Goodbye Pacific Carbon Trust! or ?

[NAB]

VANCOUVER — British Columbia's much-maligned Pacific Carbon Trust will be eliminated and the province's profitable greenhouse gas offset program brought into the government fold,

http://www.theprovince.com/business/ene ... story.html

[Glacier]

All smoke in mirrors.

The auditor general told the government to get rid of the program, but they have done no such thing. Yes, the government is eliminating 20 or so jobs and the PCT, and thus saving 5 million bucks, BUT the program is still there. It is not going anywhere; all that has changed is that the government now has even more control on where the "Pacific Carbon Trust" money (AKA carbon offset money) is going to be spent.

[grammafreddy]

All smoke in mirrors.

The auditor general told the government to get rid of the program, but they have done no such thing. Yes, the government is eliminating 20 or so jobs and the PCT, and thus saving 5 million bucks, BUT the program is still there. It is not going anywhere; all that has changed is that the government now has even more control on where the "Pacific Carbon Trust" money (AKA carbon offset money) is going to be spent.

But some of those 20 or so jobs will be going to other ministries within government so they really aren't losing them, either.

Glacier is right - its all smoke and mirrors.

[Logitack]

it is just more of the same shenanigans from your liberal government, say one thing, do the opposite. yup, arent ya glad ya'll voted for these idiots another term in office....

and this is just the start of what will be happening over the next 4 years.... BC deserves what they voted for, that is for certain!

[flamingfingers]

Logi wrote:

BC deserves what they voted for,...

Gotta disagree with you here. We do NOT deserve the lying, deceptive, corruption-ridden farce we have for government here in BC! People turn their heads and just say, "all politicians lie" and this is just a 'drop in the bucket' as far as the government letting out contracts, paying 'bonuses' to friends and supporters. Drops in the bucket end up being buckets full of money out the door to same friends and the ChristyLiberal Famiglia.

I say it is time for people to get dam* mad about all this wasteful spending and filching money out of our pockets at every turn.

Wasn't it a promise by our 'visionary leader' (Gordo the Great) to limit gambling here in BC because it caused harm to working people and families? When he took power there were perhaps 2,000 gambling/slot machines in BC. Now there are over 12,000 - and more promised on BC Ferries.

Disgusting.

[Veovis]

We do NOT deserve the lying, deceptive, corruption-ridden farce we have for government here in BC!.

Spoken by the person in support of the party that would forge documents with her support.,

[Crazy Horse]

it is just more of the same shenanigans from your liberal government, say one thing, do the opposite. yup, arent ya glad ya'll voted for these idiots another term in office....

and this is just the start of what will be happening over the next 4 years.... BC deserves what they voted for, that is for certain!

Actually I am glad I voted for them. I accept not all governments are perfect, you take the good with the bad and on balance this is nothing.

I just wish they would scrap ICBC and the BC liquor distribution/retail store crown corporations and stick to what governments should do, not try to run a business.

[Logitack]

I just wish they would scrap ICBC and the BC liquor distribution/retail store crown corporations and stick to what governments should do, not try to run a business.

yes, because you, along with every other liberal sycophant, want the middle class, what is left of them, to pay even more for the insurance and booze....great thinking!

dont worry, you wish is about to be granted.. the liquor business and distribution will be sold off within the year...2014, along with every other BC asset. thanks liberals....

[Crazy Horse]

yes, because you, along with every other liberal sycophant, want the middle class, what is left of them, to pay even more for the insurance and booze....great thinking!

Hang on, I'm not a liberal. And don't be fooled by your socialist insurance utopia, someone is paying. Ususally its the good drivers subsidizing the bad ones.

[NOTYOU]

I had a disagreement with my daughter at election time...she voted NDP, because she thought it would be between the Liberals and the NDP and the NDP was the lesser of two evils...I told her that it is that kind of thinking that has screwed up our country...people should take a stand and vote for the person who the best fit for the job, even if the "Polls" say they are the minority...Goodbye Carbon Trust, Hello Pipelines...you can't say you didn't see it coming...

[twobits]

But some of those 20 or so jobs will be going to other ministries within government so they really aren't losing them, either.

Not if they fill posted vacant positions. It would mean 20 less street hires thus reducing gov't payroll by 20 bodies.

[KL3-Something]

it is just more of the same shenanigans from your liberal government, say one thing, do the opposite. yup, arent ya glad ya'll voted for these idiots another term in office....

and this is just the start of what will be happening over the next 4 years.... BC deserves what they voted for, that is for certain!

Got news for ya. They're all idiots. Regardless of the colour of their stripes.

[twobits]

Got news for ya. They're all idiots. Regardless of the colour of their stripes.

And judging from many of the posts made in these forums, we have politicians in the crowd.

[NAB]

Editorial: Carbon trust’s demise was due
Times Colonist
November 23, 2013 04:09 PM

It’s rare that the B.C. Liberals and New Democrats agree on anything, so when both parties wanted to drive a stake through the heart of the Pacific Carbon Trust, that agency was doomed.

This week, core review minister Bill Bennett signed the death warrant for the trust. An example of good intentions badly executed, the trust will be mourned by few. The Liberals seem committed to continuing its worthwhile features when it is absorbed by government.

Within two years, five people will be doing the work now done by 18, saving $5.6 million.

The trust was born in 2008 out of former premier Gordon Campbell’s enthusiasm for making B.C. carbon-neutral. Its mission was to buy carbon offsets to make up for emissions produced by schools, hospitals and other public institutions. Those organizations would pay the trust $25 for every tonne of carbon emissions, and the trust would put the money into public or private projects that would reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

The whole idea of carbon offsets is dubious, but the trust became even more controversial when British Columbians realized that schools were in effect paying fines that were then redirected to private, profit-making companies or to non-profit projects of uncertain value.

