Goldstein: Canada’s carbon catastrophe begins
B.C.’s schools, hospitals forced to buy carbon credits rather than fund nurses, teachers
It’s like watching the same train wreck — twice.
Our politicians are starting to commit the same wasteful blunders, resulting in the same perverse consequences, as the Europeans have in pricing carbon dioxide emissions, ostensibly to fight climate change.
The harbinger of many bad things to come for us is now happening in B.C.
There, the provincial government is forcing the transfer of millions of tax dollars from cash-strapped schools, hospitals and other public institutions, by requiring them to buy carbon offsets.
Money which then benefits hugely profitable energy companies like Encana.
This is eerily reminiscent of what happened in Europe when it started pricing emissions years ago.
Hospitals, universities and other public facilities had to spend millions of dollars that could have gone toward hiring more nurses and professors, buying carbon credits.
Meanwhile, energy giants like BP and Esso made millions after receiving free carbon credits from European regulators — which they then sold into Europe’s disastrous cap-and-trade market, the Emissions Trading Scheme.
The reason for the fiasco in B.C. is the provincial government has decreed schools, hospitals and other public facilities must become “carbon neutral,” with municipalities joining the list next year.
The only way they can comply, because so many of their buildings are old and energy inefficient, is to buy “carbon offsets” to — in theory — cancel out their excess emissions.
As Craig McInnes of the Vancouver Sun reported May 7, the city’s school board, facing a budget shortfall of $8.4 million, nonetheless had to spend $450,000 on carbon offsets and a “smart tool” to calculate its “carbon footprint.”
According to The Tyee online newspaper, the same thing is happening to school boards, hospitals and other public facilities across B.C. (Toronto Sun)
