The Northern Interior branch of the B.C. School Trustees Association (BCSTA) is crying foul over the provincial government's carbon offset policy.
The branch, which represents school districts from Williams Lake north, has passed a motion calling on Victoria to ensure public funds paid to the Pacific Carbon Trust (PCT) are used to fund public projects only.
As it stands, School District 57 contributes about $200,000 a year in carbon offsets to PCT, established in 2008 to purchase credits on behalf of public sector bodies, but is excluded from accessing that money to pay for work meant to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Instead, cash goes into private sector projects - notably at luxury hotels and resorts. Of the 15 projects listed in a "project showcase" section on the PCT website, 10 are for hybrid heating systems at these operations, half of them in Whistler.
"This is the strange situation that we have, where government agencies are putting money into a Crown corporation, private companies get access to that corporation and yet we don't," school board trustee Lois Boone said during the board's Feb. 8 meeting when she told fellow trustees a resolution had been passed.
The branch's resolution, which will be forwarded to the BCSTA, also called for a more equitable formula to address regional disparities. Due largely to higher heating costs in northern B.C., the amount School District 57 pays out works out to roughly $17 per student compared to just $9 per student in the Langley school district.
Cariboo North independent MLA Bob Simpson has also waded into the issue, saying PCT should administer accounts on behalf of each school district.
"If school districts choose not to invest some or all of their carbon offset account in any given fiscal year, then the net difference should be paid to the PCT," Simpson said in a letter to Minister of State for Climate Action John Yap.
"This change will enable school districts to do long term planning to reduce their carbon footprint toward carbon neutrality, which is the government's objective, while at the same time reducing their operating costs and directing more of their annual budget to teaching our children."
Yap was out of the country this week and could not be reached for comment but Ministry of Environment officials did provide a written response. Not to be confused with carbon offsets, they noted school districts are completely reimbursed for the carbon tax they pay to Victoria for purchases of fuel and so forth.
For School District 57, the total is expected to amount to $90,000 this year and all of that money is then earmarked for energy efficiency projects aimed at reducing greenhouse gases and, in the process, lowering the amount the school district pays out in carbon offsets.
Trustee Trish Bella, who is working with school district administration to establish an environmental sustainability committee that would conduct audits of school district greenhouse gas emissions and propose projects to reduce them, said an extra $200,000 would be useful.
"We all know how old the facilities are," she said. "To start doing some upgrades, that would be fabulous to have it."
