Canada’s auditor general raised concerns with the Canadian Dental Care Plan exceeding its projected budget by $1 billion in its first two years, and with the Public Health Agency of Canada losing $331 million in medical supplies due to expiry and damage.
Auditor General Karen Hogan said on Oct. 29 that the nine reports tabled by her office showed “progress in some areas, but they also revealed persistent problems in others.” She said the audits found that organizations were slow to address known issues, which contributed to delays, higher costs, and programs that failed to deliver results.
Hogan’s report on the national Dental Care Plan said that through the program, “millions of Canadians are already benefiting from more affordable dental care,” noting that around 6.9 million people enrolled in it as of March 2026 and 61 percent using their benefits. However, the report said payments for dental benefits in the first two years have exceeded Health Canada’s budget by around $1.1 billion.
Health Canada managed the higher costs by moving funding from later years forward, but the report said this is a temporary solution. It noted that according to forecasts from the Office of the Chief Actuary, payments from the 2026 to 2031 fiscal years are likely to exceed the currently available funding.
The report said Health Canada also did not have continuous oversight of the dental plan, as it did not check whether claims and preauthorization decisions were being accurately made for a six-month period during 2025.
“As the Plan continues to evolve, Health Canada has opportunities to build on this progress by strengthening oversight, improving access for populations with lower enrolment or use, and better measuring the Plan’s impact on oral health,” the report said.
The auditor general recommended that Health Canada conduct regular quality assurance work to ensure the claims paid under the Canadian Dental Care Plan are accurate. It should also assess populations with low enrollment rates and attempt to remove barriers to access.
Several federal ministers, including Health Minister Marjorie Michel, said in a statement that the plan has made dental care more affordable for its members, and more than 4.9 million Canadians have received care.
Public Health Emergency Stockpile
The auditor general found that the Public Health Agency of Canada “did not effectively manage” the National Emergency Strategic Stockpile, which is meant to supply pharmaceuticals and personal protective equipment (PPE) to support responses to public health emergencies.
The agency’s procurement of PPE was audited in 2021, which led to the agency developing a 14-point stockpile management plan to address “long-standing weaknesses.” The auditor general said just five of the points had been implemented, while the rest were still in progress.
The agency has had “gaps in its understanding of the types and quantities of medical supplies it needed to keep in the stockpile,” according to the report. It has thus secured too little of some supplies, and too much of others, while also failing to establish inventory targets for some items.
The agency has also not addressed weaknesses when it comes to managing the warehouses that house this stockpile, according to the report. Last year, more than $20 million pharmaceuticals had to be thrown out because of deficiencies, such as a lack of preventative freezer maintenance and insufficient freezer space.
However, the report noted that the agency has responded to all 81 requests for medical supplies it received from provinces, territories, and the federal government since 2024. Minister Michel also highlighted this fact in her response to the auditor general’s report.
Hogan recommended that the agency develop a process for determining the types and quantities of medical supplies needed for the stockpile, and implement a plan to reduce excess and expired supplies.
Conservative MP and shadow health minister Raquel Dancho said Canadians “paid an extraordinary price” during the COVID-19 pandemic, and expected that “the Liberal government learned from those failures and took the necessary steps to ensure our emergency medical stockpile is better prepared for the next crisis.”
Dancho said the issues outlined in the auditor general’s report were “not new problems,” and the federal government had failed to ensure the proper changes were implemented to protect Canadians from national health emergencies. “Canadians should be able to trust that when the next pandemic or national emergency strikes, the critical medical supplies needed to protect them will be available,” she said.
The Liberal government said that while the auditor general found the programs are generally working as intended, it would act on the auditor general’s recommendations to make improvements.
“While many of the audits found that programs effectively delivered on their core operational goals, the Auditor also highlighted areas of improvement. The Government must be a responsible steward to our strategic assets,” the government said. “We must continue to deliver excellence for Canadians.”
