The switch could be flipped on fluoride by the end of the year.

The new city council will vote Monday night on discontinuing the fluoridation of Prince George’s drinking water.

A community opinion referendum question on the practice was included in November’s local government election ballot with 53.7 per cent of voters indicating they were not in support.

Based on the results of the local vote, a report to council from public works director Bill Gaal recommends the city end fluoridation on or before Dec. 31.

The decision to put the issue to a referendum was made in February 2013, but the vote isn’t politically binding like it was in other communities.

On Nov. 15, 53 per cent of Cranbrook voters rejected adopting a new bylaw to stop fluoridating their water while Sparwood residents voted 58 per cent in favour of shutting off their fluoridation system.

As legislative services director Walter Babicz explained in the summer, the city is under unique legislation. B.C.’s Municipalities Enabling and Validating Act (No. 2), passed in 1998, grandfathers in the city’s 1954 council resolution to fluoridate the water, bypassing other legislation under W.A.C. Bennett requiring voter assent.

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Title of article: Fluoridation [sic] vote set for Monday

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