Given Canadians' well-known concern for the environment, it
may be difficult to find anyone in Canada who is against
improving the quality of the environment. However, a reliance
on unnecessarily costly and intrusive policies over the past
several decades has likely turned some people against
environmentalism. But there are a growing number of
market-based policy options that would improve environmental
quality at a lower cost and with less government intervention
than in the past. These policies are a breath of fresh air
because they are cost-effective, market-oriented, less
intrusive, and more appealing to broader sections of the
Canadian public.
The purpose of this book is to outline several market-based
environmental policy options, and to explain why the enactment
of such policies would improve environmental quality and
natural resource policy in Canada. In this book, the authors
provide examples of the direct application of market-based
policies. These policies include the strong protection of
property rights, the use of environmental pricing, the
application of cost benefit analyses, and the devolution of the
power of decision making to local agents who are most closely
connected to the issues and more easily held accountable. The
book concludes by describing how Canada can learn from the
policy experiences of other countries.