Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre rises during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Dec. 13.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
All smiles?
Re “Ottawa’s new dental plan smiles on innovation” (Editorial, Dec. 16): With an annual net family income below $70,000, my wife and I should qualify for maximum benefits under the proposed Canadian Dental Care Plan.
However as a retired federal public servant, we are covered by the Treasury Board’s Pensioners’ Dental Service Plan. We’ll be stuck paying our annual premium of $442.20 for a dental plan with significantly inferior benefits and substantial co-payments as high as 50 per cent.
“Well, just quit your plan,” you say? No: We would still have “access” to a dental insurance plan, so we would not be covered under the CDCP no matter what we do.
Some perk, eh?
Donald Rollins Vernon, B.C.
In reading accounts and critiques of the government’s new dental plan for the uninsured, I have not seen any concern expressed about our current supply of dentists in Canada.
We have a shortage of doctors under medicare, which has been growing over the years to its current crisis level. When millions of new patients are seeking a dentist for the first time, will there be enough to go around?
What will be the impact on those who already have a dentist? Will we see waiting times to get a procedure for an emergency situation? What will be the pressures on the costs of dental care?
We know what shortages in other sectors result in, when too many are chasing too few resources.
Fraser Laschinger Prescott, Ont.
As someone who has been involved in dental and drug plans for many decades, I feel the approach that the federal government is using for its universal dental plan should be applauded.
Any universal drug plan should follow a similar blueprint. I can only hope that the Liberals and NDP reach the same conclusion.
Such a drug plan would focus on lower-income individuals without private drug coverage to ensure that funds are targeted to those with the greatest need. That would lower its overall cost, but not reduce its effectiveness.
Alan Cooke Actuary (retired) Vancouver
Despite the concept of smiles in the headline, the editorial left me in complete dismay.
First it explains that the dental plan is income-targeted. Later it discusses the upcoming pharmacare program, which is described as income-tested.
My thoughts are that the headline would be more appropriate if it were rewritten to be: “The death of universal programs.”
Mark Slotwinski Sarnia, Ont.
Kudos to the federal government for mailing us an easy-to-understand letter outlining how to go about applying for the new dental plan.
The next step: a phone call answered by a person speaking slowly and clearly, allowing me to answer her questions with ease. A call answered after the first ring, I might add.
All this a blessing to my 89-year-old mind and ears.
Johanna Peetoom Calgary
Bring it back
Re “Political hindsight” (Letters, Dec. 17): A letter-writer asks why Justin Trudeau didn’t reimpose Stephen Harper’s GST cuts. The answer seems pretty simple: The Conservatives would immediately condemn it and promise to cut any increase should they have the chance; the press would immediately join the opposition in dumping on the Trudeau government.
Why does Pierre Poilievre not step forward in the best interests of Canadians and endorse raising the GST back to 7 per cent? The economy has already proven that it can handle this level of consumption tax.
This would allow Mr. Trudeau to increase federal revenues by some $20-billion. This would take a major bite out of the deficit, reducing the time required to turn it back into a surplus.
Then we could resurrect the Chrétien-Martin legacy of paying our debt down.
Doug James Calgary
Fair share
Re “Officials to work on terms for study into Alberta CPP withdrawal” (Dec. 16): To determine how much of the Canada Pension Plan that Alberta is entitled to is, according to the Chief Actuary, a “really complicated job.”
It wouldn’t surprise anyone, then, if this job was farmed out to a big consulting firm. However, I think I can save taxpayers a lot of money.
The calculation seems logical and straightforward, and can be done on the back of an envelope. The CPP is for access by roughly 31.5 million Canadians: the population of Canada minus Quebec, which has its own fund.
Of that 31.5 million, the population of Alberta is about 4.7 million. So the proportion of the CPP for access by Albertans is just under 15 per cent. Simple.
Robert Harrison Burlington, Ont.
Find shelter
Re “From Vancouver to Toronto, tent city dwellers carry on despite the constant threat of being swept aside” (Opinion, Dec. 16): Thirty-two years ago, doctor Sam Tsemberis developed Pathways to Housing, a Housing First program in New York, to provide homeless people with rapid access to housing and individualized support services.
In 2008, the Mental Health Commission of Canada launched At Home/Chez Soi, the largest randomized control study of Housing First in the world. The study proved that Housing First ends homelessness and is extremely cost effective. For every $10 spent, there was a savings of $9.60 for high-need individuals.
Finland has implemented Housing First and has the distinction of being the only country in the world to end homelessness. Canada should commit to implementing Housing First now.
Steve Lurie CM; former chair, service systems advisory committee, Mental Health Commission of Canada Toronto
In a name
Re “Toronto changes course on name change for Dundas Street” (Dec. 16): In assessing the legacy of Henry Dundas, I believe it is important to distinguish between the young lawyer Dundas and the middle-aged politician Dundas.
As a lawyer in his 30s, he argued successfully before the highest court in Scotland for the freedom of Africa-born Joseph Knight in the case of Knight v. Wedderburn in the 1770s. That case also abolished slavery in Scotland. As such, he probably did more to limit slavery than any living Canadian.
It was only as a middle-aged politician that he delayed the abolition of the British slave trade. Given his contribution to the anti-slavery movement as a young man, I have always felt that Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto should be renamed “Young Dundas Square.”
Not everyone is able to retain the idealism of their 20s and 30s when they reach middle age. We should not let his later role diminish his concrete achievements as a young lawyer.
Bruce Couchman Ottawa
What gives with Toronto’s renaming of Yonge-Dundas Square to Sankofa Square?
“Sankofa” is a fine Ghanaian word. However, isn’t the city, and indeed the province and country, committed to reconciliation?
If we are renaming something in Toronto, shouldn’t we at least have chosen an Indigenous name as part of our ongoing commitment to truth and reconciliation with the Indigenous peoples of this land?
Joe Wong Toronto
How long?
Re “CPR opens Connaught Tunnel under Rogers Pass” (Moment in Time, Dec. 16): What a tremendous engineering achievement: eight kilometres through solid rock, far removed from any city, completed one month ahead of schedule and they got the track gauge right the whole way though.
One wonders if we could somehow get their advice for Toronto’s Eglinton Crosstown LRT.
Michael Vollmer Burlington, Ont.
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