Regina city council confirms fluoride to be added to water supply after marathon session

Regina city council voted on Friday evening to continue its plans to add fluoride to the city's water supply in 2026.

The vote rejected a motion put forward by Coun. Clark Bezo to postpone the city's 2021 decision to add fluoride to Regina's water supply until more studies concluded there are "no significant neurotoxic effects or other bodily harms" associated with fluoridation.

That motion failed in a vote of 3-7, meaning fluoridation will proceed as planned.

Couns. Bezo, Shobna Radons and Dan Rashovich voted in favour of the motion to postpone. Couns. David Froh, George Tsiklis, Jason Mancinelli, Victoria Flores, Sarah Turnbull and Mark Burton, along with Mayor Chad Bachynski, voted against it.

The vote concluded a long day of public delegations, where several dozen members of the public appeared before Regina city council to debate the issue. 

The original 2021 plan was for Regina to adopt a water fluoridation program similar to the one currently operating in Moose Jaw, staying within fluoride levels recommended by Health Canada.

Regina's fluoridation was to begin after the Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Plant renewal project was completed in mid-2025. Those upgrades have been delayed until March 2026.

As proceedings began Friday, 29 in-person delegates and nearly 80 correspondences were scheduled to present arguments. Some were doctors representing medical groups saying fluoridation would benefit the city, while others spoke independently, arguing that fluoridation is dangerous and would reduce IQ scores in children.

Dr. Susan Petryk, a pediatrician based in Regina, argued strongly in favour of fluoridation. She reported that water fluoridation reduces cavities by 25 per cent, that its overall health benefits would be widespread and that at safe levels it would not put the community at risk.

"Make the health of your community, not misinformation, your priority," she said in response to a question by Coun. Froh about which voices should be prioritized in this debate. "The kind of expertise that's required should come from experts in the field.

"'Bringing into question' is not evidence."

Other members of the public spoke against fluoridation.

"No one today is suggesting that dental health is not important. No one is saying that we do not want to address health inequalities," said delegate Malia Carson.

"City council is voting on whether or not to implement a public health policy that is forcefully medicating an entire population without their consent."

Scott Carson also spoke against fluoridation.

"I believe the side that is opposed to fluoridation is being labelled as pseudoscience whereas the side that is for it, promoting it, is 'the science,'" he said.

Both sides came to the debate armed with studies they say validate their arguments. In his letter to the mayor introducing the motion, Coun. Bezo cited several studies, including a 2025 meta-analysis study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics that he says found a decrease in IQ scores associated with higher levels of fluoride exposure, and a National Toxicology Program report from 2025 that found similar results.

Dr. James A. Dickinson, a Calgary-based member of the Canadian Fluoridation Society, disputed the validity of the studies Bezo mentioned in his letter. Dickinson, who spoke in favour of fluoridating, said the JAMA Pediatrics paper was flawed in its execution and that the critics of fluoridation are "ignoring the science."

"A small group of people twist selective samples to show what they want to find," he said of the studies.

"It seems that whoever wrote this motion didn't actually read their references."

The motion to postpone fluoridation would have also allocated $2.1 million in capital costs and $300,000 in operating funding to the water plant capital reserve through the postponement period.

Fluoride is added to the water supply of many major Canadian cities, including Toronto, Ottawa, Edmonton and Saskatoon.

Adding fluoride to Regina's water was put to four public referendums, in 1954, 1958, 1965 and 1985. Each time, the public voted against it.