Health committee  We've just completed a bachelor of competencies for degree-entry practice for dental hygiene across Canada. That's something that we feel very strongly about with changes in technology, changing with what dental hygienists do. I'm glad you mentioned dental therapy because that's the primary reason that we are now working with the Nunavut program, because there are no dental therapists who work in Nunavut and there were almost no dental hygienists working up there.

Health committee  We have a little bit of a different perspective on this. Certainly it's not a human health resources numbers issue with dental hygiene. As I said, there are 26,000 dental hygienists in Canada, so there are a lot of dental hygienists who wish to practise in all different areas.

Health committee  Thank you. I'll ask my colleague Victoria to answer that.

Health committee  Thank you very much. I am Ann Wright, director of dental hygiene practice at the Canadian Dental Hygienists Association. With me is Victoria Leck, dental hygienist and manager of professional development. CDHA is the collective national voice of more than 26,000 dental hygienists in Canada, representing over 17,000 individual members.