B.C.'s auditor-general says the government's claim of a carbon-neutral public sector is bogus, and the Pacific Carbon Trust is not properly investing taxpayers' money.
The scathing report by John Doyle says the trust invested 70 per cent of the money it collects from schools, hospitals and universities in just two projects – for a total of $6 million – that likely would have gone ahead anyway.
Doyle says in short, the trust has not purchased credible carbon offsets, and the government as a whole has not established criteria to determine if in fact it is reducing emissions of greenhouses gases.
The trust was set up in 2007 as part of the Liberals’ climate change agenda.
Doyle is also irate that managers at the trust broke confidentiality by sharing information from his office during the audit with outside parties, and that never before has his office been targeted in such an overt manner by vested interests concerned about his findings.
Environment Minister Terry Lake says he fundamentally rejects the report, saying Doyle's office has no expertise on the complicated world of carbon offsets.
Pacific Carbon Trust CEO Scott MacDonald agrees, taking issue with Doyle hiring an outside expert.
"That expert resigned. He terminated his position when the auditor general was disregarding his feedback on this. So again, it puts the Pacific Carbon Trust in a very difficult position.
“We relied on international experts. They came back and said these things are compliant. After the fact, the auditor general has come in and said otherwise, and so it's now our job to begin to try and reconcile the difference of auditing opinions.”
MacDonald insists there have been real cuts in emissions from the projects supported by the trust.
NDP environment critic Rob Fleming says the auditor's findings back up what many critics have been saying for years.
"What we're seeing is this elaborate scheme that creates these offset markets that aren't really markets and transfers money to large companies and industrial polluters or in some cases hotels and ski spa resorts, and that just makes no sense. And the public rejects that, and I think that needs to change."
Fleming says an NDP government would use the money for environmental upgrades to public facilities.