According to Environment Canada, people in Nova Scotia are willing to pay much more for sewage treatment than other Canadians. To justify the multi-billion dollar cost of the new Wastewater Systems Effluent Regulations under the Fisheries Act, Environment Canada has produced a table full of everyone’s “willingness to pay”. The 938,000 Nova Scotians, it says, want to pay $1,544,985,000 for better sewage treatment and cleaner surface water, or $1,647 per person. On the other hand, the 3,700,000 Albertans don’t want to spend more than $19,030,000, or $5.14 per person.
The 7,800,000 Quebecers are a little more generous($104 each), but purportedly expect to make $1000 each in increased property values from the regulations.
Do you believe all this? Me neither.
Environment Canada puts all these unreliable numbers together, and concludes that Canada will make money by spending $5.9 billion on sewage upgrades. I think I was more persuaded before I read all these numbers.