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A provincial NDP government would kill Pacific Carbon Trust

Apr 22 2013/in News Coverage

The Pacific Carbon Trust would be scrapped if the NDP forms B.C.’s next government, leader Adrian Dix said Monday as he unveiled the party’s environmental platform.

The Climate Action Secretariat would take over from the trust, with carbon-tax revenues used to fund transit and other green projects, he said. Levies paid by hospitals, Crown corporations and post-secondary schools would fund energy-efficiency upgrades for those institutions.

“Since 2008, our public institutions have been paying tens of millions of dollars in levies to the Pacific Carbon Trust,” Dix said. “Instead of using those funds to invest in energy-efficiency initiatives in schools and hospitals, the bulk of the money has been gifted to profitable corporations.”

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The Pacific Carbon Trust was formed in 2008 to help reduce carbon emissions. Businesses and institutions pay $25 a tonne to the trust for emissions and the trust then buys carbon offsets. However, that meant cash-strapped schools and hospitals had to come up with funds that often then went to for-profit companies offering offsets. Auditor general John Doyle recently found the trust was investing in projects that would have gone ahead anyway.

Environment critic Rob Fleming, who is seeking re-election in Victoria-Swan Lake, said the aim is to make the fund work better.

“It will enable us to expand transit service. Literally more buses on the road. The big flaw is that since 2008, the Liberals haven’t invested a dime into public-transit service.”

But Environment Minister Terry Lake said Dix apparently doesn’t understand the concept of carbon neutrality.

“Turning it over to the Climate Action Secretariat doesn’t change anything and we’ve made some really good improvements, so I’m not sure how he intends to maintain carbon neutrality in the public sector, or maybe he doesn’t think that’s important,” he said.

The Liberals invested $75 million in making public buildings more energy efficient, saving institutions millions of dollars in energy costs, and another $5 million has gone into the carbon-neutral capital program for school districts for energy-efficiency projects that lower their carbon emissions, Lake said.

The NDP also pledged to ban cosmetic pesticides as part of its environmental platform. But a sparse announcement that the NDP will protect endangered species and habitats and reinvest in B.C.'s parks system, with few specifics, drew criticism from Ken Wu of the Ancient Forest Alliance. “The NDP’s environment platform is like a blurry moving sasquatch video in regards to potential old-growth forest protections and park creations,” he said. “You can’t discern if it’s real and significant or if it’s just Dix in a fake gorilla costume.”

The cost of the NDP’s environmental commitments is estimated at $36 million in 2013-14, $47 million in 2014-15 and $60 million in 2015-16.

The NDP also announced its agriculture platform, including a program to promote local food in hospitals and resurrection of a cancelled food-marketing program called Buy B.C.

Link to Times Colonist online article: www.timescolonist.com/sports/a-provincial-ndp-government-would-kill-pacific-carbon-trust-1.116909

Authorized by the Ancient Forest Alliance, registered sponsor under the Election Act

Ancient Forest, Alliance, Victoria Main PO, PO Box 8459, Victoria, BC, V8W 3S1 Canada

5 Canadians to salute on Earth Day

Apr 22 2013/in News Coverage

1. TJ Watt, Victoria, British Columbia

Avatar Grove on Vancouver Island is a protected forest of towering trees that have survived on the planet for centuries, and in some cases millennia. TJ Watt of the Ancient Forest Alliance has been integral in promoting sustainable practices that will ensure Avatar Grove’s existence. An activist and photographer, Watt has so far managed to help preserve 59 hectares of forest near Port Renfrew from logging.

2. Marc Kielburger, Toronto, Ontario

Along with his younger brother, Craig, and his wife, Roxanne Joyal, Kielburger has launched Me to We Trips, promoting volunteer tourism vacations that help improve the lives of children in the developing world. The Me to We Trips are eco-travel journeys that have less impact on the environment than similar excursions by other companies to Africa, Asia and Latin America. Half of the profits of the company go to Free the Children, the charitable organization founded by the Kielburgers and Joyal that has done tremendous work fighting against the exploitation of children around the world.

3. Katie Hayes, Bonavista, Newfoundland & Labrador

The owner of the Bonavista Social Club, a bakery and pizzeria overlooking the gorgeous northern coast of Newfoundland, Hayes has opted for an entirely organic menu. She relies on ingredients from the Bonavista Social Club’s garden, makes her own bread and pizzas in a wood-fired oven, and hopes to one day produce cheese from the goats on the restaurant’s grounds.

4. Hugo Germain, Montreal, Quebec

As the director of development of ALT Hotels, Germain has overseen the implementation of industry-leading green initiatives, including a geothermal heating system in the Toronto Pearson Airport franchise location that reduces its energy usage dramatically, says Germain, who is also the nephew of acclaimed hotelier Christiane Germain.

5. Cliff Speer, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

One of the most well-regarded tour operators in Saskatchewan, Speer is devoted to exploring Canada’s natural wonders with his clients. With his company, CanoeSki Discovery, Speer educates visitors on how to see his part of Canada in ways that have little impact on the environment. Whether it’s canoeing through Saskatoon on the South Saskatchewan River or cross-country skiing in one of the province’s parks, Speer gives you a thorough understanding of the ecology in the region and how urbanization threatens it.

