But the government has failed to deliver on its word.
Instead, more than one-quarter of that green money has helped fund the construction of a gas pipeline in Quebec, been invested in the forestry industry and, according to the government's most recent accounting books, to support Infrastructure Canada's offices, among other programs.
Those items, in the government's words, are " high priority initiatives," as the department wrote in planning documents tabled recently in the House of Commons.
The revelation has left opposition MPs on Parliament Hill disheartened.
"This shows a total lack of commitment to green infrastructure projects by this government," NDP environment critic Megan Leslie said in the House of Commons after Global News revealed the information.
Conservative MP Michelle Rempel, who speaks for the environment minister when he's away, shot back: "We're making tangible investments in green infrastructure, and in research and development to promote environmentally sustainable technologies, and to help get them to market."
The Conservatives announced the Green Infrastructure Fund to much fanfare in 2009 with a plan to pump out $200 million a year for the next five years.
In its first two years, though, it distributed only $40 million. And by the end of this year, Infrastructure Canada should have pushed $800 million out to fund green infrastructure projects -- but the Conservatives have fallen far short of that target, having only funded $195 million worth of projects.
Another 15 projects have received the green light. Once the funding for those moves out the door, a total of $617 million will have been withdrawn from the Green Infrastructure Fund to help pay for sustainable infrastructure projects.
The money hasn't just been sitting there all these years, though -- the Conservatives have found other uses for it.
The trail of the Green Infrastructure Fund's money can be traced through federal accounting books published over the years.
The trail shows that to date, more than 27 per cent of the fund has been taken away from sustainability projects.
The most recent transfer, worth nearly $59 million, will go to help operate Infrastructure Canada's offices -- after deputy transport minister Yaprak Baltacioglu said in December that whatever was left in the fund would be reserved for green infrastructure projects.
According to earlier accounting books, $100 million was transferred to Natural Resources to fund a forestry program intended to make the sector "more economically competitive" and sustainable.
More than $48 million was sent to the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec, in part to fund a gas pipeline in the province, with the balance going to "strengthening Quebec's forest economies."
Another $22 million has been transferred out to Aboriginal Affairs to subsidize an environmental assessment.
Additionally, $45 million was removed from the fund as part of the government-wide spending cuts.
"We were promised this money would go to green infrastructure," Leslie said in an interview for The West Block with Tom Clark. "Now we find out the money has been used for something else entirely. It's unbelievable they're taking this money -- and not just refusing to spend it or letting it languish on a shelf -- but that this money is actually being repurposed for pipelines, for the forestry industry. That's not green infrastructure."
The Nova Scotia MP was first elected in 2008 and remembers the government's announcement.
She said that at the time, she assumed the money would go toward its intended purpose.
"It's really duplicitous and deceptive if they're holding out money, saying, 'This is green money,' and using it for a pipeline," she said.
The government maintains it had to use the Green Infrastructure Fund to subsidize "high-priority initiatives."
"The government is committed to fiscal restraint and is funding high-priority initiatives through existing envelopes," Infrastructure Canada spokesman Jonathan Spassov.
The fund has been slow to pay out, he said, because costs are only reimbursed after claims are submitted -- as is the case with most Infrastructure Canada programs.
But to Liberal treasury board critic John McCallum, "the whole thing is a mess.
"When the government announces $1 billion for green infrastructure, Canadians have a right to think that's what they're going to get," he said in an interview.
McCallum was also around when the Conservatives announced the fund more than three years ago. And he, too, had straightforward expectations for the fund.
"I thought it was going to be used for exactly what the title of the program says: green infrastructure," he said. "But by the end of this year, it's looking like they will have spent only one-quarter of what they should have spent and in the meantime, they've siphoned money out of the program for totally unrelated things."
In December, McCallum asked the federal auditor general to investigate the fund. The auditor general has yet to pick up the request.
Original Article
Source: global news
Author: Amy Minsky
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