Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon, members of the committee. I am speaking to you from Toronto on the traditional territory of the Huron-Wendat, the Haudenosaunee and the Anishinabe nations, and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. I am pleased to be joined by Dr.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll keep it short. I would say that, in terms of dentistry, since most of the treatment we do is very much on time, it would not be a cause for somebody.... It would be very unusual unless somebody had a cranial facial disorder, for instance a child, that needed a lot of surgic

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. I would have to say that if you build it, they will come. I'm thinking of dental specialists, especially in things like oral and maxillo-facial surgical specialties, who require highly technical operating suites. If we were to see surgical centres in communities that

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you very much. I'll be brief, because I'll defer to Dr. Poon as well, who's our technical adviser. Definitely as a provider it can be extremely frustrating, because you have a patient in the chair, they need the treatment, but you have to get pre-authorization or predeterm

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning to all the members of the committee. I am a dentist here in Toronto, and I am president of the Canadian Dental Association. My name is Lynn Tomkins. I am joined today by my colleague, our interim executive director at the Canadian Dental Asso

Finance committee  Yes. I have four sentences left. I should have talked faster. I apologize to the committee. Recently, the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister said they looked forward to intergovernmental collaboration on dental care, as had recently taken place with child care. We hav

Finance committee  Certainly we strongly recommend that the federal government implement this program through funding the existing provincial and territorial programs, which by and large operate well. They do reach the underserved populations, but for them it's a matter of funding. The federal cont

Finance committee  May I add a comment?

Finance committee  I think the whole aspect of collaboration is extremely important, because I think we in dentistry view this as a very exciting opportunity. You have children in pain, disabled people who cannot smile and seniors who can't eat, so I think that if we keep in mind the overall goal o

Finance committee  I think a very good example would be a person who is unable to access dental care for an immediate problem, such as a toothache. They have an infected tooth that either needs to have a root canal treatment or it needs to be taken out. If they're not able to get to a dentist and r

Finance committee  Certainly. There are many, as you've alluded to. Treatment of children for early childhood cavities—or caries, as we call them—can take up a lot of time in operating rooms in hospitals. That's one thing. Very small children, if you have an age.... I see one on our call here,

Finance committee  Certainly it is our perspective that in co-operation and collaboration with the provinces, the federal money that has been set aside for dental care was distributed to the provinces to sustain and stabilize the existing programs. Across the country, all of the programs are in nee

Finance committee  We already have a good system in Canada. Two-thirds of Canadians are covered by some sort of plan, whether it's through an employer-sponsored plan or through some government plan, and 75% of Canadians report that they feel they have good access to care. Again, it goes back to o

Finance committee  That's a great question, and it's something we have been talking to some of your colleagues about, because across the country right now there is a shortage of dental assistants. Even before COVID, there was a shortage, and since COVID, that shortage has been exacerbated, because

Finance committee  Thank you.