In May, then-auditor general John Doyle highlighted the questionable nature of the system by focusing on two projects that totalled $6 million. One gave money to Encana, an energy company with $8.5 billion in annual revenues, and the other supported the purchase of the Darkwoods forest in southeastern B.C. by the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

Doyle argued that both projects would have gone ahead even without the trust’s contribution, violating one of the fundamental criteria for determining whether carbon offsets are valid.

It created a prolonged scrap between the auditor’s office and the trust, which continued last week when the two appeared before the legislature’s public accounts committee — a day after Bennett announced that the trust would be wrapped up.

After listening for hours to the back and forth, the committee members professed themselves to be stumped. They couldn’t figure out who — if anyone — was right. Nor could ordinary voters, and that was a problem, because they were already suspicious of the arcane construct.

Buying carbon offsets smells to many people like trying to salve our consciences with money. We seem to be trying to buy our way into environmental heaven.

While ordinary voters were hard-pressed to evaluate the complicated accounting of particular projects, they were well able to see the moral issue in the way offsets were applied to public institutions.

At a time when education and health care are scrounging for every dollar, they were forced to shell out millions of dollars that ended up doing nothing to teach children or heal the sick.

The government began changing the system last year, creating a carbon-neutral capital program for schools. Schools still have to pay for their carbon emissions, but instead of being handed to energy companies, the money is pooled and used to fund energy-efficiency projects in schools that will lower their emissions.

The program moves the province toward its goal of being carbon-neutral, but it keeps the money within the educational system, a much more easily understood method. It’s so simple, one wonders why it wasn’t done in the first place.

It has proven so worthwhile that the government plans to roll it out to health authorities and post-secondary institutions.

The push to reduce the carbon footprint of provincial institutions will continue, but by more effective and comprehensible means.

http://www.timescolonist.com/editorial- ... e-1.707159

[flamingfingers]

the money is pooled and used to fund energy-efficiency projects in schools that will lower their emissions.

The program moves the province toward its goal of being carbon-neutral, but it keeps the money within the educational system, a much more easily understood method.

Not quite:

Critics lambaste carbon program
Rob Shaw / Times Colonist
November 23, 2013 10:29 PM

Hospitals, colleges and universities could soon be forced into a pollution grant program that critics say is already failing to deliver promised savings at many school districts.

Environment Minister Mary Polak has said she is considering expanding a carbon-neutral grant program — already in place for school districts — to health authorities and post-secondary institutions.

The program is supposed to help cash-strapped school districts by returning some of the money they are forced to pay the Pacific Carbon Trust to offset their greenhouse gas emissions. The province announced last week it will collapse the carbon trust and fold its functions into the Environment Ministry.

The government argues the grant program will, over the long-run, return all of the money paid by school districts back in the form of grants for local projects that conserve energy and decrease emissions.

Critics, including several school districts, say the grant program isn’t coming close to covering the money spent, and is wasting tax dollars that could be used for teachers, classroom learning and school upgrades.

The Greater Victoria School District has had to pay the Pacific Carbon Trust about $188,000 annually for three years to cover the amount of greenhouse gases produced.

It has received one grant in return: $170,000 to replace a boiler at a school, said Seamus Howley, facilities director.
“We’d be happy to keep that money and reinvest in facility projects ourselves,” Howley said.

The Vancouver School District paid $500,000 in carbon offsets last year and received a $100,000 grant to buy three electric vehicles. Board chairwoman Patti Bacchus has publicly described it as a “lousy deal.”

Overall, B.C. school districts spent $4.5 million on carbon offsets in 2012.

The Pacific Carbon Trust is supposed to pool that money with payments by other government agencies and use it to invest in environmentally friendly programs that help offset the pollution.

But B.C.’s auditor general has slammed the trust for investing in questionable private projects, such as a forest in southeastern B.C. that was already going to be protected and an oil company drilling upgrade that mainly benefited the private company.

The school carbon-neutral grant program is worth $5 million a year, but because projects are picked on merit not every district gets grants every year, the Environment Ministry.

“The intent over the years is that all districts receive the same amount of funding for ‘green’ capital projects as they were required to spend on carbon offsets,” its statement said.

The Nanaimo-Ladysmith School District pays $118,000 a year in carbon offsets. It received a $25,000 grant for an electric vehicle last year, and $218,000 for a boiler upgrade this year.

“To us, it’s basically a holding account,” said Chad Dalrymple, energy and capital projects manager for the school district.
Before the grants — when districts just paid money to the trust without seeing any return — the district was “putting out a lot of resistance,” Dalrymple said.

The Opposition NDP and taxpayer groups say it’s foolish to expand the school program in its current form.

“We haven’t heard from any school districts that have had positive experiences with the Pacific Carbon Trust, so the idea of extending it to hospitals and universities would be a mistake,” said Jordan Bateman, B.C. director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

“Hospitals shouldn’t be considered polluters and forced to buy carbon credits. It’s really just a silly waste of money.”
Health authorities and universities are already paying carbon offsets, but don’t have a grant program to recovery any money. The Vancouver Island Health Authority has spent $2.58 million on carbon credits since 2010.

The government should follow through on a promised analysis of the carbon payments to see if the program can be improved, said NDP environment critic Spencer Chandra-Herbert.

“You need to be able to show people the offsets they are paying for are going to end up back supporting them to be more efficient and cut emissions,” he said.

If the ultimate goal is to have carbon offset programs that give back in grants what they take away in payments, Chandra-Herbert questioned why the Environment Ministry is even involved, other than to add a cumbersome level of administration.

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