Province doesn't know where extra carbon charge on gas is going

The New Brunswick government has no idea whether an extra six-to-seven-cent charge on a litre of gasoline is ending up where it's supposed to go.

Officials recently told the legislature's public accounts committee that it's impossible to determine who is ending up with revenue from the so-called "carbon cost adjustor," slapped on the price of gas in July.

"Where it shows up between the retailer and the wholesaler, or the wholesaler and the refinery, I don't know," said Tom McFarlane, the deputy minister of natural resources and energy development.

"I'm not aware of the internal prices that go on between them."

McFarlane was fielding questions from Fundy-The Isles-Saint John West Progressive Conservative MLA Andrea Anderson-Mason, who sounded skeptical of the PC government's message that the extra charge would help small gas stations. 

"I'm finding it difficult to believe that the seven cents is going directly into the retailers' pocket," she said.

Anderson-Mason peppered McFarlane with questions when he confessed to not knowing who was getting the money.

"Shouldn't we be aware of that, of where that's going?" she asked.

"Where did that seven cents go that the consumer paid over all this time? Who has the benefit of that? Somebody's getting it somewhere. Who's getting the seven cents?" 

Last fall the Higgs government passed legislation giving the Energy and Utilities Board the authority to add the adjustor to the formula it uses to set maximum gasoline prices every week.

It was a response to new federal clean fuel regulations designed to help lower Canada's greenhouse gas emissions.

The regulations reward oil refineries that reduce their carbon intensity — the amount of greenhouse gases they emit in their production process. 

Companies with refineries like Irving Oil can choose from different emissions-reduction strategies that earn them credits they can sell in a trading market. Those that don't reduce emissions are penalized by being forced to buy credits in that market.

But Irving, because it exports most of its product to the United States, isn't eligible for as many credits.