to share all relevant information, because we know, as my colleague suggested, that this work must be done in a complementary way to support the dental care needs of all Quebeckers and all Canadians.
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Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo.
I have grave concerns. The government cannot deliver a $57 passport. How is it going to deliver a $10-billion dental care program?
I want to put that aside, though, and build on the question from my colleague from Mégantic—L'Érable and my colleague from Regina—Lewvan because we have not heard an answer. How many provinces asked for this? His answer should start with a number.
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Madam Speaker, in the earlier debate, the hon. member referenced questions that colleagues from this side of the House were asking as to the status of the consultations and the actual number of asks from provinces.
I come much more from an ag background, where there is a long-standing tradition where ag is a shared jurisdiction. We have a long-standing tradition of a 60-40 cost share on much of the programming.
When we are dealing with the area of health, where does jurisdiction come into it? What is the agreed upon cost share? We hear the provinces asking for more money. That is where the relevance comes from the question of the interaction between the federal government and the provinces.
I will ask the question again. What are the provinces telling the government about dental health care?
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Madam Speaker, this debate always strays away from the real need for dental care in this country. When people say programs already exist, it is simply not true. There is no province that provides coverage for every family, every individual, every person with a disability who earns less than $90,000 a year. It simply does not exist in this country. I can tell the House about a family that came into my office for help on another federal program and literally burst into tears when they found out they could take their kids to the dentist.
We have heard the Conservatives, in particular their leader, talk like Santa to working people, but when it comes to trying to delay this program so that cheques do not come out before the end of the year, their delay tactics look a lot more like Scrooge.
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Unfortunately, Madam Speaker, what the member is saying is right. That is the impression that would be given to somebody who is paying attention to what is going on in the House.
To the member's point, he is absolutely right that there is no program that covers all children under 12. In fact, I hope the program does not stop there. I hope that one day there will be a dental care program similar to the health care program where everybody is covered. That is where we ultimately need to get. When the founders of our health care system created it, there was an understanding that pharmacare and dental care were on the horizon, that those things would happen in the future, and yet here we are so many decades later still waiting.
I applaud the NDP's passion for this and continually pushing for it. I am glad that we can work together on this. I hope this is not the end and that we can continue to see dental care expand not just to the criteria that we are seeing here, but, indeed, to more Canadians in the years to come.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my friend for his very passionate speech on Bill C-31.
Can he outline what kind of impact getting dental care will have on his community and the children in Kingston?
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Madam Speaker, the most important thing is that we ensure we are giving kids the access they need to preventative dental health care. What we see quite often is that those who cannot afford dental care end up in our emergency rooms accessing emergency dental care, which is being paid for through our health care system anyway. What we can accomplish by providing that preventative work in advance is that we can help ensure that kids do not end up in an emergency room and put to sleep in order to have emergency dental work done on them.
The impact it will have on individuals in my community is similar to the impact it will have on individuals in his community and communities throughout Canada. This will help create a baseline by which we all agree that children need access to dental care to ensure they have a shot at a healthy life in the future.
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Uqaqtittiji, the NDP has been supportive of the bill because it has been made obvious that there are gaps in the dental care program. This bill attempts to fill some of those gaps.
Why, during this time of inflation, when families are forced to make difficult choices as to what they can afford for their dental care needs, which is an essential part of their overall health, do the Conservatives continue to play with these delay tactics?
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Madam Speaker, I think my hon. colleague answered his own question. The reality is that we have meetings regularly between each provincial health minister and the federal minister to outline priorities.
Dental care was not one of those priorities. Increased transfers to the provinces to deal with our doctor shortage was one of the priorities put forward by our provincial ministers.
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Madam Speaker, I have heard the member mention a few times now that there is no need for this dental program because it already exists out there, at least in Ontario, the province both of us are from.
However, the healthy smiles program, the one he talked specifically about, is for children whose parents are on Ontario Works, whose parents are on ODSP, or who are receiving disability benefits. This is not about providing a baseline dental program for all children in families with an income of under $90,000.
Would the member at least recognize that what he is continually referencing with the healthy smiles program in Ontario is nothing like what is being proposed in this legislation?
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Madam Speaker, as I said in my speech, over 70% of Canadians are already covered by a dental plan, and many low-income youth and families are covered by already existing provincial and territorial plans.
The reality is that the government is looking at some crass political play with its partners in the NDP to somehow give the impression that it is implementing some sort of dental program.
Earlier the health minister said that he has not even discussed any of these programs with dentists or with provincial authorities. This is a government that cannot even deliver the most basic services, yet its expectation is that it is going to deliver a complicated dental program across this country with very few checks and balances in place.
This is crass politics, and it is vote buying at its best.
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Uqaqtittiji, I, too, would like to give my condolences to the member for what has happened in his riding. It is always very sad to hear about these kinds of incidents of violence anywhere.
I just wanted to ask a question in relation to what I asked a previous member. There have been a lot of gaps in the dental care and health care system. I really feel that this bill tries to fill some of those gaps. Reaching that 30% is so important.
I wonder if the member could elaborate on where he is getting his data to explain how that 30% of the population is meeting its dental care needs.
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Madam Speaker, a little earlier today, I used four minutes of my time before I was interrupted to go to Private Members' Business. I will now speak for my remaining six minutes while being mindful of the time allocated to me.
I talked about the reasoning behind supporting Bill C-31, which is really to make sure that we are not denying access to dental care, as well as not pricing people out in rental costs. It is about affordability.
