The Rise of Canada’s Dental Care Plan: A Triumph for the Left

Progressives should celebrate this milestone while continuing to push for improvements.

The launch of the Canadian Dental Care Plan in December 2023 marked a pivotal moment in federal politics and public policy. The initiative stands out for three reasons. 

First, it is part of a rare cluster of major social programs—alongside the Early Learning and Child Care Plan (2021) and the National Pharmacare Plan (2024)—introduced in the last five years, breaking a nearly six-decade drought in transformative social program expansions. Second, the dental care plan’s journey from a relatively little-discussed idea to a flagship government program was remarkably swift, propelled by opposition advocacy. Third, despite its significance, this victory for Canada’s left is, surprisingly, sometimes underappreciated by progressives themselves.

Breaking the stagnation

Before the recent wave of social programs, Canada’s last comprehensive social initiative was medicare in 1966. The Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) followed in 1967, and while important, it is a cash transfer program for low-income seniors, not a robust social service. Similarly, the Trudeau government’s 2016 Canada Child Benefit (CCB) provides direct financial support to families and has been credited with reducing child poverty. However, cash transfer programs like the GIS and CCB are vulnerable. 

For instance, in 2021, GIS payments were clawed back for some seniors when COVID emergency support was counted as income, plunging many into financial distress. And the CCB was a replacement for the Harper Conservative’s Universal Child Care Benefit of 2006, which itself was a replacement for the Chrétien Liberals’ Canada Child Tax Benefit of 1993.  

In contrast, the Canadian Dental Care Plan is a true social program, covering full or partial costs of dental procedures for enrolled individuals. Unlike cash transfers or tax credits, it provides direct payments to participating dental service providers, eliminating the need for patients to pay insured expenses upfront and file a claim for reimbursement. 

Despite initial resistance from the Canadian Dental Association, by March 2025, 98% of oral health providers—dentists, denturists, and dental hygienists—are participating, ensuring broad access for the estimated nine million people in Canada with household incomes below $90,000 and no private dental insurance. 

The dental care plan is poised to become a cornerstone of health and well-being for a large segment of the population. By removing financial barriers to dental care, it addresses a critical gap in Canada’s health system, promising to improve oral health and reduce related health complications.

The pre-2022 patchwork: A public health failure

The Royal Commission on Health Services (also known as the Hall Commission), whose work in the early 1960s helped pave the way for universal healthcare in Canada, also recognized that dental health was a significant concern. However, its report noted that “the shortage of dentists in Canada is so acute that … it is impossible to think at the present time in terms of a programme of dental services for the entire population.” Consequently, the Commission recommended an initial focus on dental services for children but added that “it may be possible to consider in the nineteen eighties a general dental programme for the adult population…”

This guidance resulted in Canada developing a patchwork system of public dental care that failed to reach the broad coverage envisioned by the Commission. Provinces and territories offer limited dental programs, primarily for children and some seniors, but coverage varies widely and is often restrictive. And the federal government provides dental care for First Nations and Inuit peoples, and limited services for refugees.

Prior to the new national plan, all these public programs accounted for just 6% of dental spending in Canada, far below even the United States’ 7.9%. The remainder of spending was private—either out of pocket or through private insurance.

Dental care left off the national agenda

In 2011, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternative (CCPA) published a major report pushing public dental care options. With the Canada Health Accord between federal, provincial and territorial governments up for renewal in 2014, the CCPA highlighted the forthcoming “opportunity to review and advance options that can save money and improve health.” Yet, instead of negotiating a new accord, the Conservatives under Stephen Harper let it expire, effectively denying advocates an important chance to press for the inclusion of dental services in health care funding. 

A Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS) report published in 2014 noted that those without dental insurance often avoid care due to costs, leading to serious health impacts. Children miss school and adults are unable to work due to pain in their mouths. In more serious cases, poor oral health leads to other health conditions, such as cardiovascular disease and certain cancers. Despite these findings, the CAHS stopped short of advocating for a robust national program, instead recommending “public options for oral health care in alternative service settings,” such as community health centres.

Indeed, just a few years ago, the prospect of a national dental care plan seemed like a pipe dream. Reflective of this outlook, dental care did not figure at all in the NDP’s 2006, 2011 or 2015 election platforms. In 2015, the only major federal party advocating for it was the Green Party of Canada, which promised to introduce “basic preventive dental care”, though this was far from a key policy plank.  

As recently as 2017, Owen Adams, the Canadian Medical Association’s Chief Policy Advisor, observed that: “attention to the importance of oral health is growing, and yet access to dental care is simply not on the policy agenda.” 

The political awakening of dental care

The tide began to turn that same year, however, during the NDP’s leadership race to replace Tom Mulcair. Candidate and Manitoba MP Niki Ashton championed a national dental care plan as part of her democratic socialist platform, pitching it to party members across Canada. 

Jagmeet Singh, who would go on to win the leadership, did not include dental care in his platform, focusing instead on job insecurity, discrimination, and the climate crisis. However, he signaled openness to the idea, agreeing with Ashton’s vision during debates and telling the media days before the vote that he believed in expanding “into more universal services like pharmacare and dental care.”

