Skip to content

This week’s mailbox: election commentary; mining with emissions in mind

In response to ‘Mining will bury us all’
26514795_web1_210407_YKN_insight_letters-wb_1

In response to ‘Mining will bury us all’

I read with interest Lewis Rifkind’s commentary on emissions from mines which appeared in Yukon News on Sept 12, 2021. There is a source of clean, renewable energy literally beneath our feet here in the Yukon that could be harnessed to reduce the very emissions that Mr. Rifkind highlights.

Eavor Yukon Inc, through an exclusive licensing agreement with Eavor Technologies Inc., is actively developing a unique closed loop geothermal system that would generate base load, scalable, zero emission power and heat for the Yukon grid, and has the potential to provide a source of clean energy at mine sites. Eavor Yukon has a significant First Nation partnership and is looking to actively further increase First Nation participation.

This technology is ideally suited to the Yukon as it can generate heat and power continuously in all seasons and under all conditions unaffected by climate, light or seasonality issues. Unlike other forms of geothermal energy, with this new technology no aquifer is required, and no fluids are produced or injected.

The surface footprint for this technology is so small that it is possible to co-locate one of these facilities with a mine and provide all their energy requirements, including heat, power and the production of hydrogen for emission-free mining vehicles.

Eavor’s technology offers great potential to reduce emissions from mines as they look to align with Yukon’s 2030 climate change goals, while at the same time allowing this industry, that is such an important economic driver for the territory, to thrive.

Dave Thompson

President, Eavor Yukon Inc.

Dear Mr. Smith,

You are stuck at 15 per cent in the polls. You have less than half the support you’d need to have a shot at winning.

It’s a tight race between Liberal Brendan Hanley and Conservative Barb Dunlop. He’s one percentage point ahead.

Do you actually want the Liberal candidate to win the election? You have no chance. All you are doing is helping the Liberals by splitting the Conservative vote.

Please do the honorable thing. Admit you can’t win, and urge your supporters to vote for Conservative candidate Barb Dunlop.

CJ McFaull

Dear Editor,

I am dismayed at the policy questions asked by voters and those determined by the press. They are largely inward-looking questions about what can be done for Canadians. But what has been done and can be done for the rest of the world? Everyone seems to be ignoring Canada’s foreign affairs policies apart from feeding into the “hate China” or the “love America” themes.

Why not ask about where the candidates stand on the Lima Group, our past and present shameful direct involvement in Venezuela, Honduras, Haiti, and Afghanistan, the clawback on development aid, our reluctance to share vaccines around the world, our lack of support for people suffering from Canadian mining interests, the selling of arms to Saudi Arabia and the Canadian production and purchase of arms for wars, our unquestioning support of NATO wars and exercises threatening other countries, our non-response to the occupation of Palestine, the economic sanctions we put on struggling countries without concern for reliable evidence of wrong-doing, the real objective of the Five Eyes collaboration, our meek “peacekeeping” in Africa, and many more international issues?

These are decisions made in Ottawa that affect all of us today and into the future. We are rapidly losing any of the goodwill we once had around the world. By not learning and asking about these matters, we are throwing away any ability to influence anything about the larger global issues like climate change, the pandemic, and peace — or even how to get our two Michaels home.

If any Yukon candidates want to reply to the questions in this letter I’d be very happy to hear from them.

Eleanor Millard

Whitehorse

Concern over the ‘freedom’ vote

So here, on the precipice of an election, opportunistically called by Justin Trudeau on the whimsical belief of gaining a majority, I am having grave concerns. First off, because of his betrayal of his foundational promise that “2016 will be the last election under the First Past the Post (FPTP) system” Justin Trudeau does not even deserve a minority government. What a terrible twist of irony, to seek such an undemocratic status of a false majority — a blatant product of the FPTP system that he promised would never happen again.

But a new phenomena happening this election has planted some seeds of consternation within me. With the rise of Jonas Smith to independent status, my immediate thought was the inevitable splitting of the right, and the resultant gain for the left of centre.

However, it was with a quick look at social media sites and in conversations with friends that my consternation began to grow. I was surprised to see the support online for Jonas Smith, along with expressions of the same from people I know that happen to be left of centre. I’ve also come to see, it’s not so much his policy or platform that is captivating people, but more that he has, wittingly or not, donned the cloak of a rebel. Kicked out of the Conservative Party. Standing up for freedom of the individual, etc. It is this, I fear — an appeal to an American style of liberty over governance, social responsibility, and even science — without much of a consideration of his platform.

In a recent CBC news article Mr. Smith stated that rapid testing for COVID would produce a “two-tiered society”. Even with the blatantly obvious evidence of almost 100 per cent of hospitalized patients being unvaxed, and almost 100 per cent of COVID-related deaths being of the same, Mr. Smith believes those that choose to ignore the science and potentially endanger others by remaining unvaccinated takes precedence over the socially responsible that see the obvious benefit to all by vaccinating. It is “not something you should have to talk about before a hostess at a restaurant will see you, or you’re allowed to go to a baseball game”, according to Mr. Smith.

Well I say B.S., Jonas Smith! Where is your sense of social responsibility? No, you do not have the right to freely roam unvaccinated in a time of pandemic, potentially endangering the well being of your fellow citizens. If you choose to be so irresponsible and ignore science in some pathetic expression of your individuality and remain unvaxed, the rest of us have the right to know if you have COVID before you sit at any table in any restaurant or any seat at any baseball game.

To my fellow left-of-centre Yukoners, please, do not be deceived by the claims of the independence of Jonas Smith. He is conservative through and through. Remember, he was the candidate in good standing with the Conservative party before being expunged, not for being too left of centre, but for the importance he places on individual freedoms over social responsibility, even in the face of a pandemic.

And do not forget, Jonas Smith was president of our territorial Yukon Party that withheld their true intention for the Peel Watershed Plan while campaigning because they knew it would be detrimental to the election of their party because it went against the view of a vast majority of Yukoners. They, along with Jonas, waited until their election to a false majority before revealing their rejection of the voice of the people as reflected in the Peel Plan. This dastardly manipulation of our democratic process ended up costing Yukoners millions of our tax dollars in legal fees to regain our voice being reflected in the policy of government.

If you wish to vote for Jonas Smith, so be it. But know you are voting conservative (Conservative, at heart). Take a look at any of Mr. Smith’s objectives, and you will see a carbon copy of any other Conservative candidate. There is nothing unique or bold or new in a vote for Mr. Smith. A vote for Jonas is a vote for conservatism.

Mr. Smith is a believer in the First Past the Post electoral system, because, in my paraphrasing, “it is fast and easy, and elects a government quickly”. Never mind that it, more often than not, elects a government to a 100 per cent majority with less than 50 per cent of the vote, thus making a majority of the votes meaningless. I sincerely wish Mr. Smith could come to see that, in a more fair and equitable electoral system such as proportional representation, even a voice such as his, provided he can muster the threshold of the popular vote required to sit in parliament, would be heard and considered on it’s merit and value in the formation of policy.

However, until that revelation elucidates itself to Jonas Smith, I appeal we do not get swept up in the emotions created in this moment, and objectively vote according to our authentic political and ethical beliefs. The Yukon is in desperate need of our vote.

Jim Borisenko

Carcross