Madam Speaker, I also mentioned in my remarks that climate change will cost the Canadian economy $43 billion a year by 2050. Of course pricing carbon pollution has a cost, but that cost is put back into the economy, growing the economy and funding innovation in the green economy as we go along. The fundamental responsibility this generation has to future generations is the possibility of making the polluter pay for the damage being done to our communities.
As a planner, this is very much like a development charge. When we assess developers in a community for the cost of the impact on that community of their new development, that is not a cost borne by the taxpayers at large. It is borne by the person who is creating the cost to the community. That development charge is paid to the community for the benefit of all. That is the core intent of what carbon pollution pricing is all about.