Montreal plans to stop adding fluoride to West Island tap water in 2025

The West Island is one of the few places in Quebec that adds fluoride to the drinking water, but the City of Montreal plans to phase that out by 2025, and some in the community are upset.

While most of the island doesn't add fluoride to its water, the cities of Pointe-Claire, Beaconsfield, Kirkland, Baie-d’Urfé, Dollard-Des-Ormeaux and Dorval do.

Coun. Maja Vodanovic, who's in charge of water infrastructure, says drinking water isn't the best way to administer fluoride.

"We consume less than 1 per cent of the water. We produce the rest of the water we wash cars with, we take showers, we wash dishes, we .. water our garden and all of that would have fluoride in it," she said.

"It is the most toxic chemical right now at the plant that you have to have a lot of precautions in order to use it. So just for health of the employees, it's better that we do not handle fluoride."

While fluoride is subsidized by the province, she says the cost of implementing it falls on the city and is not worth the cost.

The fluoride phase-out will be voted on at the next agglomeration meeting.

But Baie-d’Urfé Mayor Heidi Ektvedt says it's a health issue and the public should have been consulted.

"This is really about the process. You know, I believe in consultation. This doesn't just affect our town and the fact that Montreal plans to go forward with this without bringing it to the public is a disservice," Ektvedt said.

"So the majority of the vote lies with Montreal. So the people who are going to be voting are people who are: one, not serviced by these two plants; two, they're not health experts."

Fluoride has been found to reduce cavities in children. But across Canada, fluoridation varies, with Ontario having one of the highest rates and Quebec having the lowest.

From the outset, Dr. Joe Schwartz says there has been a debate about its usage and its safety.

"Science is never totally 100 per cent solid … it's not white or black. It's always shades of gray but it's always closer to one extreme than the other," said Dr. Schwartz, director of McGill University’s "Office for Science and Society."

"I think the safety of fluoride is certainly, to my satisfaction, established. The need for fluoride in certain communities, I think, is no longer there."

He says as long as kids brush their teeth with fluoridated toothpaste, they shouldn't miss out on the benefits of the mineral once the city turns off the tap.