Yesterday, British Columbia's government refused to release a report from the Auditor General that examined Pacific Carbon Trust, a crown agency set up to pass funds from schools, hospitals and other public institutions to private companies that claim to reduce emissions.
Today, we understand why Liberals tried to prevent release of the A-G's work. It is devastating and the Twitter world is alive with commentaries. A good starting point is @bobmackin.
The Pacific Carbon Trust had been circulating copies of the work in a campaign to discredit the report. Inevitably, the paperwork ended up in media hands. With the genie out of the bottle, Speaker Bill Barisoff, a person faulted strongly in the recent audit of Legislative finances, was forced to make the report public.
John Doyle's office provides a video summary that is well worth spending 15 minutes to watch.
By the way, for his fine work, Scott MacDonald, the Pacific Carbon Trust CEO, enjoyed a 14% raise in 2012. His salary in the last fiscal year was $195,168, which was $24,000 more than in 2011.
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Wednesday, March 27, 2013
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I can't wait to see these weasels on the news tonight clamboring desperately to save their absolutely useless patronage positions.
ReplyDelete"The audit shows that the government took funds from cash-strapped school districts and hospitals to pay an oil and gas company to do a project they were going to do anyway," said New Democrat environment critic Rob Fleming.
ReplyDeleteThe "Dark Woods" of Carbon Offsets!
ReplyDelete"So, for now, "Wall Street is looking ahead to the day when carbon emissions are limited or taxed. These banks want to provide services to help their clients meet the rules as cost effectively as possible. They want to be able to buy forest land and get a carbon credit.
They want to participate in carbon sequestration projects. And they want to be able to profitably trade carbon offsets that bring together companies that want to release carbon with companies that are able to reduce their carbon usage."
http://energy.aol.com/2012/11/01/big-banks-await-us-carbon-trading-while-focusing-on-core-energy/
I must take issue with this..."Reported a 6% increase in emissions above 2010 - (a 3% reduction when normalized for climate change)" (Quoting the video text not the voice over)
ReplyDeleteThe cooler temperatures in 2011 that enabled this 3% reduction were not the result of climate change. They were the result of weather.
Les' comment is on the mark. My spouse is a retired school administrator and remains ticked off that she had to make room in her budget for those ridiculous carbon offsets.
We were discussing our un-funded school lunch program today. It used to be funded, to supply free lunches to kids from poor or negligent parents, while others would pay the actual cost, which these days is $3.50 for a "cardboard" whole wheat pizza or a sub sandwich.
ReplyDeleteNow, there's no government funding, so the school has to come up with any shortfall. Meanwhile, we have to pay $thousands for these carbon offsets. It's unfair and insane!
@ Barry Stewart
ReplyDeletewhat happened to the provincial government funding for school lunches?
money to support poor kids (i.e. school lunches etc) should be targetted funding to each district from Ministry of Education through CommunityLINK (Learning Includes Nutrition and Knowledge).
Anon, I'm just reporting what I was told by admin... that we're on the hook for unpaid lunches. School-based budgeting is another responsibility that has been off-loaded down the chain.
DeleteCan you imagine for a minute what Goldman Sachs can do with this 'investment vehicle'??
ReplyDeletewho is the education critic? for decades the funding for school lunches could only be spent on poor kids. Did this get changed? Is this now money that schools can spend how they want?
ReplyDeleteAnd there are so many kids that come to school hungry every day. Often takes months for the little ones to tell the school lunch lady that they need food, even in well-off neighbourhoods. And summer holidays are a long stretch.