Regina councillor wants to reverse 2021 decision to include fluoride in drinking water

One Regina city councillor says he wants to stop the city from including fluoride in Regina's drinking water. 

Ward 10 Coun. Clark Bezo has served notice that following last November's civic election, he wants to reconsider a 2021 decision made by the previous city council. 

"There is nine new faces around that table, and there is a strong opposition to the last council on some of their motions that they put forward," Bezo said after a council meeting on Wednesday.

"This was one that I heard on the doorsteps [while campaigning]."

Currently, fluoride is not included in the city's drinking water. Although council approved the decision to do so in 2021, it agreed to wait until upgrades were completed on the Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Plant. 

Those are slated to be completed by the end of this year, with the fluoride upgrade set to be installed in January 2026.

"We really have to ask yourself, is this really for the best interest of the entire community?"  Bezo said Wednesday. 

The Ward 10 Coun. described fluoride as a "neurotoxin" that children don't need to be exposed to. 

Bezo said he'd spoken with experts on the subject who informed him of the risks of fluoridation in drinking water. He did not provide any of those experts' names. 

An expert panel assembled by Health Canada in 2023 acknowledged "a growing body of evidence suggests that fluoride in drinking water may be associated with reduced IQ scores in children at fluoride levels that may be found in Canadian drinking water," but that there is "not a sufficient basis at this time to recommend a specific point of departure and health-based value for neurocognitive effects" of fluoride in drinking water. 

The Regina city council debate around fluoride in 2021 lasted nearly three hours, with multiple provincial health organizations and experts on dental health urging for fluoride to be put in the city's water.

Gerry Uswak, the then registrar of the College of Dental Surgeons of Saskatchewan, told council that water fluoridation helps everyone, including those with lower socioeconomic status, who may not be able to access dental care. 

All of the experts told council in 2021 that there is strong scientific evidence of the benefits of fluoridation, which include cavity reduction. That is important for the young to avoid traumatic dental work, and the elderly to avoid dental appliances that are costly and difficult to manage, council heard.

But Bezo said there is now a "strong appetite" from other councillors for the decision to be reconsidered. 

Mayor Chad Bachynski, who was first elected to council in November, said he's not opposed to revisiting the topic, but will defer to the experts.

"If between [2021] and now [Bezo is] confident that there's something new to look at, then we'll definitely listen to the experts today and see if their opinion has changed since the last time we talked about," said Bachynski.

Council will debate the motion at a future meeting. The date hasn't been determined, but it will be after the municipal budget is voted on later this month.  

Before council's vote in 2021, motions to add fluoride to the water had been denied or voted down in a referendum four separate times in the city's history.