Cost of Living Relief Act, No. 2  Madam Speaker, it is all right for people to not always agree on every bill. It is perfectly fine in a democracy. However, it would be unfortunate if, just because some members in the House do not like or do not approve of a particular bill, the majority of the members of this House could not vote in favour of it and move forward towards delivering the types of services my colleague has already mentioned.

Cost of Living Relief Act, No. 2  Madam Speaker, as my colleague suggests, there are considerable benefits for the provinces and territories in having the Government of Canada invest more in dental health. For example, it costs between $12,000 and $25,000 to treat a child who has a widespread infection because dental health problems were not resolved through preventive services before the child ends up in urgent care, which is very costly for the provinces and territories.

Cost of Living Relief Act, No. 2  Madam Speaker, the member is correct that we need to do more. We are doing more, in fact, because we have a $6-billion transfer already in place, which will be negotiated over the next few months, on home care, community care and mental health care. In long-term care, there will be an additional $3 billion.

Cost of Living Relief Act, No. 2  Madam Speaker, we should all commend the member for asking for additional time to study this bill. That is exactly what we are going to do at committee, which is where members of the House can spend more time and energy in the appropriate setting, asking for experts and other stakeholders to come to the committee so they can ask questions and get answers.

Cost of Living Relief Act, No. 2  Madam Speaker, there are two things: first, the process, and second, the outcomes. This is the right process to proceed quickly to deliver better dental care for children. On the outcome, about two million school days are missed by children every year because they need to go for emergency dental care.

Cost of Living Relief Act, No. 2  Madam Speaker, I congratulate my colleague for wanting to take a closer look at the bill. That is exactly what we can do if we vote for the motion today. We can go to committee and take the time needed to listen to experts to see how taking care of our children's dental health means taking care of their health in general.

Cost of Living Relief Act, No. 2  Madam Speaker, we obviously all feel the urgency of moving forward. December 1 is coming. This is when we would like children of low and middle-income families to benefit from better dental care. By the way, about a third of all surgeries under anaesthesia for children between the ages of one and five are because children do not have access to proper dental care before they end up in emergency surgery.

Cost of Living Relief Act, No. 2  Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for pointing to the need of having more people having access to better dental care in Canada, including through complementing the work provinces and territories currently do. It is only about 4% of total dental care expenses that are currently covered by provinces and territories.

Cost of Living Relief Act, No. 2  Mr. Speaker, I am so glad and grateful to be able to answer this question and to agree with the member that this is a very important bill. We should move forward because, as we all know, the next occasion is going to give us more time and a better place to study the bill clause by clause and to look at it carefully to make sure that it serves the needs of Canadians on dental care and rental support.

Cost of Living Relief Act, No. 2  Mr. Speaker, the member is correct. As we do this, we are going to save probably around $2 billion in emergency services in current dental work not having to be given. A lot of Canadians, and low-income Canadians in particular, do not have access to dental care because of affordability, and $2 billion in hospitalization costs could be prevented with better dental care for children and low-income families.

Health  Mr. Speaker, I would first like to thank my colleague, the member for Richmond—Arthabaska, for being sincere and honest about the extremely difficult situation of his constituent. I invite him to contact me directly to ensure that Health Canada does everything possible so that this individual can receive the services she needs for her health and that of all those who care for her and are there to help her.

Government Business No. 20—Proceedings on Bill C-31  Madam Speaker, there are two key statistics: 4% and $2 billion. The approximate share of current expenditures by provinces and territories on dental care is 4%. That is obviously not enough to cover the needs of almost 35% of the population in Canada that does not have access to dental insurance.

Government Business No. 20—Proceedings on Bill C-31  Madam Speaker, the member certainly did a very good job. I am sure, then, that he is familiar with the Canada housing benefit, which has been paid to 100,000 households in Quebec for some time now. This figure represents about one-third of the households covered by the Canada housing benefit across the country.

Government Business No. 20—Proceedings on Bill C-31  Madam Speaker, I am very much in agreement with the importance of investing in the oral health of our children. Oral health is health. We know that about 2% of all hospitalizations are due to urgent oral health needs that could have been prevented and treated through the type of dental care program our government is putting in place at this time, which we are going to build on in the years to come.

Government Business No. 20—Proceedings on Bill C-31  Madam Speaker, this is an excellent question. The timing is quite clear. December 1 is when this program is due to be in place. There is a lot of work to do before then. The Canada Revenue Agency has a significant challenge in implementing this in the most appropriate manner. That is why we need to move to second reading and have the committee look at this bill.