Link to VayCay.ca online article: https://vacay.ca/2013/04/5-canadians-to-salute-on-earth-day/

“The NDP’s environment platform is like a blurry moving sasquatch video in regards to potential old-growth forest protections and park creation – you can’t discern if it’s real and significant

NDP Environmental Platform is like a "Blurry Sasquatch Video” on Old-Growth Forest Protection and Park Creation – Details Needed

Apr 22 2013/in Media Release

For Immediate Release

April 22, 2013

NDP Environmental Platform is like a “Blurry Sasquatch Video” on Old-Growth Forest Protection and Park Creation – Details Needed

Today on Earth Day BC NDP leader Adrian Dix announced the party’s environment platform, stating that an NDP government would “reinvest in BC’s parks” and “protect endangered species and habitats”. A version of the media release (not posted online) also stated the party would work to “acquire” “wetlands” and “old-growth forests”. See the main media release at: www.bcndp.ca/newsroom/dix-invests-green-projects-ends-carbon-credit-fund-and-reaffirms-opposition-enbridge

“The NDP’s environment platform is like a blurry moving sasquatch video in regards to potential old-growth forest protections and park creation – you can’t discern if it’s real and significant, or if it’s just Dix in a fake gorilla costume running to get attention,” stated Ken Wu, the Ancient Forest Alliance’s executive director. “We need the NDP to commit to a science-based plan to fully protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests on Crown lands, to ensure sustainable second-growth forestry, and to commit to a BC park acquisition fund to purchase and protect endangered ecosystems on private lands. We can’t discern any of these things with their vague and ambiguous statements with almost no details. We’re hoping a stronger and more detailed plan is yet to come…we’re waiting. At least it looks like they may be starting to move forward on forest protection commitments.”

The Ancient Forest Alliance is calling for a BC park acquisition fund, a provincial fund similar to the park acquisition funds of many Regional Districts like the Capital Regional District around Victoria. The fund would be used to help purchase significant tracts of endangered private lands of high conservation, scenic, and recreation value to add to BC’s protected areas system. Private lands constitute about 5% of BC’s land base, or about 4 million hectares, and include some of the rarest and most endangered ecosystems in the province, including the drier Douglas-fir dominated old-growth forests, Garry Oak meadows, wetlands, deciduous riparian forests, sage-filled grasslands, and the semi-arid “pocket desert” in the South Okanagan. The BC Liberals nixed the province’s park acquisition fund after the 2008 budget.

“Studies have shown that for every $1 spent by the BC government on our protected areas system, another $9 in tourism revenues is generated in the provincial economy,” stated TJ Watt, campaigner and photographer with the AFA. “What better investment can we make than to spend a modest sum each year to protect Beautiful British Columbia?”

The AFA is also calling for a sustainable forestry overhaul. This includes protecting BC’s endangered old-growth forests where already 75% of the original, productive old-growth forests have been logged on BC’s southern coast, including over 90% in the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow.

Most of BC’s remaining old-growth forests are found on Crown lands, which constitute over 90% of the province, and any old-growth plan in BC must fundamentally focus on protection measures on Crown lands.

Old-growth forests are vital for supporting endangered species, tourism, the climate, clean water and salmon, and many First Nations cultures.

Last Monday, the NDP released their forestry platform that made no mention of protecting old-growth forests, sustainable forestry, or the environment. It essentially continues the unsustainable status quo of old-growth forest liquidation and overcutting at the expense of ecosystems and communities. See last week’s media release: ancientforestalliance.org/ndp-full-platform-released-today-old-growth-protection-mentioned-and-1-million-year-allocated-to-protect-endangered-species-and-habitat/

The BC Green Party has committed to a science-based plan to protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests. See: www.andrewjweaver.ca/bc_green_party_forestry_action_plan

The BC Liberals still hold their unscientific stance that “old-growth forests are not disappearing” and that they’ve managed them well, and are leaving a largely anti-environmental policy legacy of old-growth forest liquidation and environmental deregulation in most of BC, with over 30,000 forestry jobs lost as tens of millions of raw logs were exported.

NDP Leader Adrian Dix, during his 2011 campaign to become party leader, promised to: “Develop a long term strategy for old growth forests in the province, including protection of specific areas that are facing immediate logging plans.” (see point #4 in “Ecosystem Management”) [Original article no longer available]

While several NDP MLA’s have championed protecting specific old-growth forests while in Opposition, which the Ancient Forest Alliance has given kudos for, at this time Dix and the NDP party as a whole have not followed up, developed any specifics, or officially adopted Dix’s earlier leadership promise for a province-wide old-growth plan.

“We’ve heard that the NDP might still come forward with a stronger, specific, more detailed commitment to protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests. We sure hope they do, and if so we’ll be sure to give the NDP credit. Until then, their position on old-growth forests and sustainable forestry at this time is not distinguishable from the BC Liberals’ policies of short-sighted resource depletion and ecosystem-destruction,” stated Wu.

See spectacular photos of our old-growth forests at: https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/photos-media/ (NOTE: Media are free to reprint any photos, credit to “TJ Watt” if possible. Let us know if you need higher res shots too)

See a recent ancient forest campaign video at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6YTizBF-jE

Authorized by the Ancient Forest Alliance, registered sponsor under the Election Act

Ancient Forest, Alliance, Victoria Main PO, PO Box 8459, Victoria, BC, V8W 3S1 Canada