(Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has awarded Sun Life Financial Inc. a contract worth as much as C$15 million ($11 million) to start work on a national dental-care plan.

The company will begin recruitment, information-technology work and business planning ahead of the main contract being awarded this fall, the government said in a statement Wednesday.

Establishing a public dental-care program is a key part of an agreement reached with the left-wing New Democratic Party to keep Trudeau’s Liberal minority government in power until 2025.

The government says the dental-care plan, once fully implemented, will support as many as 9 million uninsured Canadians who have a family income of less than C$90,000. 

Under pressure to meet aggressive timelines set by the NDP-Liberal deal, the government introduced a lump-sum dental benefit last year as an interim measure to offset the cost of treatment for lower-income people. 

Shares of Sun Life rose 0.7% to C$67.01 at 2:43 p.m. in Toronto, as the broader S&P/TSX Composite Index, and the financial sector, traded lower.

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.