Pollution of all kinds is costing Canadians tens of billions of dollars every year, according to a new report by the non-profit group the International Institute for Sustainable Development. The international charitable organization collected information from published Canadian and international studies to compile its report.
Costs in several areas
It says that in 2015:
-Pollution of all types cost Canadians at least $39 billion in terms of lost health and well-being, and that because some data was missing, the actual figure could be twice that.
-Lost income and increased spending to deal with pollution cost households, businesses and governments billions of dollars more. Cleaning up polluted sites cost the Canadian government more than $300 million. The costs of common diseases like diabetes and obesity caused by persistent organic pollutants could have been tens of billions of dollars.
-The loss in the value of assets like houses, buildings, roads and the nature environment is also significant. For example Lake Erie’s value for tourism, commercial fishing and water supply dropped by four billion dollars because of phosphorous pollution. Homes on the shore lost more than $700 million in value.
Understanding costs is key, says report
The organization’s news release says understanding the costs of pollution is key to reducing them. And it notes there are “priority gaps” in data in the areas of climate change, persistent organic pollutants, heavy metals and freshwater pollution from phosphorus and nitrogen.
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