ST. JOHN'S, N.L. —

A private member’s motion tabled in the House of Commons by St. John’s East MP Jack Harris calls for a federal dental care plan for uninsured Canadian families making less than $90,000 a year.

“This would be an interim measure toward the inclusion of full dental care in Canada’s health care system,” Harris said.

Harris and federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh spoke to the media about the motion via Zoom before taking questions.

“We started the idea of universal medical care and in that vision it included dental care, so we are proud to be able to present the vision of concluding that universal health care coverage from head to toe,” Singh said.

Harris said 35 per cent of Canadians have no dental care plan and more than one in five Canadians say the cost prohibits them from receiving dental care.

“That’s especially true of women — 25 per cent have indicated that they have not gone to access dental care because of cost and, in fact, a higher percentage of young people between 18 and 35 have also indicated that they have not accessed dental care,” he said. “This is indicative of who doesn’t have access … and who needs it.”

These numbers come from Statistics Canada and the Canadian Community Health Survey from 2018, Singh said.

In a news release, St. John’s Centre NDP incumbent Jim Dinn said every political party in Newfoundland and Labrador should be “pressuring their federal counterparts to support this bill.”

“I can’t begin to tell you how many people in St. John’s Centre in the past two years have told me about the problems they have because they cannot afford dental care,” Dinn stated.