The controversial debate on the fluoridation of water will resume in the Council this week
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The Council’s priorities and finance committee will receive a report Tuesday on the cost of reintroducing fluoride into the city’s drinking water
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November 29, 2020 • November 29, 2020 • Read for 3 minutes • 145 Comments 
Calgary City Council is reconsidering fluoride in Calgary’s tap water. Photo by Gavin Young /Postal media
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One of Calgary’s most historically contentious issues will come back to Councilors this week.
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The Council’s Priorities and Finance Committee will receive a report on Tuesday on the cost of reintroducing fluoride into the city’s drinking water.
The report found that the total cost of reintroducing water fluoridation for a 20 year useful life would be $ 30.1 million, with an additional $ 2-4 million for lifecycle maintenance activities.
It’s a cost that fluoridation advocates refer to as a drop in the bucket when it comes to the city’s overall budget.
“The cost is trivial on the overall budget,” said Juliet Guichon, president of the Calgarians for Kids’ Health advocacy group and associate professor at the University of Calgary’s Cumming School of Medicine. She said the cost of fluoride reintroduction was $ 1.29 per year for each resident in the city.
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If approved, the cost would not require an increase in water tariffs, the report to the committee said.
Calgary has a decades-long history of fluoridating water.
The city started the practice in 1991 but stopped after a council vote in 2011. Calgarians voted twice for fluoridation in referendums in 1989 and 1999.
The council instructed the city administration in October 2019 to prepare a cost analysis report on the reintroduction of fluoride, which was originally due in June but has been postponed to December due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Count. Jyoti Gondek, a member of the committee receiving the report, said a decision on fluoridation of water should not be made by councilors as it is a public health issue that falls under the jurisdiction of the province.
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“If this government wants to turn everything into a legal battle and they want to shout ‘fiscal accounting’ at every turn, then they damn well can make a decision about fluoride themselves, with their experts, and they can pay for it,” said Gondek .
“I’m not a public health expert. I was not chosen as a public health expert. I don’t have a health ministry. If you want to talk about slippery slopes, what’s next? What else do I have to do? “
Councilor Jyoti Gondek was photographed outside the offices of Calgary City Council on Tuesday, February 11, 2020. Photo by Gavin Young /Postal media
Colleagues on the committee and Council members Gian-Carlo Carra and Sean Chu agreed that there was a mismatch in jurisdiction. Carra said universal dental care is needed and said the province could fund fluoridation if it felt it was valuable.
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Meanwhile, Chu said he will likely reject any future plans to reintroduce fluoride to Calgary water because of the cost, which he believes is too steep given the tightening of the COVID-19 belt.
“I don’t think I can take that with the award,” Chu said. “To be honest, we shouldn’t have taken that out in 2011 in the first place. Unfortunately, it was taken out, but given the budget and the economic climate, I don’t think it’s a good time to do it. “
Alberta Health’s official stance on water fluoridation endorses the practice and calls it “safe, effective and inexpensive”.
In 2017, Dr. Karen Grimsrud, the then Chief Medical Officer of Health of Alberta, wrote to Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi that the decision to fluorinate a city water supply – and all associated costs – are the responsibility of local governments.
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The Priorities and Finance Committee will only receive the report on Tuesday for information; a vote on the subject is not planned.
Guichon urged city councils to put fluoride back in Calgary’s water, saying the move would help strengthen justice and help a dental health system that they believe has been damaged by the pandemic.
“(Jurisdiction) is not really worth arguing because this is a really low cost investment with huge benefits,” she said. “If elected officials have it in their power to improve the lives of everyone in the city at a relatively low cost, not even a dime a day, why shouldn’t they?”
Twitter: @jasonfherring
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