Questions raised around who is benefiting from the province’s Pacific Carbon Trust

There are new calls to scrap a controversial program created by the provincial government to help reduce our carbon footprint.

You may have heard of the Pacific Carbon Trust.

It pays money to companies and services that are reducing their greenhouse gas emissions while taking money from government agencies that aren’t.

But as you’re about see the losers in this complicated system include cash-strapped school districts and even hospitals, and serious questions are being raised about some of the winners.

Whether it’s the exhaust from a government owned and operated vehicle or the many different ways that the public sector uses energy to function, since 2008 the province has been keen on reducing emissions.

But the critics of B.C.’s Pacific Carbon Trust program have long argued that it is one of the most convoluted initiatives ever undertaken by a provincial government and one that is open for abuse at taxpayers’ expense.

“It is money from hospitals, classrooms, post-secondary institutions given to the Pacific Carbon Trust at $25 a ton fixed by law. The Pacific Carbon Trust goes to the market and purchases these offsets from private companies in British Columbia,” says Cariboo North MLA Bob Simpson. “And what we found is they are paying on average $10. So, if we are going to do this, we need a system that does not punish our public sector and force them to pay the price that is not supported by the marketplace.”

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Of the Pacific Carbon Trust payouts between 2008 and December 31st 2011, the big winner was TimberWest, collecting 5.6 million dollars in tax credits for reducing its carbon footprint.

Next is the Nature Conservancy of Canada that was paid 4.5 million dollars for not logging a swath of land near Nelson called the Darkwoods project.

It purchased this land — with help from Ottawa — to preserve habitat and wildlife.

Meanwhile, in 2011 alone, the province charged coast health 1.18 million dollars for not meeting pollution targets.

UBC had 1.7 million dollars clawed back from its operating budget as punishment.

And, the Vancouver school district watched $459,000 disappear in penalties.

School districts — especially the growing ones like Surrey — have long argued that it can’t meet emission targets because it’s forced to use energy inefficient portable classrooms.

But to the carbon program’s credit, it does seem to be working on one front and that’s public awareness.

“We have added schools, we have added a great deal of students, and yet we are maintaining and, in fact, reducing our total energy consumption,” says Surrey schools spokesman Doug Strachan.

This year the province did give the Surrey school district a one-time grant of $750,000 to find ways to save energy, but with the other hand it took most of it away. The district was fined another $500,000 for not meeting carbon targets.