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In reaction to a scathing economic analysis of the BC NDP climate change plan, the party’s environment critic, Shane Simpson, is making the ridiculous claim that the author is somehow misguided in his findings.

Released on Friday, the economic analysis by renowned Simon Fraser University economist Dr. Marc Jaccard finds that the NDP’s climate plan could lead to 60,000 direct and indirect job losses by 2020.

According to a Province news article this weekend, NDP environment critic Shane Simpson claimed that:

“He [Jaccard] has been a critic of ours (the NDP) and I don’t believe Mr. Jaccard has an independent view on this.”

It’s insulting to an academic like Jacaard to be accused of dishonesty and being in collusion with government. What makes it even worse is that Simpson fails to mention that Jaccard has also been an advisor to previous NDP government’s - so much for his conspiracy theory.

On the very first page of Jaccard’s analysis it states:

“Professor at Simon Fraser University specializing in sustainable energy modeling and policy, Dr. Jaccard has been appointed by NDP, Conservative and Liberal governments to energy-environment policy advisory and decision making positions over the past two decades. The BC NDP government of the 1990s appointed him to chair the BC Utilities Commission (1992-1997), the Electricity Market Review (1995), the Public Inquiry into Gasoline Pricing (1996), and the Task Force on Electricity Market Reform (1997).” (my emphasis)

The election campaign here in BC hasn’t even begun and the NDP are already spinning hard to put lipstick on their “axe the tax” pig. Check back on DeSmogBlog for our analysis and coverage of the 2009 BC Election.