Ottawa Keeping Overhead Cost of Dental Care Program ‘Confidential’: Parliamentary Budget Office

A dentist at the Riley Hospital for Children Department of Pediatric Dentistry, checks the teeth of a patient on Jan. 22, 2016. (The Canadian Press/Michael Conroy)

The federal government has invoked confidentiality which forbids the release of the overhead cost of its “Canada Dental Benefit” program, says a report by the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO).

“The Government has shared its own estimates of administration costs with us,” said the PBO report, submitted to the Commons government operations committee (OGGO), in response to a request for the amount during a Dec. 1 hearing, as first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.

“However, they have designated these figures to be confidential and therefore not to be released. The Committee may wish to reach out to Health Canada directly to obtain their estimates.”

Sponsored by Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos last September, Bill C-31, “An Act respecting cost of living relief measures related to dental care and rental housing,” introduced the dental care program which pays a $650 tax-free grant to parents for each child under 12, each year for two years, if their household income is under $70,000 yearly.

Families with income from $70,000 to $90,000 would qualify for reduced grants, according to the bill which received royal assent on Nov. 17.

“Based on similar federal programs, we have estimated that a reasonable overhead cost for the national program is 5 percent,” the PBO report said.

The Department of Finance estimated 500,000 children would qualify for the dental grant, at a yearly cost to taxpayers of $938 million.

Challenges

In the OGGO hearing on Dec. 1, Conservative MP Kelly McCauley, also the committee’s chair, asked parliamentary budget officer Yves Giroux who appeared as witness, to provide the administrative costing of the dental program, both as a lump sum and also as a percentage of the overall cost, among other requests.

“I’ve heard rumours floating around that it’s quite excessive, so I’m quite curious to see how much we’re actually spending on administration rather than actual delivering to folks,” McCauley said.

“I'd have to get back to you on that so I do not give you inaccurate numbers,” Giroux replied.

A briefing note by the Department of Health on Dec. 14 said the application process of the dental program will likely disqualify low income Canadians the government originally intended to reach.

To qualify, applicants must be tax filers who submitted a return in the previous year to show their income was under $90,000.

“This means individuals who do not file taxes or whose household members don’t will not be eligible for the benefit,” said the note, titled “Challenges Accessing The Interim Canada Dental Benefit For Potential Recipients Who Do Not File Taxes,” obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter.

“It is estimated approximately 10 to 12 percent of Canadians do not file a tax return annually,” the note said, adding that the rate was as high as 20 percent of the poorest wage earners.

Marnie Cathcart contributed to this report.