The Ben Mulroney Show - Canada's Dental Plan In Need of a Polishing...And Maybe a Root Canal

Episode Date: September 16, 2026

On this episode of 'The Ben Mulroney Show,' Ben welcomes Tom Korski, with Blacklocks Reporter. They discuss the possible failings of the federal dental plan. If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://link.chtbl.com/bms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Also, on youtube -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BenMulroneyShow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Insta: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠   Executive Producer:  Mike Drolet Reach out to Mike with story ideas or tips at [e-mail] Enjoy   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Whatever lies ahead, don't change your morning. Let your morning change you. Discover Coffee Plus on Nispresso. I don't like highlighting the fact that I believe Ottawa is dysfunction junction, but every now and then there are some stories. It just make you want to pull your hair out. And here to make sense of them, we're joined by Tom Korski for Blacklocks reporter. Tom, welcome back. Thank you, Ben.

Tom, 25 diplomats fired, 11 resign abruptly while under investigation, says the Department of Foreign Affairs. Wrongdoing include security breaches and suspicious activities in an unlawful. unnamed, quote, country of concern. Why aren't we, why isn't, this feels like a crisis? You know, not only is it not a startlingly new, the disclosure is no. This is the interesting part. This has been going on for years. And it was only very recently in the last two years, Privy Council, the top of the federal

bureaucracy, became aware. of voter cynicism and loss of confidence in public institutions. So they said, I know what we're going to do. We're going to have an make everybody in Ottawa report every year on employees who are fired or suspended or discipline. And they're going to call it a misconduct and wrongdoing report. Well, they have been peeling the pain off the barn doors ever since. And here's one from the Department of Foreign Affairs, their last reporting period. And exactly that right, Ben.

they identify the 25 who were fired, 11 who quit while under investigation, and many scores more who were suspended and disciplined for a host of wrongdoing. Ben? Yeah. They will not name names. They will not, in this case, name the country of concern in which an unnamed diplomat was found in breach of security regulations. You'd think that would be somebody's business.

But some of these figures are absolutely passionate. Well, Tom, look, it's not lost on me that last week our former deputy prime minister, Christia Freeland, went on American TV and essentially signaled the death knell of American democracy, saying your democracy is on life support, I believe she said. And her proof point was that Donald Trump had been reelected. Now, if you believe, as I believe, that democracy dies in the dark, everything is happening in the open in the United States. And if this were the United States, if not 25, listen, do the math, 25 Canadian diplomats and 11 that quit,

that would be the equivalent of 250 in the states and 100 quitting a while under investigation. That would be Iran-Contra-level scandals happening in front of congressional hearings. And yet here it's a report that we barely hear about, if not for the work at Blacklock's report. A transparency is a theory in this town, Ben. Transparency in practice makes people feel hot and angry. It embarrasses federal executives. It makes cabinet ministers hot and angry. But they like the theory. And indeed, in the theory, when people talk about sunlight and accountability and voters' awareness, it sounds wonderful. until you find out there was a diplomat fired for breach and security in a country of concern. By the way, you ought to see the list of countries of concern.

What are some of the countries on that list? These are not beach holidays. These are countries with which we have sanctions. We're talking about Iran. It covers the waterfront. And so when you say, yeah, by the way, there was a security breach at the bank, some money disappeared. I'm not taking any more questions. Yeah, I don't understand. I mean, the fact that we're not, that we're not having holding hearings on this today and getting to the, you know, who knew what, when. But we've, I don't know what's going on in this country where we are just, we've got our blinders on. If it's, if it's not, if you can't make the case that Donald Trump is the bad guy, people don't care. And I don't know why not, because these things matter.

I think they do, Ben. I think that, but I think it's in cremato. I think it's drip, drip, drip. But I think there is, you know, public opinion about the federal government in generations, is a downward trajectory. Yeah. I mean, that's just accepted. There was, my goodness, you talked to people. Post-war years, 60s and 70s, the brightest and best, couldn't wait to change the world and work for the government of Canada.

