NDP Criticizes New Dental Program

NDP Criticizes New Dental Program

Friday, September 23, 2011 at 14:11

Provincial NDP member Darcy Furber is calling a new provincial dental program “ironic.”

Furber says today’s announcement of $1.4 million to the Saskatchewan Surgical Initiative could have been used to keep the National School of Dental Therapy open.

He says the school was doing the same types of prevention and dental assessment as the Enhanced Preventative Dental Services Initiative.

Health Minister Don McMorris says the new program is provincially run in conjunction with Health Canada to directly affect the dental health of children.

McMorris says 1,800 children in the province under the age of five require oral surgery under anesthetic.

The National School of Dental Therapy, run in Prince Albert by the First Nations University of Canada, closed in March of this year after federal funding through Health Canada was not renewed.