Radio-Canada found that 58% of Ministry of the Environment employees were partially paid by the Green Fund in 2016-2017. In his two most recent funding reports, the Auditor General of Quebec (AG) lamented the department’s refusal to provide explanations for “a large portion of management costs related to the performance of its activities and oversight”.
This second largest fund in the Government of Quebec, funded primarily by the amount included in your gas bill, should be used to pay for projects meant to combat global warming. From 2021 to 2026, disbursements will amount to nearly $ 6.7 billion.
For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019, AG could not explain with certainty the $ 29.7 million in costs. A year later, it was $ 18.2 million, according to his report filed in March.
The 2016-2017 document we were able to consult allows us to better understand the source of the fees. It contains a list of all 1,834 employees of the department at that time. This list states that 1,066 employees, including three assistant deputy ministers, received a share of their salary through the Green Fund, some 100%, others as little as 5%.
There are many budget items: environmental permits, climate change, residual materials, industrial waste reduction programs, administrative and financial penalties, other activities, etc. On a full-time equivalent basis, 18% of staff are fully paid by the fund.
The ministry rectifies the situation
It is not possible to know whether this practice has remained important since the fund was reformed in 2020. The fund was renamed the Electrification and Climate Change Fund (ECCF).
The ministry is supportive perform the necessary work to apply the AG’s recommendation in this matter and to rectify the situation.
The decrease in unexplained costs raised by the AG will show this. $ 18.2 million was used in March 2020 to pay the equivalent of 411 employees from 14 partner departments and agencies.
Creative accounting?
Maybe at that time there was creativity in accounting, says Johanne Whitmore. However, the chief researcher with the Chair of Energy Sector Management at HEC Montréal believes that the ministry seems to have corrected the situation with the arrival, in 2017, of the Green Fund Management Board, which is responsible for redressing funds.
But the abolition of the council in 2020 by the CAQ government we were revokedaccording to him.
We are more at risk of going back to losses, worries Ms. Whitmore, then perhaps lack of transparency in the management of administrative costs, as before. […] That is why we need an independent, integrated and depolitized approach.
” Normally there is a share in administrative costs for running a program, but if 58% of the department is running, you really need to show it. […] It’s huge. “
The commissioner for sustainable development, Janique Lambert, also argued last week that Quebec has not yet managed the FECC “effectively and efficiently”.
Mathieu Dion (go to author page)
Source: Radio-Canada
