- Member of Parliament
- Member of the Board of Internal Economy
Deputy House leader of the government
- Liberal
- Kingston and the Islands
- Ontario
- Voting Attendance: 67%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $112,228.33
- Government Page
- May/29/24 8:17:36 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that is a great segue to my next question, because I was going to provide some comments on this and then ask for the minister's take on this. It is one thing to be against a dental program, speak against it and vote against it, but it is an entirely different thing to actively root for a program to fail, a program that is going to support so many Canadians. That is unfortunately what we are seeing from Conservatives. They want the dental care program to fail and not provide these very important services. I am wondering if the minister can give his insight as to why the Conservatives are playing political games with this issue.
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- May/29/24 8:15:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, yes, I was going to point that out, and I do not require the response to be limited to the amount of time of the question.
I want to go back to the minister's comments about dental care specifically. During debates in this House as recently as just a couple of weeks ago, I had an exchange with a Conservative member who tried to tell me that only 41 dentists in the entire province of Ontario had signed up for the dental care program. In my riding alone, I know there are 61, so just in my riding the number surpassed the number that the Conservative member gave out. Can the minister inform the House as to how many dentists have signed up for the program throughout the country, and in Ontario? If the minister does not have the exact number, could he give the best estimate as per his last indication?
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- May/6/24 5:59:48 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member talked about a lack of consultation around the dental care program. How much consultation did he do?
Do members know what I did when the program was released? I wanted to make sure dentists in my riding knew about it. I wrote all of them a letter. My team followed up with them. We encouraged them to get involved. I visited a number of dentists. As a result, 41 dentists in my riding, which is more than half of them, are on the dental care program.
How much consultation on the dental care program did the member do in his riding, or did he not care enough about his constituents to bother making sure that they knew they had access to the new service, regardless of which political party brought it?
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Madam Speaker, Conservatives know where I am going with this, so they are heckling me to drown me out because they do not want to hear the question.
An hon member: Oh, oh!
Mr. Mark Gerretsen: Madam Speaker, they are doing it again.
Why is it that members of Parliament should enjoy the luxury of having dental care, while they are not willing to extend the same luxury to some of the most vulnerable people in our communities?
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Madam Speaker, this question has been asked of a number of Conservatives this evening, all of whom have conveniently sidestepped it. I would like to ask this member the same question that has been asked and see if she can provide an answer or if she will sidestep it as all the others have done.
Why are Conservatives completely content with members of Parliament receiving dental care—
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
Mr. Mark Gerretsen: They are heckling me. They are heckling me because they know where I am going with this. I would like to—
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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, 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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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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- Oct/6/22 3:57:55 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I will ask my question, picking up on the last comment the member made. He talked about dental care in particular. I am not sure if he caught it, but during question period the Prime Minister basically asked the Leader of the Opposition why he would not support dental care and help put smiles on children's faces. The very odd response was that they will not be smiling if their parents cannot buy them a bit of pumpkin pie, as if to suggest that parents would rather give their kids pumpkin pie than provide dental care. Is it just me, or are the Conservatives completely out of touch with what the most vulnerable in our society need?
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Madam Speaker, that was one of the things I was trying to touch on in my speech. If we invest in people early on, before their dental issues become extremely severe and require emergency medical attention, we are investing in our health care system. We are relieving some of the stress that will come later down the road for the health care professionals who would otherwise have to deal with it as a result of our not investing or not helping to prevent issues from arising in the future. One thing we have to consider in the cost analysis of this is the savings we will get down the road as a result of investing in people now.
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Madam Speaker, I am curious about the member's thoughts on something the member for St. Albert—Edmonton mentioned when he was speaking a few moments ago. He talked about dental care, and if I heard him correctly he said that nine out of 10 children under the age of 12 already have some form of insurance or a way to have their dental care paid for.
To me, that would be an argument why one would make it universal, because almost everybody already has it. However, the argument was almost being made that if nine out of 10 already have it then it is only one out of 10 who do not. I am curious about the member's comments on that. Does she think, when we get to a certain threshold, that in order to provide that equality we do need to make something like this universal?
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Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, this is a bill about dental care for children under the age of 12. The member has spoken about just about everything under the sun except dental care. I am wondering if he could be encouraged to get back to the topic of discussion.
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- Apr/26/22 11:21:48 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I think that dental care was the natural transition from health care. I believe we are long overdue in terms of bringing forward dental care.
I recognize this member, in particular, is very passionate about dental care. He has brought it up before. What I would say to the House is that I believe this place is about coming together and putting forward ideas on behalf of Canadians, not on behalf of who gets to take the credit for those ideas.
Certainly, as members heard in my speech, I am very passionate about electric vehicles, electrifying our fleet and anything that can relate to getting us to net zero. This member is very passionate about dental care in particular. The member from the Conservatives who asked me a question is very passionate about his private member's bill that is now apparently in this budget.
I think we should all take great satisfaction in knowing that ideas can come forward from all different parties and that we can work together on behalf of Canadians, as opposed to on behalf of trying to get political wins.
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