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Vowing to maintain public dental services in the province, Quebec’s health minister said Thursday he would sign a ministerial decree to block dentists from withdrawing from the public health system amid a bitter standoff over contract negotiations.

Gaétan Barrette’s announcement came shortly after some 2,000 dentists filed paperwork to withdraw from the public system.

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The escalation erupted as the two sides remained locked in a dispute that has the dentists threatening to pull out of the system and deprive hundreds of thousands of people of subsidized care if a new agreement can’t be reached.

Dentist association president Serge Langlois said the first batch of withdrawals filed Thursday is scheduled to take effect Aug. 25, which he says gives the government plenty of time to make a deal.

“Thirty days is a very, very sufficient period to be able to reach an agreement,” he told a news conference.