Forget the fix, Adrian Dix: just find the courage to press the government to can the Pacific Carbon Trust (PCT) all together.

Readers of this blog will know the burr I have under my saddle on the PCT. First, there was the news that BC School Boards had sent $4.4 million out of the classroom to the PCT in the name of “carbon neutrality.” Then there was the news that government overall had spent $18.2 million on the same goofiness—and that those tax dollars had gone to fund greenwashing projects at poor struggling companies like Encana, Interfor, Intrawest, Canfor, the Whistler Pan Pacific Mountainside, and the Whistler Westin. Then came news that even the environmentalists want this thing scrapped.

Finally, Environment Minister Terry Lake started talking about fixing the PCT. And, now, in a head-scratching move, the BC NDP have agreed with Lake—only prodding him to take action sooner.

That’s a mistake. The NDP should be following the lead of the CTF and demanding the hair-brained scheme be dumped all together. However, the NDP news release does offer some interesting facts:

“The Liberals need to immediately scrap their policy of funneling scarce healthcare and education dollars into private sector projects and start using the Pacific Carbon Trust to lower the carbon footprint of schools and hospitals," said Dix. “Instead of using limited health and education resources to subsidize big polluters, we should be creating jobs and protecting the environment by reinvesting our public resources in greening our classrooms and emergency rooms.”

Last year the Liberals forced the public sector to send more than $18.2 million to the Pacific Carbon Trust, which then used those resources to fund private sector projects. New Democrats have repeatedly pointed out that it is ludicrous to force the public sector, which is responsible for less than one per cent of greenhouse gases emitted in the province, to subsidize big polluters who pay no penalty for the majority of their greenhouse gas emissions.

New Democrats note the Liberal policy cost the Surrey school district $497,000, the Vancouver school district $406,000, the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority $1.15 million, and UBC $1.52 million last year. Meanwhile the Liberals sent an estimated $2 million, which was collected from schools and hospitals, to Encana, an oil and gas company with deep ties to Premier Christy Clark's transition advisor, Gywn Morgan.

The idea of changing the PCT to fund government greenwashing doesn’t make it any better—it’s still wasteful, useless bureaucracy that does nothing to address more than 99% of the carbon emissions happening in BC. Why punish students, the elderly, the sick, and the taxpayer? If there are improvements to be made at government facilities, agencies should find the money within their own budget, not have to justify it to another level of bureaucracy under the guise of greenwashing.

Kill the Pacific Carbon Trust outright. It’s a flawed model, and taxpayers deserve better.