Ottawa | Traditional, Unceded Territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg People | April 16, 2025 — Today, CAPE is releasing “Healthy, Wealthy & Wise,” a new report that examines the health benefits of four environmental regulations passed by the federal government over the past 13 years.
Taken together, four of Canada’s current environmental regulations—the Coal Phase-Out (2012), Clean Electricity Regulations (2024), Volatile Organic Compound Regulations (2025), and Methane Regulations (2018)—are projected to provide healthcare savings between 18 billion and 21 billion dollars by 2050.
The health benefits represent reduced health and mortality risks for hundreds of thousands of people. They stem from reductions in a range of pollutants, especially those affecting air quality. Such improvements are linked with reduced asthma episodes, fewer hospital visits, decreased chronic disease, and fewer premature deaths for people across Canada.
The significant financial savings free up funds that could be used elsewhere. Just these four regulations save enough healthcare spending that they could pay for somewhere between 2,200 and 2,500 doctors over the 36-year period covered by the regulations.¹
These calculations do not account for the additional health benefits from reduced risk and severity of climate change impacts, or soil and water improvements. Given these, and other uncounted benefits, the total healthcare savings of these environmental regulations is likely to be much higher. There are at least nine more environmental regulations across a similar time period that the report does not analyze.
At a time when Canadians are preparing to vote in an upcoming election and economic pressures dominate news headlines, this report demonstrates that environmental issues are health issues, and they have a massive economic impact.
Drawing primarily from government analyses, the report provides a novel assessment of the combined benefits from multiple regulations. The report also removes the “discount rate” from the government data, as by literally discounting the value of health and environmental benefits for future generations, discount rates work against projects with long-term benefits to human health, the environment, and climate change.
Dr. Melissa Lem, President of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE), said:
“This report sends a message—loudly and clearly—to everyone in Canada weighing their options in the upcoming federal election: good environmental policy pays dividends for our health. Environmental leadership matters, so we must see ambition from across the political spectrum. There is a key opportunity for the next government to save billions of dollars by curbing the release of toxic pollutants from oil and gas operations, our electricity grid, and other sources. Behind these numbers are the stories of real people across Canada experiencing fewer asthma episodes, less chronic disease, fewer hospital visits and fewer premature deaths.”
Nola Poirier, Health and Economic Policy Program Manager with the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE), said:
“The economic case for strong environmental regulations has never been clearer. Our analysis shows that these four policies alone will save our healthcare system billions of dollars over the coming decades. At a time when healthcare budgets are stretched thin, environmental regulations represent one of the most cost-effective public health interventions available to policymakers. The message is simple: protecting our environment is not just the right thing to do for the planet—it’s a smart economic investment in the health of our people and communities.”
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¹ Government of Canada Job Bank. Reference period 2022-2023. www.jobbank.gc.ca/marketreport/wages-occupation/24432/ca. These estimates assume static wages and even health savings across the time period, and do not account for inflationary changes.
Healthy, Wealthy & Wise report:
About CAPE:
The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) is a physician-directed non-profit organization working to secure human health by protecting the planet. Since its founding in 1994, CAPE’s work has achieved substantial policy victories in collaboration with many partners in the environmental and health movements. From coast to coast to coast, the organization operates throughout the country with regional committees active in most provinces and all territories, www.cape.ca
Media contacts:
Reykia Fick
Communications Director | Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment
647-762-9168
media@cape.ca