Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, witnesses, for being here today.
Thank you, MP Scarpaleggia, for your bill. An important issue here is our water.
I represent a riding in Calgary, and we're fortunate not to have too many major concerns with our water or boil water advisories. We do have some flooding now and then in my riding, but we certainly are dealing with that now.
A few years ago our city council had stopped using herbicides and fertilizers to prevent dandelions and weeds in our city, which is a great thing. Our Bow River's water quality now has been testing a heck of a lot better downstream than in the past, and I'm very happy about that. I can deal with my dandelions and weeds, and Calgarians can as well.
One issue that does come up quite often in city council every few years is the use of fluoride in our water. When I raised my kids in Calgary, there was fluoride in the water, and my kids didn't have any cavities at all. A recent study by the U of C, done back in 2016, stated that children's cavity rates have now increased substantially since the City of Calgary took the fluoride out of the water. As a result, kids are now getting cavities.
Perhaps Professor Attaran or Professor Hrudey can comment on this. Is it a good thing to take the fluoride out of this water? Probably in some ways it's not, because kids are getting cavities. In other ways, there are harmful effects to the human body, apparently.
Can you talk a little bit about that, Mr. Attaran? Then I'll go to Professor Hrudey.