Stock photo of a dentist, courtesy of Pixabay
The Ontario Dental Association (ODA) is asking for more input into the federal and provincial dental investment.
As part of the federal budget, the Liberal government is putting $5.3 billion into a new dental care program. The program promises dental care for low and medium-income families. The terms of the deal say the government must start with children under the age of 12 in 2022, expand to under 18-year-olds, seniors and people with disabilities in 2023 and fully implement the program by 2025.
The deal was originally put together by the NDP. Their goal was to see a stand alone program that will be available across the country and completely available for applicable residents by 2025.
The Ontario Dental Association says it’d like the money to be used to help underfunded provincial programs. As the new President of the ODA, Dr. Lisa Bentley is now calling on the newly re-elected Premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, to do better for the hundreds of thousands of people in the province who need dental care by fully funding the province’s dental programs.
The ODA is also asking to be at the table during negotiations with the province and federal government over how the provincial portion of the $5.3 billion federal dental care investment will be used in Ontario. “We represent over 10,000 dentists so it only makes sense we’re part of the discussion,” says Dr. Bentley. “The ODA can give the invaluable insight needed to make sure taxpayer money will be used wisely and this massive funding gap will finally be fixed.”
Just before the election, the Ontario government offered to meet with the ODA, but the organizations says they “need a binding commitment that leads to results. Dentists have been subsidizing Ontario’s dental programs by as much as $150 million every year for over a decade.”
The ODA has been Ontario’s primary source for dental information since 1867 and represents over 10,000, or 90%, of dentists in the province. For more information, click here.
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