B.C. school districts that paid fines for failing to become carbon neutral will be getting some of their money back.
As reported in a Business in Vancouver Full Disclosure story (“Smoke and Mirrors” – issue 1139; August 23-29), school districts in B.C. were forced to pay $4.4 million in 2010 to the Pacific Carbon Trust. The trust then handed some of the money to companies like Encana, Interfor, Canfor, TimberWest and Lafarge to help fund initiatives aimed at reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.
The Surrey School Board has been forced to pay close to $1 million between 2010 and 2011 for failing to hit carbon neutral targets – a consequence of the school district’s swelling enrolment and its use of 230 portable classrooms, which are energy inefficient.
Dozens of other school districts, hospitals, Crown corporations and public-sector organizations have been required to pay millions into the PCT since 2010.
In September 2011, B.C. Environment Minister Terry Lake said he would review the PCT policies. On Thursday he announced that $5 million of the money school boards have paid will come back to them.
School districts that fail to be carbon-neutral will still have to pay the PCT, but an equal amount of money will come back through a new $5 million capital program to help school districts become more energy efficient.
However, it is not clear whether the money the districts get back will be enough to undertake multimillion-dollar energy upgrades.
The amount of money individual school districts will get will be “equal to or greater” than the total paid to the PCT, according to a Ministry of Environment press release.
In addition, the province will no longer charge school districts an administrative fee that had been charged to calculate their carbon debts or credits.
Hospitals and health districts also paid $5.4 million into the PCT in 2010. It has not been confirmed whether health districts will also be getting back some of the money they paid to the PCT.
