The scale of damage caused by extreme weather across Canada signals that paying personally to fight climate change is no longer just a political gesture – or even optional.
The harm caused by the extreme weather we are experiencing extends beyond the immediate financial costs. Communities far from fires have found it difficult to escape smoke-filled skies that make it dangerous to breathe. This has incited new levels of eco-anxiety, and inclined many to rely on smoke forecasting to plan their activities.
For the past several years, the Trudeau government found it politically appealing to maintain that most households receive more in government dividends from pollution pricing than what they pay. However, a report by the Parliamentary Budget Office last year disputed the claim. But any financial pain experienced now – especially for those of us who are not struggling to pay for groceries, heat or housing – to fight climate change will be but a fraction of the pain that our kids and grandchildren will experience in the decades ahead.