Volume 7 • 2020 • Issue 3

At press time, CDA was establishing Terms of Reference for a new Task Force and Working Group: • a ‘Return to Practice’ Task Force to support Corporate Member PDAs in helping dentists get back to serving their patients. This national Task Force, which will include a representative from each PDA, will assess how the COVID-19 situation is evolving nationally and look at ways that dentists and their teams can get back to work safely and productively. • an ‘Infection Control’ Working Group to function as a subgroup of the CDA COVID-19 Response Team. This will be a small group that will collect and assess information on infection protection and control to support return to practice. New Task Force and Working Group Advocacy CDA is in ongoing direct contact with several federal government departments to explain the challenges that are faced by dentists and their oral health teams due to the many disruptions brought about by the pandemic. CDA continues to work with the other members of the Extended Healthcare Professionals Coalition (EHPC) on a number of issues of mutual importance. The Coalition is jointly reaching out to the Department of Finance for a technical briefing on the newly introduced programs for businesses, employers and individuals as part of their COVID-19 Economic Response Plan to help mitigate the economic impact of the outbreak. CDA Roadmap for Federal Support Programs On April 1, the Federal Government unveiled information on the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy for employers and the Canada Emergency Response Benefit for employees. CDA has created a Roadmap that now forms the basis of CDA’s ongoing initiatives to help dentists and their employees navigate the government’s financial support programs for workers and businesses in light of COVID-19 issues. Resources from the CDA Roadmap are shared with individual dentists via their PDAs. CDA Help Line: 1-866-232-0385 On April 6, CDA’s toll-free Help Line went live to help dentists navigate and access federal government support programs. The Help Line is available Monday to Friday between 7:30 am and 8:00 pm EDT. CDA has developed a call-flow for Help Desk staff and created a new webpage on the COVID-19 section of the CDA website cda-adc.ca/en/about/covid-19/covid-19 . Any dentist who calls the Help Desk for support also receives a follow-up email from a Help Desk agent with useful links. Videos and Podcasts on CDA Oasis CDA Oasis ( oasisdiscussions.ca ) has produced a series of videos andaudiocontent that deal directlywithCOVID-19 9 Issue 3 | 2020 |