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The jurisdictional claim is nonsense. The city has the power to engage in health measures that prevent harm and does so all the time such as with chlorination, lifeguards, streetlights, snow plows and safe road and bridge design.

Such jurisdictional quibbling fails to recognize that there is only one taxpayer. It fails also to respect Jordan’s Principle, which holds that children should not be denied a health benefit while governments fight over who should pay.

This is not a financial issue: fluoridation costs $0.60 per person per year. The $6 million-$8 million in capital costs would be amortized over decades. For every dollar spent on fluoridation, families save up to $139.78 annually in avoided dental costs.

Eight Calgary city councillors should vote to reinstate fluoridation now. Calgarians would thank them for helping to keep residents healthy, while councillors bring Calgary back into the ranks of great cities, including New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Sydney and Auckland, to name just some cities that fluoridate.

City councillors who accept the will of the people and the science to return our fluoridation would be public heroes. They would help Calgarians avoid dental care costs in a period of economic hardship. Now is the time to restore what has been lost.

With council’s leadership, dental decay and its pain, suffering and financial cost will decrease. There is no benefit to waiting until 2021 for yet another plebiscite. We know what Calgarians want. We have voted for fluoridation twice already.

Let’s respect democracy and promote good health for everyone by reinstating fluoridation now.

Juliet Guichon and Ian Mitchell are faculty members of the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary; Wendy Wadey and June Dabbagh are Calgary dentists; and Denise Kokaram leads the Alex Dental Health Bus. They all represent Calgarians for Kids’ Health.