Human Resources Committee on Feb. 12th, 2026

[Ondina Love]

A lot of our dental hygienists go to school in more urban centres. We have to have an incentive to get them back to those communities. They really do want to go back, but sometimes they have more of an opportunity to make money where they are. That student loan forgiveness certainly will incent them to go back to the communities they're from.

[Jessica Fancy-Landry, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

I don't want to leave you out, Mr. Sangster. I have a question.

You mentioned earlier about mature students or first-generation students going to school. Would you agree that student financial assistance must prioritize programs that lead to recognized credentials and clear employment pathways?

[Michael Sangster]

We're very supportive of student aid funding for accredited programs. I would just point out quickly that our provinces regulate all of our programs and guide them toward employment outcomes that lead to careers and to jobs. They are the local experts on the ground in those communities.

As I stated earlier, many of our programs are not approved until we can prove there's an actual job need.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Ms. Fancy.

Ms. Larouche, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Love and Mr. Sangster, thank you again for being here.

I'm going to ask a question and you can answer it quickly. I'll come back to the problems of access to dental care in the regions, which we talked about earlier. I would like to hear your views on colleges that train dental hygienists.

The person I was talking about earlier suggested improving the supply of dental services in remote regions, in particular by creating mobile clinics, time slots reserved for the regions and partnerships with more dentists. It also suggested that the program be reviewed to take geographic constraints into account, so that public or private insurance could actually be used. Finally, she suggested that better coordination be ensured among insurers, professionals and responsible authorities to prevent patients from being left without service despite full insurance coverage.

What do you think of these citizen-led suggestions to improve the program?

[Ondina Love]

In terms of the mobile, that's definitely one. I know that's really increasing in Quebec as well. There have been a number of ambulances that have been retrofitted. They're doing clinics in all regions of the country.

I did find some of the data. For those who are delaying or avoiding dental care due to affordability concerns, it is more common among younger Canadians, women, lower-income earners and rural residents, as well as those living in Alberta and Atlantic Canada. In Quebec, only 31% said they are delaying dental care due to affordability concerns.

I apologize. I just got this last night, so I haven't digested all of this data yet.

[Michael Sangster]

I would add that we continue to see more movement or more opportunity to move toward online learning that supports people in rural communities to train where they are. Then it's trying to find ways to get them that practical training in their own communities. We support that. We've seen some very creative programs across the country with different ways to make sure they can do their online learning and their practical learning in their own communities, where they're going to work.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

What role could the federal government play to support Quebec and the provinces in terms of skills recognition and recruiting more people? That's another barrier for dental hygienists coming in from outside the province.

Is that what you're seeing, Mr. Sangster?

[Michael Sangster]

One thing we could look towards would be improving some of the immigration programs, which target students to come into colleges, universities and career colleges for very specific programs where there's a job need. We could see much improvement in that area.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Ms. Larouche.

We go to Mr. Genuis for five minutes.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Thank you, Chair.

I'm trying to make sense of the questions from the government. Ms. Fancy said something that I really agree with. She said that student grant funding should be connected with an assessment of clear employment outcomes. For what it's worth, that's our policy. We put forward, as part of our youth jobs plan, that students should receive relatively more generous grants when pursuing studies linked to in-demand fields, and that those determinations should be made entirely objectively.

The Liberal parliamentary secretary, Ms. Church, criticized that policy in the House. The budget measures do precisely the opposite of what Ms. Fancy is talking about. They provide the full grant to any student in a university, and they provide for the elimination of grants for students studying at private, for-profit institutions. The distinction is not made based on employment outcomes associated with the program; it is made purely on the basis of the institution.

Members of the government are now trying to heckle me, but they haven't, at any point, raised this issue with the witnesses.

Mr. Sangster, we haven't had any government members address your testimony around the decision in the budget to eliminate grants for students at private institutions. I'm a bit surprised by that, in a sense. They put it in the budget, so they must have had a reason for doing it, yet they're not prepared to defend it today.

Are you having conversations with the government about this policy and its effect on your sector? What are you hearing back, from ministers or other members of the government, about why they're doing this and how they're planning on proceeding?

[Michael Sangster]

Yes, we are having some discussions. I think it's fair to say that we've expressed to them our disappointment in the policy, and I think they're starting to think about what some of the exemptions could be. That's one of the challenges we're faced with. They do mention exemptions in the budget, but it's unclear, at this point, what those are going to be. There are some opportunities to work with the government to figure out what the exemptions could be for different programs that are in need.

