FENTIE COMPLETES TAKEOVER OF YDC / YEC
"YDC and YEC need to remain at arm’s length from the government and not subject to political interference" according to Steve Cardiff of the NDP Caucus.
The Minister’s role should be to support the Board in its work. Four members of the board resigned out of concern about Fentie’s private negotiations with ATCO. While Premier Fentie has not revealed the changes he plans to make to the governance board and structure of the corporations, it is clear this latest shuffle grants Fentie full control over Yukon’s largest public asset.
Cardiff points out: "The Premier has yet to clarify to the public plans for financing the remaining $89 million dollars needed to complete the MayoB hydro facility and Carmacks–Stewart line."
By placing Yukon’s Energy Strategy under EMR, Fentie continues to signal that energy decisions have more to do with the power demands of the extractive industries than integrating an Energy Strategy with broader issues like environment, climate change and rural power needs of communities like Old Crow, Burwash and Watson Lake.
Finally, as the Yukon government develops an Independent Power Production policy, hopefully it will learn from all the mistakes being made in BC where over 600 water licenses have been granted to private power producers with little consideration of the cumulative environmental impact of hundreds of such developments which all require roads, logging, transmission lines, dams, river diversions, powerhouses, and ongoing maintenance. The BC Environmental Assessment process offers scant protection. An assessment is only applied to projects over 50 Mw, so many IPPs are overlooked.
Private power projects also raise serious concerns about energy security. When citizens pay for private hydro through Energy Purchase Agreements (EPAs), they may end up assuming the capital costs for these projects without owning any assets.