Nearly 20 per cent of the federal government’s Green Infrastructure Fund has been quietly diverted to such things as oil and gas exploration, a natural gas pipeline and grants to forestry companies, top officials revealed Wednesday.Testifying before members of the transport committee, Deputy Transport Minister Yaprak Baltacioglu said $617 million of the $1 billion fund has been committed to 17 projects, but $170 million of the fund has been used for things unrelated to green infrastructure.
“$170 million has been allocated to other priorities outside this program — the funds are transferred out,” she explained. “This also includes a reduction of $45 million for the strategic review.”
The remaining money is reserved for projects that are under consideration.
“At this point, it has virtually all been committed,” said John Forster of Infrastructure Canada.
The testimony comes as questions swirl around the government’s Green Infrastructure Fund, a five-year, $1-billion fund created in 2009 to “improve the quality of the environment and lead to a more sustainable economy over the long term.”
Among the examples the government gives of “green priorities” eligible for funding are “building transmission lines for clean hydro, upgrading wastewater-treatment systems and diverting solid waste from landfills.”
However, under questioning by NDP transport critic Olivia Chow, officials painted a somewhat different picture of where a lot of the money has gone.
Baltacioglu told MPs that $100 million of the fund was tranferred to the Natural Resources department’s Investments in Forest Industry Transformation program. The program, announced in the 2010 budget, supports “Canada’s forest sector in becoming more economically competitive and environmentally sustainable through targeted investments in advanced technologies”
Another $30 million was transferred to the Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions agency for a forestry program. Transport Minister Denis Lebel has also been the minister responsible for that agency since 2008.
Baltacioglu said $18 million of the fund went to the natural gas pipeline between Vallée-Jonction and Thetford Mines. Announcing the money for the pipeline in December 2010, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and then Natural Resources Minister Christian Paradis said “construction of the pipeline will help diversify the municipal economy as well as help create jobs and economic growth by making local businesses more competitive, attracting investment and encouraging other businesses to set up shop in the region.”
Another $22 million was transferred to Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development’s Beaufort Regional Environmental Assessment which will “respond to new investments in oil and gas in previously unexplored areas of the Beaufort Sea.” Among the areas to be researched are the cumulative effects of oil and gas development, information management, regional waste management, oil spill preparedness and response, socio-economic indicators and climate change.
Baltacioglu said $45 million of the fund was lost through strategic review cuts.
Liberal MP John McCallum has asked Canada’s auditor general to investigate management of the fund, suggesting Parliament didn’t authorize transfers. Wednesday, it was NDP MP Mike Sullivan who was asking pointed questions.
However Baltacioglu countered any suggestion the transfers were made without parliamentary approval. Baltacioglu said Parliament approved the reallocations through a combination of main estimates, supplementary estimates, the report on plans and priorities and the departmental performance reports.
“They do have references very clearly that say that of the $1 billion originally allocated to the green infrastructure fund, $170 million has been transferred to other federal departments to support high priority initiatives.”
“We have reported to Parliament,” she added.
Chow, however, said there are other high-priority needs that could have been funded with the money transferred out of the Green Infrastructure Fund. “There are aboriginal communities that have no clean water.”
Chow said 66 per cent of applications to the First Nations infrastructure fund, roughly 1,000 projects, were rejected because there wasn’t enough money. “A lot of those projects were sewage and clean-water projects.”
Chow said money from the green infrastructure fund should have never been transferred to the Beaufort program.
“This money is supposed to be for communities – not for big oil companies that want to extend a pipeline through the Beaufort.”
Origin
Source: iPolitico
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