British Columbians may have thought they got rid of the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) this spring but the provincial government has now quietly tacked another levy onto natural gas heating bills.
Called the Innovation Clean Energy (ICE) Fund, the tax amounts to .4 per cent of natural gas consumed.
It appeared on natural gas bills as of April 1, the same date the HST disappeared, and also applies to fuel oil and some propane consumption. The tax is intended to subsidize companies and governments of various kinds developing so-called “green energy” technologies such as ones using solar, wind, wood waste or geothermal power.
It’s actually the second time a tax of this type has appeared – it was also called the ICE Fund when it first surfaced in 2007 as an add-on to heating bills. Payments to companies began the next year.
The tax disappeared in 2010, the same year the HST was introduced, but not before handing out approximately $60 million of the $68 million collected over its lifetime.
The remainder of the money was disbursed to various projects after the ICE tax ended and new projects were financed with money from the province’s general revenue account.
The province says it has provided more than $77 million to 62 clean energy and technology projects.
This time around provincial officials expect the tax to bring in approximately $7 million a year for subsidies to green technology companies and projects.
Authority for the ICE levy is contained within the provincial Social Services Tax Act which is why it was stopped when the provincial sales tax was replaced with the HST in 2010.
So when the HST was stopped, the provincial sales tax reappeared and with it, the ICE tax. The original ICE monies went to companies such as Earth Renu Energy Corp of Delta which received $1 million to turn urban organic waste into natural gas.
The T’Sou-ke First Nation at Sooke also received $1 million for a green heating and cooling system for use in an industrial greenhouse.
But not all of the announced projects in the first ICE go around actually did receive money. That list includes Pytrade, a company which had its eyes fixed on Kitimat, and which, according to a July 2011 provincial government press release, was to receive $1 million.
Pytrade’s plan was to use a fast-heating process to convert wood waste and other bio mass into oil to create electricity and to create bio-coal and biogas.
Kitimat’s municipal council embraced the project but nothing has taken place since early announcements.
“Pytrade did not enter into a contribution agreement with the province and no portion of the $1 million was administered,” said the provincial government in response to questions. “In March 2012 funding was rescinded as the project did not sufficiently meet the program’s guidelines.”
In all 17 initially approved projects either withdrew from the program or were rescinded, a value of $18.5 million, the province added.
That money was then reallocated to other projects within the ICE program.
