In his role as minister responsible for the core review, Bill Bennett is the last person you’d expect to see acceding to Opposition demands to do this or that. But on Tuesday, he was the soul of accommodation.
The core review of government functions he is responsible for produced its first major decision, and it’s exactly what the NDP has been demanding.
Bennett dissolved the Pacific Carbon Trust, the controversial agency that created and managed a carbon offset market in B.C. That’s exactly what NDP Leader Adrian Dix called for on Earth Day, during the spring election campaign.
Dix said: “The Pacific Carbon Trust has been under review almost since it started. We would disband the PCT, put its responsibilities for monitoring under the climate action secretariat and ensure that when we ask hospitals and post-secondary and other public institutions to contribute, that the money goes to other public institutions.”
For the most part, that’s just what Bennett announced. The PCT will be disbanded and the outfit will be folded into the environment ministry where the purchase of offsets will be managed by the climate action secretariat.
All provincial public organizations will continue to pay for their greenhouse-gas emissions ($25 a tonne). But the model created last year for public schools — where school districts reduce emissions under a different system — could be applied to the hospital and post-secondary field. That addresses the last part of the NDP stand.
The move dismantles one of former premier Gordon Campbell’s bolder creations, which won’t bother Bennett a bit, given his epic rant against that premier when he was bounced out of cabinet.
Bennett and Environment Minister Mary Polak proclaimed their government remains committed to carbon neutrality. Maybe in principle, but the fight against climate change will be a lower priority once the high-visibility agency disappears, moved into an office in the ministry with one-third the previous staff. And if they move hospitals and post-secondary to the school model, some of the offsetting work done by the PCT will disappear.
It will save government $5.6 million and a lot of grief, as the principle never really caught on with the public. Cash-strapped public outfits were paying hundreds of thousands into the trust, which would check out GHG reduction plans in private business and contribute some of the money to them.
Former auditor general John Doyle also landed on the PCT last year with a hotly contested report questioning some of the deals struck.
Between people who support the concept but dislike the execution and people who reject the entire idea, there’s a fair-sized body of opinion that will support Tuesday’s move.
Bennett also lined up with the Opposition on the agricultural land reserve, which will likely disappoint the NDP. New Democrats got revved up last weekend at the prospect of a fight to defend the future of the ALR from the scheming Liberal government.
But Bennett doesn’t want to take them on. “I know that it’s sacrosanct. I know the reserve itself and the principles that underlie it are very important to the people of B.C.”
A leaked memo earlier suggested the government was considering wholesale changes, but Bennett said that was just one idea from one end of the range, submitted after he urged everything be looked at.
It has been rejected and big changes for the ALR now look unlikely.
Bennett said farmland can’t be protected adequately unless an independent agency does the work. The commission that does the job will undergo the core review process. But what happened to the Pacific Carbon Trust and the Provincial Capital Commission — also disbanded Tuesday — isn’t going to happen to the land commission, he said.
Since he was named to the post, Bennett has stressed the need for “bold” ideas. He got just that with the short-lived ALR notion, but rejected it. So the message now is: Be bold, but not that bold.
Tuesday’s moves amount to $6.6 million in projected savings. The target is to carve $50 million in spending out of next year’s budget.
Eliminating the PCT is one of the few cuts that will be endorsed by some people. It’s not going to get any easier.
