As the Canadian Dental Care Plan opens the door for millions of patients to receive much-needed oral health care, provincial and federal changes to student aid threaten to slam it shut.
Expanding access to oral health care through the CDCP is a good thing. But it only works if there are enough trained professionals to deliver it.
Canada faces a severe shortage of oral health care staff, such as dental assistants. We desperately need to train more of these vital workers, without whom dental practices simply can’t function. And the influx of patients the CDCP has brought — 2.5 million in Ontario alone — only makes the matter more urgent.
Even before the CDCP expansion, workforce modelling suggested Ontario would need roughly 3,400 additional dental assistants to meet patient demand. With the CDCP now accessible to all eligible Canadians, another 1,000 dental assistants are needed to maintain access to care.
But just when we need these workers the most, governments are making it harder for students to get the training they need to care for Canadians.
Recent changes to Ontario’s student financial assistance system mean that students attending regulated career colleges are no longer eligible for OSAP grants and will now rely solely on loans.
Federally, further changes are scheduled to take effect on August 1. Under the new rules, Canada Student Grants will be limited to students attending public or non-profit institutions, for programs over one year, excluding all those studying to become oral health care workers at career colleges. In Ontario, two-thirds of dental assistants receive their training at career colleges. They would all lose access to this vital financial resource.
For many students, these grants are not optional support. It’s the difference between enrolling in training and walking away from it. Dental assisting students are often adult learners, career changers, parents, and working Canadians trying to upgrade their skills while managing rising living costs. Removing grants shifts financial risk onto those least able to afford it.
The impact will be immediate: there will be fewer dental assistants getting the training they need. Public colleges do not have the capacity to absorb a large influx of displaced students if enrolment at career colleges drops.
At the same time, financial pressures across the post-secondary sector have already led to the suspension of several community college dental assisting programs in Ontario, further shrinking the training pipeline.
The Canadian Dental Association’s 2025 report on dental assisting shortages makes clear that workforce constraints are emerging across multiple points in the system — from education capacity and certification pathways to recruitment and retention challenges.
Governments, educators, and employers all play a role in strengthening the workforce. Policies that make it harder for students to train for in-demand health careers move us in the wrong direction.
Ontario and Canada have taken an important step by expanding access to dental care. Now we must ensure the workforce exists to deliver it. Protecting access to student financial aid for dental assisting and dental hygiene training is not simply an education policy issue. It is a health care access issue.
If we want the Canadian Dental Care Plan to succeed and ensure Ontarians continue to have access to timely, high-quality oral health care, we must strengthen, not weaken, the pathway into the professions that make that care possible.
David A. Brown, President, Ontario Dental Association
Karim Sahil, President, Association of Dental Technologists of Ontario
Tara Fitzpatrick, CEO, Ontario Dental Assistants Association & Cheryl Russell-Julien, President, Ontario Dental Assistants Association
Michael Sangster, CEO, National Association of Career Colleges
Kate Bartz, Executive Director, Career Colleges Ontario
The views expressed are those of the author(s). National Newswatch Inc. publishes a range of perspectives and does not necessarily endorse the opinions presented.