Carbon Tax

EDITORIAL: Quebec’s ‘green' fund a warning to Canadians

If the best predictor of future performance is past behaviour, then the fate of Quebec’s $5.5 billion green fund, raised from the proceeds of its cap and trade carbon pricing system, should be a warning to all Canadians.

That’s because, according to Quebec Environment Minister Benoit Charette, the previous Liberal government, which created the fund in 2006 and was in charge of it until last year, didn’t actually care about using the money to reduce industrial greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change.

As Charette told The Canadian Press: “Certain government departments helped themselves to the fund, so to speak, without a guarantee of results on investments” meaning the reduction in emissions “was very small across the projects that were financed.”

While Charette is a member of the Coalition Avenir Quebec party that defeated the Liberals last year, it’s not just political partisans who have criticized the green fund.

Quebec’s auditor general has repeatedly found fault with the fund’s administration as well.

What happened in Quebec is exactly what many Canadians fear will happen with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s national carbon pricing scheme, of which Quebec’s cap-and-trade program is now a part.

That is, that much of the money won’t be used to reduce emissions.

Ljiljana Latkovic — appointed as a member of the governing council chosen to oversee the green fund in 2017 — told The Canadian Press: “My opinion is that the (environment) ministry didn’t care about the reductions.”

As a result, critics say, money was distributed to oil companies, airlines, taxi firms, Quebec’s maple syrup industry and others, for dubious projects that had little to do with reducing emissions.

Latkovic said the council was reduced to rubber stamping projects that had already been approved by the Quebec government, with up to 90% of all projects decided in this way.

“It’s unfortunately true,” he said. “It’s really what was happening. We had a situation where the fund wasn’t being used to its potential. There was confusion regarding responsibilities. It’s what we want to correct.”

While the new CAQ government is promising reforms to the administration of the green fund, Quebec’s experience illustrates why many Canadians are skeptical of carbon pricing.

It’s because they don’t trust governments to spend the money wisely or effectively.

https://torontosun.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-quebecs-green-fund-a-warning-to-canadians