Health Minister Mark Holland announced tweaks to Ottawa's new dental-care plan on Wednesday in a bid to get more dentists, hygienists and oral-health care providers to participate.
Approximately 61 per cent of dentists surveyed by their provincial associations earlier this month said they weren't planning to sign up for the program based on the information they had at the time, the Canadian Dental Association said.
The federal government now expects far more Canadians with long-overdue dental needs to sign up for its insurance plan, and the health minister says that's why the estimated cost has risen by $7 billion.
Parents can apply with the Canada Revenue Agency starting today, December 1, 2022, to receive the children's dental benefit that the federal Liberals say is intended to provide cost-of-living relief to low-income Canadians but that critics say is a drop in the bucket.
The clock is ticking for the government to deliver on its ambitious promise to the New Democrats to deliver a dental care program for low- and middle-income uninsured kids by the end of the year, while cost estimates have nearly doubled.