NDP to scrap the Pacific Carbon Trust.

If one believes everything one reads in the newspapers;

NDP Leader Adrian Dix would recycle the Pacific Carbon Trust if a New Democrat government is elected on May 14.

Dix made the environmental announcement in a Kamloops park, in the same riding where Liberal Environment Minister Terry Lake is seeking re-election.

The NDP Leader says he would dissolve the Carbon Trust and use some of the carbon tax revenue to fund transit or other green initiatives.

Dix says schools, hospitals and other public institutions have paid tens of millions of dollars in carbon tax levies and the Liberal government has gifted most of that cash to profitable corporations.

National Post; Monday  April 22^nd 2013.

I think Dix or the reporter is confusing carbon tax with carbon offsets, but the message regarding the future of the Pacific Carbon Trust is clear.

Keith W Hern, Councillor

Town of Golden

The opinions expressed in this blog are my personal opinions and may not represent the opinions of other Councillors nor the opinions of council.

Draft audited financial statements for 2012

The town's independent auditors, Adams Wooley, presented the 2012 Draft Financial Statements at the regular open council meeting on April 23rd.

The good news is that Golden did not incur additional debt in 2012. The long term debt at the year ended December 31, declined from $3.924 million in 2011 to $3.606 million in 2012.

Reserves in 2012 were reported to be up by $404,613 to $2.697 million at year end 2012.  As a result, the town's net debt position was halved from $1.448 million in 2011 to $721,372 for the year ending 2012.

Of more concern in 2012 was the annual deficit of $500,517; Expenses were greater than revenues.

Revenues for 2012 were reported at $8.645 million compared with $10.563 million for 2011. Revenue in these financial statements includes grants, both conditional and unconditional.

Conditional grants, usually provided for one-off capital projects like the civic center, vary from year to year, making the comparison of revenue from year to year not very meaningful. In 2012, Golden received conditional grants of $598,185 compared to $2.783 million in 2011.

The conditional grants cannot be used to pay for operating expenses. Including them in revenue overstates the revenue available to pay operating expenses, distorting the true financial picture. Excluding conditional grants, revenue from all other sources including property taxes, water and sewer fees in 2012 was $8.047 million up slightly from $7.780 million  in 2011.

If conditional grants were excluded from revenue, the annual deficit would be $1.1 million.

Total operating expenses for 2012, reported at $9.146 million, were slightly more than those reported for 2011 at $9.080 million. Operating expenses remain too high in relation to the revenue and will limit the amount of money available for future capital projects, maintenance and upgrades to the town's infrastructure (water,sewer, roads and buildings).

In 2012, only $1.181 million was expended on capital infrastructure, well below the amount required to maintain tangible capital assets (town's infrastructure).

To attain a sustainable balance, the annual deficit must be eliminated. To achieve this, expenses should be reduced by approximately $1.1 million, twelve percent (12%), and that money added to the capital budget to maintain the town's infrastructure.


Keith W Hern, Councillor

The opinions expressed in this blog are my personal opinions and may not represent the opinions of other Councillors nor the opinions of council.

First Quarter strength in the Golden Real Estate market.

The Kootenay Real Estate Board (KREB), in data released last week, reported that the total value of real estate sales for the East and West Kootenays for the three months to the end of March 31, 2013 was $79 million, a significant decline of eighteen and one half percent (18.5%) from the same period for 2012. The total number of properties that traded hands in the first quarter of 2013 was reported to be 317, down from 385 for the same period last year; a significant decrease of eighteen percent (18%). 

Going against the regional trend, real estate sales in Golden improved significantly over last year. Cumulative residential property sales in the town of Golden for the three month period ending March 31 2013 were $2.1 million. Fourteen properties were sold during the quarter compared to only six properties that traded hands in the same period for the previous year. 

In Canyon Ridge, six more lots were sold in the first quarter of 2013. The majority of the lots in foreclosure in Canyon Ridge have now been sold however there remain 10 or more lots available at distressed prices. 

In Rural Golden, seven residential properties sold in the first quarter of 2013 compared to the nine properties that sold during the same period in 2012. Total real estate sales for the 3 months ending March 31, were $3.0 million in 2013 compared with $2.6 million in 2012, an increase of fourteen percent (14%). 

2013-04-19

Keith W Hern

BC Auditor General exposes carbon offsets as having little environmental value.

Since November 2012 when I made the proposal to withdraw from the BC Climate Action Charter, there have been numerous articles in the national, provincial and local press exposing the Pacific Carbon Trust and the concept of carbon offset in general. The practice of buying carbon offsets was dealt another crushing blow last week from BC's auditor general, John Doyle.

The auditor general looked at two projects that together accounted for 70 percent of the offsets needed by the provincial government to achieve carbon neutrality. One was a grant to Encana, a Calgary based oil and gas company, to reduce flaring, and the other was to the Nature Conservancy in a deal to protect a forested property called Darkwoods.

Doyle confirmed what others had also seen, that both of these projects would have or could have proceeded without the approximately $6 million they received from taxpayers through the Pacific Carbon Trust.

The public sector including schools, hospital,and universities have been ordered to buy carbon offsets by the province. Municipalities on the other hand will do so voluntarily. Why? Nelson has stated that it will not be buying carbon offsets and will be investing in local energy-saving projects. I shall continue to encourage Golden to do the same.

To read last week's article in the Vancouver Sun follow the links below;


Pull the plug on false promise of carbon offsets
 
Nelson cuts emissions right at home

 

Climate Science in the Economist

"Over the past 15 years air temperature at the earth's surface has been flat while greenhouse-gas emissions have continued to soar....The mismatch between rising greenhouse-gas emissions and not-rising temperatures is among the biggest puzzles in climate science today.

The mismatch might mean that-for some unexplained reason-there has been a temporary lag between more carbon dioxide and higher temperatures in 2000-2010. Or it might be that the 1990's, when temperatures were rising fast, was the anomalous period. Or, as an increasing body of research is suggesting, it may be that the climate is responding to higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in ways that had not been properly understood.

This possibility, if true, could have profound significance both for climate science and for environmental and social policy ".

The article "A sensitive matter" in the March 30th 2013 edition of the Economist goes on to explain the uncertainty of the science that cast serious doubt on climate modelling results. For the complete article follow the link below;

http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21574461-climate-may-be-heating-up-less-response-greenhouse-gas-emissions