The B.C. government is reviewing its controversial carbon neutral government strategy and Environment Minister Terry Lake says "everything is up for discussion."

He'll get lots of advice. Critics have complained that the strategy uses tax dollars to pay profitable corporations to cut their greenhouse gas emissions and they've questioned whether public money was needed to make those cuts. Some, like Independent MLA Bob Simpson, have called the strategy a "sham" and want the carbon neutral legislation repealed.

It's uncertain how far the government is prepared to go to answer these charges. Nor do critics and stakeholders agree on what Lake should do instead. The consultations will largely take place in private, but here's a peek at some of the proposals -- both solicited and unsolicited -- Lake is likely to hear:

Scrap it

The most radical solution, this is also the least likely to be followed by the government. It's the answer put forward by those who believe that the problems with carbon neutral government are more than growing pains.

The idea that the B.C. government is carbon neutral -- a net-zero emitter of greenhouse gases (GHGs) -- is largely based on the purchase of carbon offsets. If you believe, like Simon Fraser University economist Mark Jaccard, that carbon offsets are an illusion, it's hard to imagine what else can be done with the program except ditch it.

The program works this way: for every tonne of greenhouse gases a government organization emits, it must pay $25. That money goes to a Crown corporation called the Pacific Carbon Trust (PCT), which uses it to buy offsets from B.C. companies and organizations. Offsets represent emissions that these companies and organizations would have produced, but have decided instead to eliminate.

The total emissions reductions are supposed to match, tonne for tonne, the emissions put out by the public sector, which allows the government to declare itself carbon neutral.

The principle behind the scheme is that the private sector emissions cuts would not have happened if the government had not bought the offsets. But Jaccard argues that there's no way to be sure that's true.

He said programs like this tend to attract what are known as "free riders," participants who would have reduced their emissions even if they hadn't been paid. And, if the cuts would have happened without the government's help, then you can't claim they offset the government's own emissions.

(The government and its supporters argue that the PCT's offsets are genuine because they are examined closely by independent consultants who reject any free riders.)

BC Conservative Party Leader John Cummins has promised to kill the province's "carbon bureaucracy," including the carbon tax and the PCT. On the other side of the political spectrum, Independent MLA Simpson, one of the carbon neutral strategy's most persistent critics, has introduced a private member's bill called the Carbon Neutral Government Repeal Act. If passed -- and private member's bills rarely become law -- public sector organizations would still have to track and report their GHG emissions, but they would not have to buy offsets from the PCT.

Don't subsidize, tax

This option could be done with or without scrapping public sector offset payments. In this scenario, rather than paying corporations to reduce their emissions, government would make those emissions more expensive.

Currently, the carbon tax covers emissions caused by burning fossil fuels. That's about three-quarters of the province's total emissions. The other quarter comes from a number of sources, including landfills, gas pipelines and industrial processes like cement making.

Lake said the government is looking at putting a price on these emissions, but critics complain that the government is moving too slowly.

Ian Bruce, a climate specialist with the David Suzuki Foundation, said industrial emissions should be regulated or taxed.

"Instead of being part of the (PCT) offset portfolio, they should be required like other sectors in British Columbia to be contributing to reducing their own greenhouse gas emissions through regulations or through the carbon tax," Bruce said. "That would help shift responsibility back to industrial polluters to reduce their own pollution. And in the long run it would make B.C.'s industry leaders in energy efficiency."

Simpson points to offsets purchased from Encana as an example of what happens under the current policy. The PCT pays Encana an undisclosed amount to reduce emissions at a northeastern B.C. drill site. The PCT says that's a reduction of just under 85,000 tonnes a year. But Encana is also going ahead with the Cabin Gas Plant near Fort Nelson, which will put out 2.2 million additional tonnes of GHGs a year.

That's 25 times the emissions reduction the PCT paid for through offsets. In fact, it's three times the total annual emissions offset by the entire B.C. public sector.

"That's bad public policy," Simpson said.

Keep it and fix it

Not everyone wants to scrap the program. Matt Horne, of the Pembina Institute, argues that B.C.'s carbon neutral government initiative is a "relatively unique" policy. "To expect to have gotten it exactly right on the first pass through probably isn't realistic."

He said he's concerned about calls to drop the strategy because it has put a price on emissions in the public sector and has caused those working in government to think about their carbon footprint.

"It's not universal, but there's certainly lots of people thinking, 'We're paying $25 a tonne -- how can we not pay that,' " Horne said. "That's something that other types of green government programs haven't accomplished."

Horne is one of several people following this file who think offsets could be retained, but with a change in emphasis.

Give more weight to reducing

The B.C. carbon neutral strategy was policy in a hurry. Public sector organizations were given less than three years to cut their emissions before having to buy offsets. A government eager to develop a B.C. offset industry ended up giving much more weight in its strategy to offsets than to emissions-reducing capital projects.

A program of government grants eliminated 35,600 tonnes of annual GHGs, about four per cent of the total government output. But that grant program has been cancelled, and public organizations argue that they don't have the capital funds to make further cuts.

Other jurisdictions have given themselves more time to reach the carbon neutral goal. And they've put emissions cuts before offsets. The U.K. Climate Change Department's Guidance on Carbon Neutrality, the UN and ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability all stress reducing emissions before buying offsets.

A report from the Columbia Institute, a Vancouver civic governance think-tank and community group, shows how this approach to carbon neutral government has played out in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW).