The independent MLA for Cariboo North, Bob Simpson, has claimed that the B.C. government and one of its Crown corporations, the Pacific Carbon Trust, have misled the public about offsetting public-sector greenhouse-gas emissions.

Simpson told the Straight by phone that the government has legislated that the Pacific Carbon Trust must buy 700,000 tonnes of carbon-dioxide-equivalent offsets annually within B.C. This would supposedly achieve a “carbon-neutral government”.

But Simpson maintained that these offsets don’t exist.

“We just simply don’t have a situation in B.C. where the companies in British Columbia are actually willing to put that much capital up for discrete stand-alone greenhouse-gas emission-reduction projects,” he said. “If you read every annual report that the Pacific Carbon Trust has released, they admit that.”

On April 2, Simpson wrote to Finance Minister Mike de Jong demanding the dismissal of Pacific Carbon Trust’s CEO, Scott MacDonald, and its board of directors, which is chaired by retired civil servant Chris Trumpy.

The Pacific Carbon Trust turned down the Straight’s request for an interview. Instead, it pointed to its formal board statement, released after a damning auditor general’s report was made public in late March.

The statement does not deal with Simpson’s claim that it is impossible to buy 700,000 tonnes of carbon-dioxide-equivalent offsets each year in B.C.

Simpson alleges that the board and the CEO have not been “honest about that problem”. He claimed that instead, they bought offsets from projects that were approved before the legislation took effect, rather than speaking publicly about this issue and urging the government to change the legislation.

He cited Encana’s underbalanced drilling project in northeastern B.C. and International Forest Products’ biomass fuel switch at Adams Lake as two capital investments made before the Pacific Carbon Trust was created.

In early 2008, Encana characterized its project, which reduced gas flaring and venting, as “voluntary compliance”, according to Simpson.

“Encana publicly reported that they actually made more money out of the underbalanced drilling…than they did with their normal drilling,” he claimed.

Simpson also stated that Encana’s project added one million tonnes of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere each year, but it still qualified for carbon credits. That’s because the Pacific Carbon Trust concluded there was an 84,000-tonne reduction because of the way the project was built.

“None of that makes sense at any level,” he insisted.

In addition, Simpson pointed out that the International Forest Products project was approved by its board in 2006, well before then-premier Gordon Campbell announced his plan for carbon-neutral government.

Simpson noted that both companies have been generous donors to the B.C. Liberals. Ahead of the 2005 election, International Forest Products contributed $101,690; Encana ponied up $77,990.

He’s also troubled by the Pacific Carbon Trust’s refusal to allow him to see the justification for generating carbon credits from the preservation of the Great Bear Rainforest. Simpson claimed that this will provide the “lion’s share” of offsets to create a carbon-neutral government in 2012–13.

“As a sitting elected member of the legislative assembly, in which public money is involved, they will not let me see the models,” he said.