Schools, hospitals, and other public bodies spent $18.2 million in 2010 on carbon offsets that the British Columbia government required them to buy. A detailed list of those purchases is now available.
The offsets were purchased at $25 per tonne of carbon emissions from the Pacific Carbon Trust, itself a Crown corporation which funds projects in the private sector aimed at reducing the release of greenhouse gasses.
While the offset purchases allow the government to claim it achieved carbon neutrality in 2010, they have been criticized for requiring already cash-strapped bodies to provide money that ends up helping the balance sheet of companies like Encana Corporation.
The purchases included $1.5 million by the University of British Columbia, $1.15 million by Vancouver Coastal Health and $663,998 by B.C. Housing. Crown corporations BC Hydro and ICBC, which have both faced public outcry over proposed rate increases, spent $749,345 and $511,600 respectively on offsets last year.
School districts required to pay the most for offsets include Surrey ($496,892), Vancouver ($406,094) and Richmond ($182,387).
Following is the complete list:
Health
Bella Coola General Hospital $6,912
Fraser Health Authority $933,720
Interior Health Authority $965,891
Louis Brier Home and Hospital $18,066
Menno Hospital $11,054
Mount St. Mary Hospital $10,467
Nisga'a Valley Health Board $5,001
Northern Health Authority $578,156
Providence Healthcare $283,742
Provincial Health Services Authority $617,699
RW Large Memorial Hospital $2,595
St. Joseph's General Hospital $24,543
St. Michael's Center $9,704
Vancouver Coastal Health Authority $1,146,831
Vancouver Island Health Authority $812,514
Wrinch Memorial Hospital $1,488
Crown corporations
BC Assessment $15,138
BC Games $183
BC Housing $663,988
BC Hydro $749,345
BC Innovation Council $157
BC Liquor Distribution Branch $96,565
BC Lottery Corporation $37,196
BC Oil and Gas Commission $10,813
BC Pavilion Corporation $133,679
BC Transit $34,615
BC Securities Commission $4,964
Columbia Basin Trust $542
Columbia Power Corporation $709
Community Living BC $26,402
First Peoples Heritage LCC $92
Forestry Innovation Investment $3,877
Industry Training Authority $903
Insurance Corporation of BC $511,600
Knowledge Network Corporation $2,409
Legal Services Society $2,513
Pacific Carbon Trust $170
Partnerships BC $912
Private Career Training Institute Agency $179
Provincial Capital Commission $4,463
Royal BC Museum $4,720
Post secondary institutions
BC Institute of Technology $246,184
Camosun College $50,821
Capilano University $54,267
College of New Caledonia $56,408
College of the Rockies $20,472
Douglas College $48,990
Emily Carr University of Artand Design $21,469
Justice Institute of BC $17,407
Kwantlen Polytechnic University $61,964
Langara College $44,049
Nicola Valley Institute of Technology $10,498
North Island College $26,727
Northern Lights College $56,688
Northwest Community College $34,228
Okanagan College $47,540
Royal Roads University $36,499
Selkirk College $38,142
Simon Fraser University $444,452
Thompson Rivers University $103,310
UBC Okanagan $71,268
University of BC $1,519,801
University of Northern BC $142,198
University of the Fraser Valley $76,517
University of Victoria $388,647
Vancouver Community College $74,830
Vancouver Island University $76,113
School districts
School District 05, Southeast Kootenay $67,914
School District 06, Rocky Mountain $41,397
School District 08, Kootenay Lake $47,570
School District 10, Arrow Lakes $7,761
School District 19, Revelstoke $9,166
School District 20, Kootenay-Columbia $48,300
School District 22, Vernon $65,431
School District 23, Central Okanagan $127,965
School District 27, Cariboo-Chilcotin $84,921
School District 28, Quesnel $41,422
School District 33, Chilliwack $56,368
School District 34, Abbotsford $95,726
School District 35, Langley $146,122
School District 36, Surrey $496,892
School District 37, Delta $100,235
School District 38, Richmond $182,387
School District 39, Vancouver $406,094
School District 40, New Westminster $50,130
School District 41, Burnaby $150,175
School District 42, Maple Ridge $87,656
School District 43, Coquitlam $233,545
School District 44, North Vancouver $114,484
School District 45, West Vancouver $39,199
School District 46, Sunshine Coast $27,744
School District 47, Powell River $28,602
School District 48, Sea To Sky/Howe Sound $45,461
School District 49, Central Coast $8,606
School District 50, Haida Gwaii $21,196
School District 51, Boundary $20,688
School District 52, Prince Rupert $24,730
School District 53, Okanagan Similkameen $21,790
School District 54, Bulkley Valley $22,941
School District 57, Prince George $164,333
School District 58, Nicola-Similkameen $24,355
School District 59, Peace River South $71,578
School District 60, Peace River North $71,984
School District 61, Greater Victoria $152,040
School District 62, Sooke $57,649
School District 63, Saanich $44,832
School District 64, Gulf Islands $5,388
School District 67, Okanagan Skaha $45,356
School District 68, Ladysmith $97,805
School District 69, Qualicum $42,677
School District 70, Alberni $35,916
School District 71, Comox Valley $61,584
School District 72, Campbell River $56,975
School District 73, Kamloops/Thompson $106,496
School District 74, Gold Trail $19,400
School District 75, Mission $48,338
School District 78, Fraser-Cascade $21,766
School District 79, Cowichan Valley $66,068
School District 81, Fort Nelson $17,356
School District 82, Coast Mountains $63,320
School District 83, North Okanagan-Shuswap $61,784
School District 84, Vancouver Island West $4,514
School District 85, Vancouver Island North $16,392
School District 87, Stikine $12,129
School District 91, Nechako Lakes $64,453
School District 92, Nisga'a $2,196
School District 93, Conseil Scolaire Francophone $57,504
Core government
Ministries etc. $2,323,778
Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee’s Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Find him on Twitter or reach him here.
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freebear
14 weeks ago
You mean taxpayers have bought carbon offsets!
What a scam and yet emmissions still increase!
raging senior
14 weeks ago
Buying Carbon Off sets
This is not the biggest farse that has been pulled on the Province of BC but it ranks right up there. It is taxing money that came from citizns for services and to then claw back the money is insane and criminal.
Amelia Bellamy-Royds
14 weeks ago
The really interesting list
...would be the one breaking down the money spent by offset project.
(Although if anyone has some time and can track down the data, it would also be useful to go back over this list and convert the total numbers to percentage of budget. School districts, health authorities, etc. vary greatly by size, so of course the big metropolitan agencies have the largest total costs. On a percentage basis, I suspect the greatest cost would be for smaller rural organizations, which have to deal with greater transportation costs, and possibly greater heating costs on older facilities.)
Henry Dorsett Case
14 weeks ago
neocon green
This is what happens when neocons "embrace" the green agenda - it is just another means to transfer more wealth to the elite.
Langley
14 weeks ago
what a joke, but I ain't laughing
congrats to the Pacific Carbon Trust who had to pay themselves a whopping $170.00
pwlg
14 weeks ago
ThE MurkY WorlD oF CarboN CrediTs and OffsetS
Thanks Andrew for putting this list together.
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives published a "Policy Note" on the murky world of carbon credits last year that's worth a read"
http://www.policynote.ca/darkwoods-the-murky-world-of-carbon-credits-and-a-%E2%80%9Ccarbon-neutral%E2%80%9D-b-c-government/
Would like to know who the 2011 recipients were of the public money that would have been better spent on education and healthcare.
Just who is verifying whether or not Encana's theoretical assumptions on their flare reduction program has obtained the actual reductions? Or has an increase in production actually seen no reductions and perhaps increases in their emissions?
How about the rest of the charlatans of carbon emissions?
Andrew MacLeod
14 weeks ago
Pacific Carbon Trust projects
A couple people have raised questions about what Pacific Carbon Trust is spending the offset money collected from the public on. It is the flipside of the story, and I hope to come back to it. Meanwhile, here's a link to their list, though it may not include all the details you would like:
http://pacificcarbontrust.com/our-projects/offset-showcase/
Terri Robson
14 weeks ago
carbon offsets
This is what you get when environmentalists capitulate to capitalism.
Started with the first Kyoto, in order to get some form of emmission control regulations worldwide, environmentalists had to make larger concessions to Private Enterprise.
We have the cap & trade ; carbon offsets ; carbon sequestration, NONE of these is the right mechanism for the control of emmissions that are detrimental to our environment and our collecttive health.
woodworker
14 weeks ago
scrap the trust
This is typical of environmentalists. What did this accomplish. Absolutely nothing except hurt health care and education and add another burden to the tax payers.
No if China paid into it they just fine. Like that is going to happen.
bcnaiad
14 weeks ago
The carbon debate
In trying to understand both sides of the debate I have come across some interesting lectures from those supposedly wacked out "deniers". These lectures have provided a most valuable perspective. I recall learning about glaciation and climate in elementary school. We were taught that we were in an 'interstadial' period....hmmm It's interesting that the London Met and the University of East Anglia climate centre just issued data showing no significant warming for the past 15 years.
When I had a look at the MET data, the first thing that struck me was that the dates were arranged by "rank" rather than chronological order. Each year was ranked by the magnitude of the difference from global average temperature. Effectively, this hides the obvious trend....or lack thereof. I moved the data from three satellites in to excel and sorted by date then plotted line graphs. Uh.....wow, looks like a downward trend to me. I encourage everyone to watch these videos for perspective. Raise your hand if you think commodification of carbon is helping anything except other than the corporate bottom line.
Climate Change - Is C02 the cause?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOLkze-9GcI
Why the IPCC Models are Wrong
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xos49g1sdzo&feature=g-vrec&context=G2b20c27RVAAAAAAAAAg