The Canadian Dental Care Plan

The Canadian Dental Care Plan (CDCP) is a federally delivered public plan that will help ease financial barriers to accessing oral health care for up to nine million uninsured Canadian residents with an adjusted family net income of less than $90,000, with no co-payments* for those with family net income under $70,000.

*A co-payment is the percentage of the CDCP fees that is not covered by the plan and that people covered under the CDCP will have to pay directly to the oral health provider.

In December 2022, the Government of Canada launched the interim Canada Dental Benefit (CDB) as the first step towards a long-term Canada-wide dental care plan. The CDB provides a direct payment up to $650 per eligible child, sent directly to parents to help pay the cost of oral health care for that child.

The CDB is a temporary benefit that provides a direct, tax-free payment to help eligible families pay for oral health care services for their children under the age of 12. To date, more than 405,000 Canadian children have benefited from the CDB. The CDB will remain in place until June 30, 2024. Once the interim CDB ends, those children will be eligible to transition to the CDCP assuming they meet the eligibility criteria.

The CDCP is a federally delivered public plan that will help ease financial barriers to accessing oral health care for up to nine million uninsured Canadian residents with an adjusted family net income of less than $90,000. To limit out of pocket costs for enrolled Canadians, oral health providers are expected to bill the CDCP directly for reimbursement, so the patient doesn’t have to.

Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) ran an open, multi-stage, competitive procurement process to select a contracted service provider. As a result, a contract was awarded to Sun Life to act as the service provider for the CDCP.

PSPC engaged the services of a third-party firm to act as an independent Fairness Monitor. The Fairness Monitor’s duties included, but were not limited to, observing the procurement process from start to finish; providing feedback to the Government of Canada on any potential fairness issues; and attesting to the fairness, openness, and transparency of the entire procurement process.

Oral health professionals play a vital role in delivering oral health care, and this plan will allow more Canadians to receive their care. Resources and tools on how to assist and inform their patients about the CDCP will be provided to the oral health professional community.

The CDCP will be administered by Health Canada. Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), through Service Canada, will act as a service delivery partner for processing applications for the CDCP, drawing on applicant provided information as well as taxpayer information provided by the Canada Revenue Agency (e.g., to assess family income). Service Canada will provide qualified applicant information to Sun Life, the contracted service provider, to enrol them in the CDCP and process claims.

In early 2024, oral health providers, who are licensed and in good standing with the regulatory body of the province/territory in which they practice, will be able to confirm that they want to be a participating CDCP provider directly with Sun Life. Participation in the CDCP will be on a voluntary basis.

Private businesses should not be cancelling their dental plans. The Government of Canada will continue to work with industry partners and provincial and territorial governments to put in place mitigation solutions that avoid displacement of existing dental plans.

The CDCP is intended to help those who currently have no access to dental insurance, not to replace current employer benefits packages they offer employees as part of their competitive compensation packages. In addition, based on the income threshold and associated co-payment structure under the CDCP, most employees will be better off under their current employer-sponsored plans.

We anticipate that in most cases employer-sponsored insurance will be maintained by private businesses as a means of recruitment and retention of their employees (i.e., competitive compensation package).