Thank you very much for the invitation. It's a pleasure to speak about the few things I'll be mentioning.
Basically, I'll be arguing that we do spend a lot to pollute in Canada, and that's a problem. The good news is that we can reduce this pollution by making Canadians save money, actually get richer and have a better standard of living.
I'll be providing four examples of this huge spending that takes us in the wrong direction, both from an economic perspective and from an environmental perspective.
The first example is the evolution of the fleet of cars across Canada.
In 2022, Canadians spent $81 billion to buy approximately 1.5 million new vehicles. That's almost back to normal, because in 2019 Canadians spent about the same amount. What's extremely concerning is that they've been spending $56,000 on average for trucks, while a car would cost only $46,000.
Basically, Canadians are increasingly buying more expensive trucks when they have access to cheaper cars. Also, these trucks actually will use more fuel than cars. For example, a mid-sized car like the Toyota Camry uses 6.3 litres per 100 kilometres, while an average new SUV will—