The new Canadian Dental Care Plan (CDCP) is a federally delivered public plan for eligible Canadian residents with an annual adjusted family net income of less than $90,000 who do not have access to dental coverage. Eligibility requirements state that having access to dental coverage includes health spending and wellness accounts available through your pension benefits from a previous employer or a family member’s pension benefits.

The BC Hydro retiree benefits dental health spending account (HSA) is considered dental coverage for this purpose. Therefore, based on current CDCP rules, BC Hydro retirees and their eligible dependents with access to the dental HSA as part of the retiree benefits plan would not be eligible for the CDCP. Note that CDCP eligibility is based on the dental coverage available to you and not whether you’ve chosen the coverage or not. This is why for those retirees who have access to the dental HSA, BC Hydro is required to record code “3” (Access to any dental care insurance, or coverage of dental services of any kind for payee, spouse, and dependents) in Box 15 of the 2023 T4A. Choosing to opt out of the BC Hydro dental HSA plan would not change your eligibility for the CDCP since at this time, the government does not recognize opting out of the retiree plan as being equivalent to not having access to the dental coverage.

While there are no immediate changes planned for the BC Hydro retiree benefits plan, BC Hydro is committed to reviewing changes to government-sponsored plans, like the introduction of the CDCP, and assessing the impact these changes may have on the retiree benefit plan design.

If there are any updates on the retiree benefits plan in the future, BC Hydro’s pension team will communicate this information to eligible retirees.