Andrew Scheer avoids answering if Conservatives will cancel dental care program

Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer won't say whether his party will scale back or fully scrap Canada's federal dental care program, despite new data showing nearly 650,000 Canadians have used the plan.

Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer won’t say whether his party will scale back or fully scrap Canada's federal dental care program, despite new data showing nearly 650,000 Canadians have used the plan.

A national dental care program was one of the keystones of the now-ended supply-and-confidence agreement between the Liberals and NDP, inked in 2022. It involves plans to roll out coverage especially for children, seniors, and low-income Canadians, and with remaining eligible Canadians slated to gain access in 2025.

Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh announced last week he’d formally ended the pact with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal party, 10 months before it was set to expire. Absent that agreement, the possibility of a general election before the set date in October 2025 is more likely.

When asked by CTV’s Question Period host Vassy Kapelos whether the Conservatives would roll back dental care if they form government, Scheer wouldn’t say.

“First of all, the NDP never want to talk about government greed and government waste, and when we talk about fixing the budget so that inflation and interest rates can come down, that's what we're focusing on,” he said in an interview airing Sunday.

Scheer also pointed to and characterized specific government spending, including the infrastructure bank and consulting fees, as inflationary, accusing the Liberals of “waste and corruption.”

“But again, it's all about how inflation takes a big bite out of workers’ paychques, and that these programs aren't as advertised, that we're hearing from people all across the country saying that they're not qualifying for these programs, that the dentists aren't adopting in,” Scheer said.