Information & Ethics committee  —the Quebec dental association and the Canadian Dental Association. So yes, there are dentists who belong to both organizations in the province.

Information & Ethics committee  In dentistry we have the Canadian Dental Association that speaks for the over 18,000 dentists throughout the country. In the province of Quebec, there is a Quebec dental association that deals with Quebec-specific issues. It relates to the government in Quebec. And there's also the regulatory body, the order, in Quebec that regulates the dental profession within the province.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, there are dentists who belong to both—

Information & Ethics committee  In the context of dentistry, most of the challenges were in the time period of the fall of 2003, before the legislation came fully into effect in the health care sector, when there were multiple interpretations and a great amount of confusion in the system. As was mentioned, our members were being inundated with seminars on how to prepare for the implementation of the legislation.

Finance committee  I wouldn't quite put it in that wording. One of our big challenges is the self-employed and parental leave. We are recommending that there be a mechanism put in place to help out the self-employed and self-employed dentists fund a parental leave, and we're looking at using the RRSP situation for that, yes.

Finance committee  Our projections show no shortage. We may hit some challenges down the road, but right now, overall, there's not a problem. We have some regional issues, but overall the numbers are reasonable.

Finance committee  Our issue with training has to do with funding of dental schools. We mentioned that in the brief. We have some challenges around high tuition and the amount of funds going into our schools. Our deans in the ten dental schools are facing a number of challenges. We're advocating for more money to go into the system.

Finance committee  We're not here to advocate for universal coverage for seniors. We support optimal oral health for all Canadians, to be provided through a delivery system that's open and flexible. I talked about the current system being positive between insurance, patients, government, and dentists themselves.

Finance committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and committee members. Thank you for inviting the Canadian Dental Association to address your committee today. This has become a bit of a fall tradition for us, as the CDA has participated in consultations for the past several years. We always appreciate an opportunity to share our thoughts on financial priorities for dentists.