According to an Environment Canada-sponsered report released on Wednesday, Canada must act now to put a price on greenhouse gas emissions or the country faces serious economic dislocation. The report by the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy recommends that the costs of emissions is clearly mapped out to avoid economic fallout.

According to the paper, if companies and consumers are given advanced warnings and notice about financial incentives for reducing emissions, they will make the appropriate plans and decisions to help reduce emissions. Showing the trajectory of the emissions costs and allowing industry to prepare for Ottawa’s environmental rules and penalties would reduce the risk of provinces making bad investment. Should the bad decisions go ahead, having to recitify them in the future could cost billions of dollars.

NRTEE spokesperon Glen Murray told CBC news, “Act strongly now – you are going to really not suffer economically. But if you don’t do that, the risk of the damage to the economy of not acting with some pricing system of some sort is very real. You have to have enough advance warning, years of lead time, so the industry can adjust and retool.”

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