Auditor general to probe conflict of interest allegations in B.C. cleantech grant program [Video]

The B.C. government is directing the province’s auditor general and its comptroller general to probe allegations of a conflict of interest in a clean technology grant program.

The founder of Merritt, B.C.-based Edison Motors, a company developing electric commercial trucks, says his company was pressured by consulting firm MNP LLP to sign up for its grant-writing services, only to discover the company was actually administering the grant program.

“It felt so wrong, almost like a bit of a shakedown,” Chace Barber told Global News.

Barber said his company had applied for two grants, including one offering money to explore the electrification of heavy-duty trucks.

Barber said he was surprised the applications were rejected because Edison Motors is the only company in B.C. manufacturing commercial heavy-duty electric trucks.

“We were like how did we not get that one?

“And then we realized once we got declined that the grant was administered by …