By Andrew de Souza

Furber takes dental school plight to legislature

Apr 19, 2011 | 12:15 PM

The province needs to support the Prince Albert-based National School of Dental Therapy or it will close for good after more than 30 years in operation, said Prince Albert-Northcote MLA Darcy Furber.

Furber, along with some staff and patients from the school, presented the provincial legislature with almost 4,000 signatures on a petition to secure funding for the school.

He challenged provincial minister of advanced education, employment and immigration Rob Norris to promise funding to the school.

“My question to the minister is simply this,” he said. “Why is he willing to put at risk the health of so many Saskatchewan people and why won’t he do something to save the National School of Dental Therapy.”

In response, Norris said efforts had indeed been made to secure funding for the program. He added that funding should come from other levels of government in addition to the province because students at the school are from all over Canada.

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“This is a national program, it’s been funded for nearly 30 years,” he said.

“At the end … this is a federal initiative, it has been and we continue to press the federal government to maintain its investment in the students of this province.”

For Furber, anything less than a commitment is not good enough because the school is facing imminent closure.

“Their answer in the last two years hasn’t changed one bit,” he said.

“We’re running out of time to save this program and they don’t seem to understand at all the desperation that’s there.”

The National School of Dental Therapy normally takes on around 20 students each year but has not been able to since Sept. 2010.

It’s the only school of its kind in Canada and the majority of students end up serving rural areas.

In addition, its students have been providing free dental care to students, seniors, the six community schools around the city and anyone else without private dental care and currently count more than 3,000 active patients with a waiting list of more than 500.

The school will officially lose funding on May 31, and if funding is not secured by then it will have to close its doors.

adesouza@panow.com