When's the last time you heard that? Well, listen, do you remember back in the day one of the reasons, Jugmeet Singh kept propping up the liberal government, under Justin Trudeau, despite rampant ineptitude, was that he wanted to say that he could be responsible for giving people every Canadian a dentist. And now we find out that this subsidized dentistry plan is, but most Canadians who applied to it,

already had regular, were regular patients in a dentistry office in private care. So we were solving a problem that had already been, solve for most of them. And at an extraordinary cost. The cost overruns under this program are about 40%. They are now looking at revised figures. Spend taxpayers cost over five years of $18 billion. That's still big money in this town. This is a cautionary tale, Ben. The next time, someone says we have identified this problem, XYZ. Why doesn't the government do something? This is a classic. That was exactly the point. There was a perception that there were a large number of Canadians who simply could not afford dental care, and everyone knows that dental care is associated with good

health care. And the theory was basically wrong. They have now, you have people who are going to see a dentist anyway, and now instead of paying for it out of pocket or private insurance or through their employer's plan, are charging it to the taxpayer with the 40% cost to overrun. Tom, who builds out a multi-billion-dollar federal government program on a theory? False or otherwise.

You would think it's based on hard data over years of research that says we've pinpointed a place where if we invest X billion dollars, the return on that in terms of other cost savings in the health care system will be, you know, 5x.

Oh, no, no, no, follow the science? No, no, that's for losers. They're not, everything is theoretical. And you say, what could possibly account for this spectacular cost overrun? And they were told at the time, dental hygienists and the Dental Association said, you look for small companies to start dropping their little workshop, the dental plans, and offloading the cost on the taxpayer. Just wait for it.

They won't release the data. But that's the only thing that explains these. cost overruns, billions, that money's gone. So what's the plan here? Is anybody in Ottawa answering the question, what do you do with a government program that doesn't, that was supposed to solve a problem? And then you find out the problem is mostly solved? Are they going to wind this down?

Or is this another one of those things? It's a sunk cost. We're just going to keep it where it is. Oh, no. What you do is you spend more money looking for research to justify your hunch in the first place. The National School Lunch Program, who's going to argue about the kids? Right.

That was supposed to feed 400,000 kids. Problem, the feds made up that number. They are now spending, this is on the level, they're spending $13 million in three years hiring researchers to justify the claims that Cabinet made when it introduced the program in the first place. Yeah, see, look, the country made its choice, and they voted for the liberals under Mark Carney, but nobody should be under the illusions that this was in any way, shape, or form a change election. A change election would have brought about an audit and a review of so many of these programs and projects.

Instead, it's full steam ahead. And let's just throw money into the furnace in the hopes of keeping the engine running. It's frustrating. Unfunded programs. That's all coming out of the kids' inheritance. I wonder what their reaction. The grandkids. I'm sorry.

My kid. I might listen. Any money that was earmarked for my kids is long gone. You bet. Yeah. We were talking earlier about the 10. billion dollars oh do we lose tom Tommy still there?

No I'm still no I'm on and I'm talking about the 10 we were talking earlier about the 10 billion dollars in in Serb and CRB payments and they can't that was given out for the 14 billion that was given out to people who didn't qualify and of that 14 there's still 10 billion unaccounted for this is

the that's why like if they if this had truly been a change election there were been people who had a vested interest in making sure that this type of thing stopped instead there are a powers that be that have benefited from this, I think, and they just want to keep the gravy train going. Updated deficit this fall, Ben, it's going to be hair-raising.

These are not pretty numbers. We now spend routinely, federally, $70 to $80 billion a year on budget overruns for no particular reason. Yeah, well, it's just because the time is so good. Yeah, exactly. Tom Korski, from Blacklockers Porter. We appreciate you. Thank you, Ben.