EDMONTON – Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has written an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau this week announcing Alberta’s intention to opt out of the new federally-funded dental plan because, as Smith states in the letter, “I’d rather personally pull the teeth out of the mouth of every low income Albertan than let [Trudeau] pay for them to see a dentist.”
“As the political leader of Alberta, it is both my responsibility and my pleasure to decide if and when Albertans get to see a dentist,” Smith states in her letter. “If and when I decide they can see a dentist, I will then decide how many teeth they deserve to keep.”
“Albertans are tired of the federal government stomping on the freedom of Albertans, in this case the freedom of one Albertan (me) to make choices that affect the freedom of every other Albertan to eat solid food,” the letter continues.
The new dental plan is only the latest program caught in the tug of war between Alberta and the federal government over government healthcare spending, which Smith’s UCP would like to see massively lowered through a combination of private insurance, private health spending accounts, and a heavy reliance on the crowdfunding of cancer treatments.
Alberta’s dentists have criticized Smith’s letter, with the Alberta Association of Dentists putting out a statement saying “we think the amount of teeth every Albertan has should be decided between them and their dentist, not by a woman who once claimed smoking can reduce the risk of disease and who recently championed the use of Ivermectin, a dewormer, to treat COVID which – and this was known at the time – is not caused by worms.”
However, some Albertans have cheered on Smith’s decision to opt out of the federal funding, primarily those who own badly managed private businesses that use their employees’ fear of losing their dental insurance as a powerful incentive to keep them from quitting their terrible jobs.
At press time, Danielle Smith’s own dentist was airing his displeasure at her position on this issue but has decided to continue to treat her because her own government dental coverage is so generous he can’t afford to drop her as a patient.
