Federal government puts price tag on polar bears

They'd just as gladly rip us to shreds, but that hasn't stopped Canadians from saying they'd be willing to shell out more than $500 per year to keep polar bears from going extinct.

For roughly the price of a new iPad, a report from Environment Canada says we'd be willing to forgo the electronic device in order to make sure our cold-temperature bears don't go the way of the dodo.

"A Canadian household was willing to pay $508 per year to avoid losing Canada's entire polar bear population," the report said.

But don't worry. The federal government isn't planning to impose a hefty ursine tax. The department merely wanted to find out what value we place on polar bears as a national icon.

The Canadian Press got access to the study through the Access to Information Act, after Environment Canada hired an external company to compile the data. The report was released in June.

Researchers set out to determine how much we were willing to pay in order to preserve our species at risk. Polar bears made the risk list this summer, and the government has been given three years to find ways to salvage the population.

They came up with the $6.3-billion price tag by breaking down dollar values for individual components, such as the polar bear's cultural and symbolic worth and how valuable it was to tourism and hunting.

With a head count of 15,000 in the Canadian North, that works out to around $420,000 per bear. Canada has roughly two-thirds of the world's polar bears, and some hunters pay up to $30,000 for the chance to bag one for sport.

The study itself cost the government $41,300, a use of financial resources Environment Minister Peter Kent said he probably wouldn't repeat again — at least until the budget gets balanced.

He also addressed criticism over the nature of the study, saying people were "quite right to be skeptical" about placing a dollar value on our iconic species.

"If you were to ask me what I put the price of polar bears to Canada and to Canadians, I'd say 'priceless,'" he added.

Less valuable on the list? The St. Lawrence beluga, a species at risk for whom Canadians would only be willing to shell out $107 — or slightly over the cost of a year-long Netflix membership.

"The difference could be explained by the fact that polar bears receive much more media attention that belugas, even though the beluga is also a charismatic species," the report concluded.