Many of the things our government has been doing are to support Canadians because we realize affordability is a key issue. One-third of Canadians do not have access to dental care. What this bill proposes to do, over a two-year period, is to provide up to $1,300 for eligible children 12 years and under. The families will have to make less than $90,000.
I want to read a quote from the Canadian Labour Congress. It says, “Canada's unions welcome [the government's] investment in dental care that will give coverage to millions of Canadians - because everyone deserves a healthy smile”.
On the housing benefit, this will help two million Canadians and the support will be for those Canadians families making $35,000 or less, or for individuals making $20,000 or less, and paying more than 30% of their income on rental costs. This is in addition to the $4 billion we have put forward to help Canadians through rental support, cost-shared with the provinces and territories.
We are also helping with affordability, which is key here, because of the challenges that Canadians are facing financially today. Last week, we passed the doubling of the GST rebate for a six-month period. That was unanimous. Every member of the House voted in favour of that, and I want to thank them all because it will help 11 million individuals who file their income tax.
On affordability, the government also has the CCB, where we see nine out of 10 families receiving support. In my riding alone, it is over $5.5 million a month. That is over $70 million a year in my riding of Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook. I know it is a special riding, but every riding across the country, all 338 ridings, are receiving those types of supports. That is what is important.
Finally, on affordability, we are bringing in child care this year, which will lower the cost of child care by 50%. Those are direct supports to individual Canadians and families. It is so crucial.
Why and how can we do that? We are in a very good fiscal position. Let us not forgot that just before the pandemic, we had the lowest debt-to-GDP in the G7. Since the pandemic, we have increased that margin, which is very important. We still hold a AAA credit rating. That is very important.
Let us look at our economy. Canadians know that throughout the pandemic, we were there and we had the backs of Canadians. We were able to support Canadians through this global pandemic. We, the federal government, put in eight dollars for every $10 in support given to Canadians and businesses across the country. That is what we were able to do because our government was in a good fiscal position. We could bear the challenge of financing, compared to individuals and families, who would have been in a much more difficult situation.
Look where we are today. Over 21,000 jobs were created in the month of September. Today, we hold the lowest unemployment rate ever recorded at 5.2%. We have recaptured 113% of all the jobs that were lost. Those are big numbers. They are a strong reason why the government can move forward on topping up renters with $500 and bringing forward dental care to children under the age of 12.
Those are the types of decisions we need to continue to make to ensure all Canadians will benefit. That is the type of government we committed to being in 2015, in 2019 and in 2021. We intend to do more for all Canadians as we move forward.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his very important question.
I just want to remind him that only 4% of residents of the provinces receive the support they should be getting in terms of dental care. The federal government plays a supporting role, as it does with the health agreement. We are working together.
Yes, health is a provincial jurisdiction, but that does not mean that we will not ensure that Canadians in Newfoundland, Quebec and western Canada benefit from the same health care standards and the same support.
We want to ensure that that support is available to all children aged 12 and under, both in Quebec and across Canada.
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Madam Speaker, I just heard the question from the hon. member for Regina—Lewvan about whether dental care was a priority for provincial governments, so I guess my question for the member for Vancouver Granville is whether he has found the same thing that I found in my riding: that dental care is definitely a priority for seniors and definitely a priority for families, and that any money we spend on this program, despite those partial provincial programs that do exist, would save provincial governments money. For those people who are asking for dental care, we are beginning with families with kids under 12 and then are extending it to people with disabilities, and eventually seniors and everybody who earns less than $90,000. That is where the demand is coming from. It is from constituents in my riding.
I want to know if the member for Vancouver Granville shares that experience.
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Madam Speaker, the member's reflections on what he is hearing in his riding are exactly what I am hearing in mine.
I have families that are struggling. I have seniors and young families that would benefit from the support. I also have a large number of people who work in health care, particularly doctors and nurses. They have all said that dental care would improve the long-term health care indicators of Canadians, and would reduce the burden on the health care system long term.
These are investments that help provincial health care systems save money in the long term. We can make all the decisions we want for the short term, but they provide long-term benefits for a sustainable health care system for the future. That is what we need to be doing together.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. I also heard the question from my other colleague.
As I already said today, this bill was announced on the same day that seniors' groups were addressing Government of Quebec health care officials, demanding assistance with dental care. We know that children aged 10 and under are already covered in Quebec.
When the Government of Canada announced this bill, the seniors' groups said that it was not the right place. They wanted to speak to the Government of Quebec, which is responsible for dental care.
What seniors in my riding want is for the federal government to increase health transfers to cover 35% of costs so that Quebec's department of health can take care of them and make decisions about dental care.
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Mr. Speaker, the member opposite's speech was very entertaining, but Bill C-31 is a measure that is based in positive health outcomes for Canadians. Even when universal health care was first being discussed in this country, there were people like this member who did not want to see Canadians have positive health outcomes and benefits.
Fast-forward to today, and I do not think there is anything we are more proud of as Canadians than our ability to provide everyone in this country with health care if one is Canadian or a permanent resident. We have had challenges with health care, but I do not think the solution anyone would propose on any side of the House would be to do away with our universal health care system. It would be to invest more to make sure we have the doctors needed. Dental is a part of that type of system.
I have heard from many small business owners who have said that they would not have survived if it were not for the benefits this government provided, which the members opposite supported, for the economy and those businesses to survive. Does the member not have any businesses in his riding that benefited positively from the benefits that were provided?
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