After becoming leader on October 1, 2017, Singh continued to mention dental care on occasion but it wasn’t until the party’s policy convention in February 2018 that he made it clear that he was serious, stating to the enthusiastic applause of party members in attendance:

I ask you to ask any health professional you know, and I’m sure they’ll tell you that people live longer, healthier, better lives when they have good teeth. So why aren’t we looking beyond expanding to pharmacare and look to including dental care as a part of our universal health care system?

Two federal parties were now on board with the idea of a federal dental care program and, in the months leading up to the 2018 Ontario provincial election, the Ontario NDP also included comprehensive public dental care in its platform. 

Steady momentum

Despite growing political support, national public discussion remained limited. Progressives pinned far greater hopes on the creation of a national pharmacare plan, given that the Trudeau Liberals’ 2015 platform committed to making prescription drugs more affordable.

By the time the October 2019 federal election came around, the NDP and Green Party were still the only two parties that included dental care in their platforms. However, after the Liberals won a new minority government, the Speech from the Throne stated: “The government is open to new ideas … ideas like universal dental care are worth exploring, and I encourage Parliament to look into this.”

The COVID-19 pandemic, beginning a couple of months later, further shifted the landscape. The Canadian Labour Congress’s Forward Together campaign, launched on Labour Day 2020, called for massive investments in social programs to “disaster-proof” Canada, including child care, pharmacare, and housing—but notably omitted dental care. Still, the call for major new social spending helped create a conducive atmosphere.

When Justin Trudeau called an early election for September 2021, the NDP and Greens continued as the only parties calling for public dental care. Despite the overture made in the 2019 Throne Speech, the Liberals stated in their platform that they would only expand access to dental professionals in rural communities.

The Liberal-NDP deal: A turning point

Following the 2021 election, which returned another Liberal minority government, negotiations between the Liberals and NDP culminated in the March 22, 2022, “Delivering for Canadians Now” agreement. Catalyzed by the 2022 Canada Convoy protests and the invocation of the Emergencies Act, the deal saw the NDP prop up the government in exchange for progressive policy commitments, the first of which was a national dental care program. The agreement outlined an ambitious timeline with full program implementation by 2025.

Though Jagmeet Singh ended the Liberal-NDP agreement in September 2024, the dental care program’s implementation continues under Prime Minister Mark Carney’s new Liberal government. The final phase of the rollout is set to be complete by June 1, ensuring access for millions.

A rapid policy triumph 

From Niki Ashton’s 2017 leadership campaign to the Liberal commitment in 2022, the dental care plan took just five years to go from an opposition proposal to government policy—an extraordinarily short timeline for a major social program. 

In contrast, consider that the labour movement and other organizations have advocated for a national child care plan for decades—effectively achieving a national plan in 2005 only to have it reversed by the Harper Conservatives the following year.

Or, look at the new National Pharmacare plan, which the Liberals have been slowly working towards since 2015, following many years of advocacy by civil society. The program, though promising, is currently only serving PEI’s 180,000 residents and will begin in Manitoba in June 2025, in Yukon by January 2026, and in BC by March 2026. Bilateral implementing agreements with other territories and provinces—including Ontario and Quebec, which account for the vast majority of Canada’s population— are still being negotiated.

While the dental care plan marks a major breakthrough and policy success, discussions on the left often centre on its shortcomings, obscuring its positive impact and broader significance. University of Manitoba Labour Studies professor Adam King called it “a means-tested cash benefit in place of a dental program,” though this mischaracterizes the program’s direct payment model. Anti-capitalist blogger Scott Martin criticized it as “means testing to hell and back.” Left-wing writer Nora Loreto, reacting to the 2022 Liberal-NDP deal, lamented that “the agreement starts by cementing the fact that we will never see a universal social program again in Canada…”

Of course, universal social programs are preferable to means-tested ones. And the dental care program might have had greater scope and employed a better delivery model if the NDP could have gone it alone. But building social programs takes time and follows a variety of paths.

It bears remembering that Canada’s path to universal health care was both gradual and uneven. Starting in Saskatchewan, Tommy Douglas’ CCF government implemented public hospital care in 1947 and then public medical care (outside of hospitals) in 1962. The latter led to a doctor’s strike but also created a blueprint for a national system. Talks for universal hospital coverage happened between 1955 and 1958. And negotiations for universal medical coverage that overcame the resistance of several provinces took place between 1965 and 1968. Even then, it wasn’t until the early 1970s that the whole country was covered. While the Medical Care Act was passed in 1966, building Canada’s universal health care system actually took a quarter century. 

Carney has so far only spoken of protecting existing social programs, but in a minority parliament, opportunities for progressive gains will arise. The dental care plan, alongside child care and pharmacare, represents a profound achievement for Canada’s left. Progressives should celebrate this milestone while continuing to push for a more inclusive, robust and publicly administered universal system. Social programs are built step by step, and the current dental care plan is a foundation we can build upon.