Regina councillor wants to reverse 2021 decision to include fluoride in drinking water
CBC
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.
Two years after a man went missing in Scarborough, Toronto police are renewing the investigation in hopes that the public will bring forward more information.
A musical instrument created in Guelph, Ont., has been thrust onto the international stage — or rather, screen.
More than 1,000 Maritime Electric customers are without power after high winds blew across the Island Friday night into Saturday.
The Supreme Court of Canada is deliberating a case that could shape the way sentences are handed down in cases where both the offender and victim are Indigenous, which some Nunavut lawyers say could have ramifications for the Inuit-majority territory.
A man barricaded in a former church in Welland, Ont., was taken into custody early Saturday, nearly 24 hours into a standoff that began over a fence dispute.
Peel police are investigating after a Friday night shooting in Mississauga left one person dead, police said.
Another busy construction season has come to an end in London, and the city is already looking ahead to next spring when a slew of new projects are expected to begin.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has begun to lay out publicly what he sees as boundaries when dealing with China, as his government wades into a new relationship with the economic giant.
Ferry crossings are cancelled and over a thousand households are left without power Saturday morning, due to high winds and severe weather conditions.
Tens of thousands of Nova Scotia Power customers are waking up without power on Saturday morning after high winds and rain hit the province on Friday night.
Statistics Canada is reporting a population decrease last quarter for New Brunswick — its largest quarterly decline since the 1970s, according to an economic development consultant.
Residents clapped, danced, sang and cried in the Anishinaabe community of Kitcisakik this week when the lights were finally turned on for the first time.
A man is suing three members of a Winnipeg family and a real estate broker he alleges used his intellectual disability to financially exploit him through property deals in Canada and India, leaving him out hundreds of thousands of dollars.