Federal budget to expand dental coverage for all eligible Canadians at extra cost of $7 billion

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The budget seemed to indicate free dental care to all eligible Canadians would happen this year, but Freeland clarified the original 2025 target is still in place

Published Mar 28, 2023  •  Last updated 47 minutes ago  •  4 minute read

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland presents the federal budget for fiscal year 2023-24 in the House of Commons on March 28, 2023. Photo by Blair Gable/Reuters Article content

OTTAWA – The Trudeau government sowed confusion by announcing in its budget it was moving ahead with the expansion of free dental care to all eligible Canadians by the end of this year, when it would in fact expand to teenagers, seniors and people living with disabilities.

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The 2023 budget reads that it provides $13 billion over five years for its New Canadian Dental Care Plan, starting in 2023-2024, to provide dental coverage for all uninsured Canadians with an annual family income of less than $90,000 or for single Canadians earning less than $70,000.

The budget clearly reads that: “The plan would begin providing coverage by the end of 2023.”

Finance Canada officials, speaking on background, also confirmed the information that dental care would apply to all eligible Canadians that met a certain income threshold by the end of this year and that it would be two years ahead from the original schedule.

Last year’s budget laid out the foundations of an eventual dental care plan, starting with children of less than 12 years old. It would have been expanded to teenagers under 18 years old, seniors and people living with a disability in 2023, with full implementation in 2025.

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Those deadlines had been negotiated with the NDP in exchange of their support for the government until 2025. Last year’s budget estimated the cost of dental care at nearly $6 billion over five years, but this year’s budget adds an additional $7 billion for that same period.

But officials from the Prime Minister’s office told reporters stuck in the budget lock-up on Tuesday that the timelines negotiated with the NDP remained, in fact, unchanged.

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When asked about the apparent contradiction during a press conference, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said the dental plan is a “really big deal” and a “necessary expansion of healthcare” but she acknowledged that it was a complicated process.

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“Because it is complicated, we are going to be rolling it out step by step by step,” she said.

When pressed on the issue a second time, Freeland said she would refer any details to her colleague, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos.

The federal government created the Canada Dental Benefit last fall to get the money out the door quickly for dental coverage for children under 12 as direct payments. The government says it has paid for dental care for more than 240,000 children to date with this benefit.

But it was the government’s intention to create a more permanent dental care plan that would expand to more clientele.

The new plan announced in this year’s budget will be administered by Health Canada with support from a third-party benefits administrator that has not yet been announced, and details on eligible dental care coverage will be released later this year.

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Finance Canada officials said it would function like billed insurance – meaning that uninsured Canadians would not have to pay the money in advance for dental care.

The federal government is also offering a one-time payment dubbed as a “Grocery Rebate” as part of its efforts in helping low and modest-income Canadians with the affordability crisis.

Eligible Canadians will essentially receive a doubling of the GST credit – meaning up to $467 for eligible couples with two children, $234 for single Canadians without children and $225 for seniors – following the passage of legislation to that effect at a later date.

The measure should impact 11 million Canadians and cost $2.5 billion this year only, but is sure to please the New Democrats who have promised the Liberals to support their budgets and confidence votes as part of their confidence-and-supply agreement until 2025.

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The only other new money in terms of affordability involves an extra $813.6 million to enhance student financial assistance and an additional $4 billion over seven years to implement an Indigenous housing strategy – with money starting to flow only next year.

The rest of the affordability measures come at no cost for the federal government but strive to help Canadians save money in a multitude of areas.

For instance, the 2023 budget announces the government’s intention to work with regulatory agencies, provinces and territories to reduce “junk fees” for Canadians – such as higher telecom roaming charges, event and concert fees, excessive baggage fees or unjustified shipping fees.

It has also secured commitments from Visa and Mastercard to lower credit card fees for small businesses – reductions that are expected to save small businesses $1 billion over five years.

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And the federal government promises to crack down on predatory lending by introducing changes to the Criminal Code to lower the criminal rate of interest from the equivalent of 47 per cent in annual percentage rate to 35 per cent, and possibly even lower in the future.

As far as the housing crisis goes, the government had already announced a series of measures over to past year in an attempt to make Canadians able to offer property. The new budget offers little or no new measures but provides more detail on the progress made.

The Tax-Free First Home Savings Account – which gives new homebuyers the ability to save up to $40,000 on a tax-free basis – will be offered in financial institutions as of April 1, 2023.

The government has also published a code of conduct to protect Canadians who have difficulty paying their mortgage in ensuring that federally regulated financial institutions provide them with relief measures such as extended amortizations and adjusting payment schedules.

Read the full text of the budget, below:

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