The Department of Finance Canada and Chrystia Freeland, deputy prime minister and minister of finance released Budget 2023 – A Made-in-Canada Plan on March 28, revealing plans for national flood insurance and dental care for uninsured Canadians. Although the deputy prime minister alluded to the taxes insurance companies pay, these would appear to be here to stay: “We’re making sure the very wealthy and our biggest corporations pay their fair share of taxes,” Freeland stated in her budget address delivered in Ottawa at the close of business on Tuesday.

Of interest to the industry, she says by the end of 2023 the government will begin rolling out a dental care plan for up to nine million uninsured Canadians. “The federal government has committed to providing dental care for uninsured Canadians with family income of less than $90,000 annually,” they write. “Nobody should have to choose between taking care of their teeth and being able to pay the bills at the end of the month.” The benefit does little for families earning over that threshold amount. There are no co-pays for those with annual family income under $70,000. 

At the same time the government says it plans to introduce legislation compelling employers and employer pension plans to report dental coverage offered to their employees and plan members through T4 and T4A reporting. The budget would appear to make no reference at all to measures which might incentivise companies to keep their plans, as previously requested by industry groups.

Other measures introduced in the budget include: 

• Proposed legislative action to amend the Insurance Companies Act (and others) to address the risks of foreign interference.
• Other proposed amendments to the Insurance Companies Act to adapt and apply the Canada Business Corporations Act diversity disclosure requirements for board directors and senior management at federally regulated financial institutions (FRFI).
• Legislative changes, including amendments to the Insurance Companies Act to expand the mandate of the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) to include supervising FRFIs, to determine if they have adequate policies and procedures to protect themselves against threats, including the threat of foreign interference. The proposed changes will also expand the range of circumstances where OSFI can take control of a FRFI.

Finally, the budget addresses natural disaster resilience, specifically the effort to improve disaster insurance. “The unique realities of natural disasters make them difficult to insure, leaving some Canadians financially vulnerable. Working with the insurance industry, more needs to be done to protect Canadians from the costs that come with recovering from disaster and make insurance affordable,” the budget states.

The federal government continues, saying it intends to launch, in partnership with provinces and territories, an effort to bring together Public Safety Canada, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and the Department of Finance, “to stand up a low-cost flood insurance program, aimed at protecting households at high risk of flooding and without access to adequate insurance. This would include offering reinsurance through a federal Crown corporation and a separate insurance subsidy program.” 

In parallel, they say the groups will also engage with the industry on solutions to earthquake insurance and other evolving climate-related insurance market challenges.

The budget also earmarks $15.3-million over three years to create a publicly accessible online portal where Canadians can access information on their exposure to flooding. It also proposes to invest $48.1-million over five years to identify high-risk flood areas and implement a modernized disaster financial assistance arrangements program to incentivise mitigation efforts.