Canadian dental care has helped many Canadians, but the government needs to do a better job communicating about the program, Ottawa’s auditor general has found.
On Thursday, the federal auditor general, Karen Hogan, released a report on Health Canada’s management of the program. It is the first report of its kind since the program launched in 2023.
Ottawa’s aim with the Canadian Dental Care Plan is to make dental care more affordable for Canadians. As of March, nearly seven million Canadians were enrolled in the program and almost two-thirds had used it.
The program has significantly lowered dental care costs for these Canadians.
According to the report, individuals who use the program spent an average of $264 of their own money on dental costs in 2025. This is less than half what the average Canadian household spent on dental care that year, the report says, citing Statistics Canada data.
At a press conference Thursday, Hogan said the program is being “efficiently” managed, but noted “opportunities to build on these strong early results.”
The program still has communication problems and has cost more than it was originally budgeted to cost, the report says.
Program confusion
Health Canada estimates that 10.5 million Canadians are eligible for the dental care program this year. Individuals must apply for the program every year.
But many people do not understand how the program works.
Only eligible individuals with annual household net incomes below $70,000 have all the costs of eligible dental procedures covered.
Those with household net incomes between $70,000 and $90,000 pay either 40 per cent or 60 per cent of costs for eligible dental procedures.
Dental care providers set their own fees, which may exceed the amount the program reimburses them.
In 2025, about 560,000 Canadians — or 16 per cent of program recipients — had all their dental care costs covered by the program.
Yet the government has not studied the amount that individuals or dental care providers in the program pay themselves, the report says.
“We found that Health Canada had not conducted any analysis of out‑of‑pocket expenses for plan members or billing by oral health providers above the plan’s established fees,” the report says.
“Without [this analysis] … the department had a limited understanding of how well the plan was making the cost of dental care more affordable and could not make informed adjustments to its fees and services.”
According to the auditor general’s report, many people think the program covers all their dental costs.
Letters individuals received confirming their spot in the program often said on the front that 100 per cent of their costs would be covered. The letters also contained information about the amounts they may have to pay, but that information was less prominently displayed, the auditor general’s report says.
As a result, many dental care providers had to explain to clients how the program works.
The auditor general surveyed more than 19,000 dental care providers about the program. Survey respondents said that, on average, they spent an hour each day explaining the dental care program to clients.
Many of these care providers said information about the program was difficult to find and that they were not always given clear reasons for why coverage for some procedures was denied.
The auditor general recommends that Health Canada review and improve its communication about decisions so that health care providers better understand why claims were accepted or denied.
The report also notes that Health Canada needs to reach out to the approximately 3.5 million eligible people who are not yet using the program.
‘Ebb and flow’
The dental care program was budgeted to cost $13 billion over five years, beginning in the 2023-2024 fiscal year and $4.4 billion each year thereafter.
But the program has cost more than originally budgeted, the auditor general’s report says.
In 2024-2025 and 2025-2026, the amount paid to health-care providers was $1.1 billion over budget, the report says. Money committed in other years for dental care was moved to these years to cover the surplus.
“Moving funding between fiscal years has covered current expenses but is only a temporary solution,” the report says.
In response to being over budget, Health Canada had an actuary forecast costs for the program in future years.
At the end of the audit, the program was projected to have a shortfall of $2.4 billion between the 2026-2027 and 2031-2032 fiscal years. However, by August that projected shortfall had dropped to $1.2 billion.
“I think that is showing that there was a spike at the beginning and that it might be balancing to level off,” Hogan told reporters Thursday.
“But I think this is going to ebb and flow.”
