Fraction of Nova Scotias Green Fund spent on climate change programs: auditor – Halifax [Video]

Only a fraction of a Nova Scotia government fund established to combat climate change has been spent on solving the problem, the province’s auditor general revealed in an audit released Tuesday.

Kim Adair said a performance audit of the Green Fund, established in 2019, found almost $74 million was transferred out of the fund over its first two years of operation, but only $11.9 million was spent on climate change programs.

The bulk of the money — about $60 million — was left sitting in “program partner” bank accounts as of March 2022, Adair said. Virtually all of that cash was sent to two independent, non-profit agencies: EfficiencyOne and the Clean Foundation.

Adair’s report says it remains unclear why the Department of Environment and Climate Change handed millions of dollars to non-government parties before the money was needed to deliver Green Fund initiatives.

“We weren’t given a good reason or …