The real cost of pollution in Canada? Billions: Bob McDonald

The first report on the full financial cost of pollution in Canada shows that all when all things are considered, it adds up to tens of billions of dollars per year.

We see pollution as brown smog colouring the horizon, smoke spewing from stacks and tailpipes, or brown sludge in waterways. But these visible eyesores, along with the smells and tastes that go with them, are just one component of a much larger and costly problem for the entire country.

The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), an independent, non-profit organization operating in more than 70 countries, assembled the report. It takes into account all the cost factors involved in pollution, from health effects, cleanup costs, even the effect on real estate values. In total, the group estimates the annual cost to be at least $39 billion for 2015, or about $4,300.00 for a family of four in Canada.

This staggering number is a sum total of direct and indirect costs to individuals, business and government from environmental pollution. These include health-care costs, loss of income due to illness, business losses from absenteeism, government costs to cleanup contaminated areas such as abandoned mines, treatment of polluted water, and less obvious effects such as lower real estate value of properties along polluted waterways.

Wake-up call

The authors of the paper suggest that the actual costs of pollution are likely much higher, because they were not able to estimate the health costs of pollutants such as pesticides, plastics, heavy metals and flame retardants. Nor did they take into account the long-term effects of climate change, which could affect agricultural productivity, destruction of infrastructure and damage to property from extreme weather. All told, they think the additional costs could "add tens of billions more to the annual cost."

This report on the true cost of pollution is a wake-up call similar to the shock felt by the people of London, England on December 5th, 1952 when they experienced the famous London Fog.The city was run on coal, both for industry and households, and on that cold morning, households cranked up their coal-burning, releasing dense smoke that combined with fog to create a toxic cloud that enveloped the city for five days. Visibility was reduced to a metre during daylight while people and animals choked on noxious sulphur compounds. Approximately 4,000 people died during the fog, with thousands more succumbing later.

In response, the British government established the Clean Air Act that provided incentives for homeowners and industry to convert to alternative forms of energy, mostly natural gas and oil, which are still fossil fuels, but are much cleaner burning than coal. No killer fog of that scale has appeared over London since.

In Canada, pollution is not as visible as it was in London, or now in China. We see ourselves as the land of pristine glacial lakes and clear blue skies. But while our air and water pollution may not always be hitting us so much in the face, this report is showing that it is hitting us in the pocketbook. We are spending huge amounts on a problem that can be solved by dealing with waste in a responsible manner.

Canada can take a lesson from London to recognize the problem as serious and implement stricter regulations along with harsher punishment for polluters to put less burden on the environment as well as our bank accounts.