YEC PROTECTION ACT DOES NOT GO FAR ENOUGH
The Liberal Party’s private member’s bill, the Yukon Energy Corporation Protection Act, does not go far enough to ensure the territory’s energy assets will stay publicly owned in the future, says Todd Hardy, the NDP’s YEC critic.
"This bill is very weak, even wishy-washy," he adds. "It leaves the door open to rationalization, which many people fear could lead to creeping privatization.
"Basically, I see very little real difference between the Liberal and Yukon parties when it comes to taking a strong stand to protect our energy assets down the road. This bill could have been written by the Fentie government."
When the bill is debated during the fall sitting of the legislature, the NDP caucus will propose substantive amendments. If the Liberal Party does not accept them, the NDP will vote against it and table its own private member’s bill.
"For example, this bill, which is barely two pages long, fails to address the backdoor privatization of our energy assets by independent power producers," he adds. "As you may know, this has become a raging controversy in British Columbia, thanks to the Liberal government of Gordon Campbell.
"I see the same kind of problems happening here in the future, because this bill simply fails to limit the size of independent power producers and fails to prevent independent power producers from selling their assets to some multinational, like ATCO, at some point in the future when the price is right. This is not in the public interest and clearly not something the NDP would ever support."
The Yukon government is drafting a policy to allow independent power producers to build energy-generation facilities and then to sell the power to the territory.
"If this gives the government the excuse it needs to stop investing in energy generation, that would be dangerously shortsighted and publicly irresponsible," Hardy says.