I'd go back to one of the things that we point out to them. The training we're talking about is in many of the government's priorities. The health care plan, the dental plan, the pharma care plan, the Build Canada Homes plan—those are the kinds of roles that we're training for in this country.

I've not touched on cybersecurity either. It's one of those training programs that many of our colleges are offering, to make sure that we protect ourselves against cyber-threats, and that corporations—small, medium and large businesses—are able to have employees on board who can protect those companies. These are all the kinds of things that we've been talking to government about and writing about, as Mr. Reynolds pointed out, in the newspaper.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

When I first raised this with Minister Hajdu at committee—and I've raised this issue with her on a number of occasions—she said something like what you're hearing from them, that there's the possibility of exemptions to this policy. I don't understand why they would blanket cut off students at private, for-profit institutions and then propose to only partially fill in that hole through piece-by-piece exemptions that every program has to lobby and apply for.

Universities don't have to go through that process. Every student at a university, regardless of the program they're studying and how job-relevant it is or isn't, will have access to these grants. You're in the position of needing to make the case for these exemptions.

Meanwhile, I asked her whether there were any other exemptions planned or contemplated. At the time, she had no response to that.

Very briefly, what position does it put you in? At certain kinds of institutions, these grants are available, and, at others, you have to make the case, painstakingly, every time, for why there should be an exemption.

[Michael Sangster]

I don't think it's a winning situation for me to put myself in the seat of the government and what it's thinking in this, but I will say this: We try to think what the students are thinking. What are the decisions they're taking? Why are they choosing our institutions in order to get retrained and get back to work? Why are employers working with us in order to get those skilled workers into their employment? Yes, it's a difficult situation for our members, and the uncertainty is a big challenge.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Ms. Love, you talked about student loan forgiveness, but you have a “giving with one hand and taking away with the other” kind of situation, because you have student loan forgiveness and the elimination of student grants.

What kind of a message does it send for the government to say, on the one hand, that you can get loan forgiveness, but on the other hand, that the majority of your students' grants will be eliminated?

[Ondina Love]

Yes, it's giving with one hand and taking away with the other, but the student loan forgiveness is different. It's for committing to work in rural or remote communities, whereas the grants are for education to work anywhere in Canada.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

The grants are for everyone; the student loan forgiveness would be for some and not others, so it's for some of those students.

[Ondina Love]

It goes with the federal student loans.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Okay. Thanks.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Mr. Genuis.

To conclude this round of questions, I'll turn the floor over to Mr. Joseph for five minutes.

[Natilien Joseph, Liberal, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to start by thanking the witnesses for joining us and for making a significant contribution to our work on Bill C‑15 and on the 2025 budget measures, despite the obstruction from the opposition parties, as we have seen.

This morning's discussions cover fundamental issues such as access to health care, skills development, youth employment and the vitality of our rural and remote communities.

Even though we're in committee, I must say that I'm still troubled by the events in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia. I would like to take this opportunity to send a lot of love to the people of British Columbia, and especially to my honourable colleague, Bob Zimmer.

Behind this discussion lies the same priority. We want to ensure that public investment actually meets the needs of the people of Quebec and Canada, while preparing the workforce of the future.

I would now like to expand on some points with you, Ms. Love. You said that the Canadian dental care plan was improving access to care. Have you seen any concrete results on the ground, particularly in rural or low‑income communities?

[Ondina Love]

As I said, I do have some relative data regarding the status of the CDCP.

The application process has been very easy, and applications to the CDCP are the highest among Canadians aged 60 plus and those with household incomes under $50,000.

If you're looking at the Quebec region, it's 45% who have applied for themselves or for a dependent.

On the application process, 95% say it's very easy to apply for the program, and 66% of Canadians with an approved application have already attended a dental appointment. That's a significant number of people who have received the funding, and nearly 73% of CDCP users say the program has helped them access dental services they previously could not access. I think that's a significant number as well.

More than eight in 10 CDCP users—84%—say their coverage fully or mostly meets their dental care needs.

[Natilien Joseph, Liberal, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Okay.

My colleague said that 1.7 million people in Quebec are now covered by this plan.

I have another question for you, Ms. Love. We'll be talking about the inclusion of dental hygienists in the student loan forgiveness program. Will this make a real difference to recruitment capacity in underserved areas?

[Ondina Love]

I just want to make sure I—

[Natilien Joseph, Liberal, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Would you like me to start again?