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Member of the Board of Internal Economy Deputy House leader of the government

Mark Gerretsen

  • 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
Context: House Hansard - 320 - May/29/24
Mr. Mark Gerretsen (Kingston and the Islands, Lib.)
  • 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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Context: House Hansard - 312 - May/9/24
Mr. Mark Gerretsen
  • May/9/24 10:20:29 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, if the Leader of the Opposition actually feels that way, what he needs to do is stand up, turn and face the 80 Conservatives who have been endorsed by anti-choice organizations throughout this country. In terms of the member's question about dentists, I know that over 70% of the dentists in my riding have signed up. There are thousands of dentists that have signed up for the program in Ontario. There are thousands of dentists in British Columbia and Quebec, so— Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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Context: House Hansard - 309 - May/6/24
Mr. Mark Gerretsen (Kingston and the Islands, Lib.)
  • May/6/24 6:15:35 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, one of the things I find most perplexing about this entire debate is that not only are Conservatives against this bill, but it is as though they are actively rooting for its policy failure. It is like they are downplaying how many dentists have signed up. They are downplaying the impact this would have on Canadians. They keep saying that only one out of every five Canadians wants this, as though it is not a good thing to do something when one out of five Canadians wants it. I wonder if the member can make sense of all this, the fact that Conservatives are not just against the bill but are actively rooting for the failure of this program.
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Context: House Hansard - 309 - May/6/24
Mr. Mark Gerretsen
  • May/6/24 6:05:37 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I believe, if you seek it, you will find unanimous consent to table this document showing the total number of dentists in Toronto alone, which is well over 500, who are under the current program, despite what the member for Souris—Moose Mountain said.
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Context: House Hansard - 309 - May/6/24
Mr. Mark Gerretsen (Kingston and the Islands, Lib.)
  • 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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