B.C. Views Greenhouse gas leaks from trust. p6
Charging up, laughing past pumps. p3
THE NEws
Arts&life elvis moments at the ACt. p13
www.mapleridgenews.com wednesday, April 3, 2013 · serving Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows · est. 1978 · 604-467-1122 · 50¢
Ridge, Pitt didn’t give to carbon trust District invested in its own assets by Phil M e lnych uk staff reporter
Colleen Flanagan/the news
Exposure Ron Comeau photographs cherry blossoms along Dewdney Trunk Road at 203rd Street on a sunny Sunday.
While B.C.’s auditor general has rapped the provincial government for pouring money into Pacific Carbon Trust, Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows taxpayers have only put nominal amounts into the trust. In 2011, the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows school board paid $102,850 into the trust, according to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. A West Kootenay forest reserve called Darkwoods and a flaring elimination project by EnCana Corp., at its Fort Nelson natural gas operations accounted for most of the carbon credits paid by the government’s agency, the Pacific Carbon Trust. In a report last week, Auditor General John Doyle said both projects would have happened anyways. The Pacific Carbon Trust was set up as a vehicle to ensure government operations were carbon neutral. In other words, they didn’t produce a net gain of carbon dioxide or greenhouse gases. Provincial and local governments, health authorities and school districts were required to buy carbon offset credits equal to the green-
house gas emissions from their buildings and vehicles, with the money invested in carbon-reducing projects. According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows school board spent $102,850 in 2011, while the Fraser Health Authority, of which Maple Ridge is a part, paid about a million in the same time period. The school district was later reimbursed. According to the school district’s report, the school district produced 3,834 tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2011. But in the same year, the school district applied to have 4,114 tonnes offset, meaning the school district was carbon neutral in that year. However, school board officials weren’t available to confirm if the Canadian Taxpayers Federation number was accurate or to provide current figures. Neither Pitt Meadows nor Maple Ridge have been required to pay into the trust. Laura Benson, manager of sustainability and corporate planning with the District of Maple Ridge, said that carbon offsets are intended to be used by people who want to cancel their own greenhouse gas emissions by paying for some other action that will reduce greenhouse gases. By doing so, they become carbon neutral. see Carbon, p9
Another go-kart driver crashes by M onisha M ar t ins staff reporter
the news/files
RCMP determined the recent fatal crash was caused by driver error.
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A man was lucky to escape with a few cuts and bruises after he crashed his go-kart into a car Friday in Maple Ridge. The crash was the second go-
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kart accident in a span of nine days, prompting police to issue a warning to keep unlicensed vehicles off the roads. “It was almost identical to the other accident,” said Maple Ridge fire chief Peter Grootendorst, referring to a fatal collision between a go-kart and pick-
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up truck March 27 that killed a 33-year-old man in Webster’s Corner. “Moral of the story: don’t drive go-karts on the street.” Police are still investigating the fatal collision, but have determined that the crash was caused by driver error. Friends of the
man who was killed said he was an avid outdoorsman. Police are not releasing his name publicly. Mechanical failure of the brakes also appeared to be a contributing factor in the fatal collision, according to Ridge Meadows Sgt. Dale Somerville. see Go-karts, p8
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