Calgary's reintroduction of fluoridated drinking water has been pushed back to 2025

The City of Calgary's plan to reintroduce fluoride to its drinking water supply has been delayed again – now it won't be ready until 2025.

In a statement Friday, the city said necessary infrastructure upgrades at the Glenmore and Bearpaw water treatment plants are underway but are taking longer than planned.

The system is expected to be operational in September 2024 after construction begins in September 2023.

“This date has been set with the understanding that due to uncertainty in the global supply chain, deadlines may change,” the city said in a statement.

The city now anticipates the fluoride system will be operational in the first quarter of 2025.

The project was originally slated for completion in June 2024, but that was pushed back last summer.

As of July 2023, costs to reintroduce fluoridation include $28.1 million in infrastructure upgrades at two water treatment plants, $864,000 in annual operating costs, and $100,000,200,000 in annual maintenance.

Fluoride reintroduction was originally approved in 2021. The move followed a plebiscite on the issue during municipal elections that year.

Calgary stopped adding fluoride to its drinking water in 2011 at the direction of city council.

The city said the previous fluoridation infrastructure had reached the end of its life cycle and was decommissioned and destroyed, requiring ongoing upgrades.

Fluoridation was a frequent issue at City Hall with several plebiscite votes in 1999, 1989, 1971, 1966, 1961 and 1957.

Once the project is complete, Calgary will join Edmonton, Lethbridge and Red Deer as other Alberta municipalities adding fluoride to drinking water.

Fluoride in Alberta

James A. Dickinson, a professor of medicine at the University of Calgary, said dental anesthesia rates have steadily increased since the loss of fluoridation in Calgary.

“We are deeply concerned about the avoidable and life-threatening illness, pain, suffering, suffering and expense that very young children and their families experience, especially because of tooth decay,” Dickinson said in an emailed statement.

“In the eight years after fluoridation ended in 2011, children's need for intravenous antibiotic therapy to prevent death from infection at Alberta Children's Hospital increased by 700 percent.”

According to Dickinson, a recent study by the University of Alberta shows that the rate of dental anesthesia for children under five doubled from 22 per 100,000 in 2010-11 to 45 per 100,000 in 2018-19.

For children aged six to 11, the rate increased from 14 per 100,000 to 19 per 100,000.

In Edmonton, where water is fluoridated, rates have remained unchanged over the same period.

“Since fluoridation has stopped, the cavities (cavities) in the teeth are more numerous and larger. It may require a filling or an extraction,” Dickinson said.

“They occur early in a child's life, so treatment may require general anesthesia.”