Energy upgrades top Yukon government’s $1B wish list for Ottawa
Money for urgent remediation and increased power generation top the Yukon government’s more than $1-billion ask for federal funds as ministers caution the territory is facing an “energy crisis.”
Energy Minister Ted Laking said that the money would support mining for critical minerals and Canada’s Arctic sovereignty goals. Additionally, it will help the territory keep the heat and lights on by avoiding the potential for rolling blackouts in the depths of winter.
Laking recently wrote to federal Energy Minister Tim Hodgson explaining the territory’s need for more federal investment.
“The case we’ve made to the federal government is that these energy projects actually support national goals,” Laking said this week, the first full week of business in the legislative assembly’s spring sitting.
CBC News requested a breakdown of the territory’s $1-billion estimate.
Over half of the money would go toward Yukon Energy’s power centres project, which would include two new diesel power plants in the Whitehorse area.
Another $150 million is needed for repair work at the aging Wareham dam, to ensure its structural integrity and protect the community of Mayo. The Whitehorse Generating Station also requires upgrades worth $150 million.
The remaining funds are for contingencies such as higher construction costs in the North.
The list leaves out projects that will take more time and coordination with other levels of government, such as the proposed Yukon-B.C. grid electrical connection, as well as work needed on the Dempster Highway to prepare for increased truck traffic.
Yukon government press secretary Tim Kucharuk said the Dempster is the only year-round overland route to Inuvik, N.W.T., where the federal government plans to establish a military support hub. He said the added traffic could deteriorate and erode the road through the remote northern part of the territory, which the Yukon government pays to maintain.
The request for new federal funds comes as the Yukon approaches its borrowing limit. Premier and Finance Minister Currie Dixon has repeatedly warned that the territory is nearing the $1.2-billion debt cap imposed by Ottawa.
Deputy minister of finance Katherine White told CBC News the territory is still waiting to hear back from the federal government about its request to raise the territory’s borrowing limit to up to $3 billion.
Questions about spending
The legislative assembly this week also saw more discussion about the territory’s finances, including questions from the opposition about how much the government spent to hire consultants to write a couple of the premier’s recent speeches.
Dixon confirmed the writing of his throne speech, at $9,000, and his budget address last week, at more than $15,000, were outsourced to the Canadian Strategy Group. The group has a Yukoner involved, Dixon said.
He said these speeches are important articulations of the government’s agenda but his office wasn’t properly staffed to take on this task so early into the majority government’s term.
MLAs also had questions about the budget tabled last week.
Debra-Leigh Reti, the Liberal MLA for Vuntut Gwitchin, expressed surprise that Dixon failed to mention Arctic security in his budget address, despite the new premier saying over the past years that the matter deserves more attention.
“That was a call for action and it was the right call, but when we look at this budget, there is virtually nothing here that reflects that priority,” Reti said.
Dixon expressed disappointment that Prime Minister Mark Carney mostly “left the Yukon out” of his recent announcement for military and Arctic infrastructure “across the North.” Dixon said the bulk of that promised federal investment will go to other juridictions.
“What we expect to see over the next 20 years is the federal government either constructing or renting a storage facility in or around Whitehorse,” he said, adding that “pales in comparison to the massive investment of $32 billion that the federal government has made in Northwest Territories and Nunavut.”
Repealing the Clean Energy Act
Meanwhile, the territorial energy minister is attempting to repeal the Yukon’s Clean Energy Act, which was introduced in 2022 and mandates greenhouse gas emissions and electric vehicle targets. It also compels Yukon government reporting on such objectives.
Laking described the act as “performative,” with unrealistic emissions targets. He said the Department of Environment has been tasked to come up with a new climate action plan. He declined to presuppose what new targets that plan could include.
Laking said repealing the act will help reduce demand on the electrical grid.
“The Clean Energy Act was a form of gaslighting Yukoners,” he said.
“It didn’t create clean energy. What it did is it created demand for energy, which ironically was fuelled by diesel.”
NDP energy and environment critic Lane Tredger disagreed with Laking’s assessment.
· CBC News
