FLASH
TOP SECRET
TO: YUKON CABINET – TERRITORIAL SECURITY COUNCIL
FROM: HEAD, YUKON INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
RE: GETTING OUT-SMARTED BY EVERYONE AROUND US
I regret to inform you of an imminent threat to the Yukon’s economic security.
It is so worrying, I am forced to suggest that cabinet take a break from debating the campsite reservation system at Kusawa to focus on this issue.
Our adversaries have escalated in our ceaseless struggle to snaffle up federal infrastructure dollars. YIA agents have read the Toronto Globe and Mail and credibly report that the NWT, Nunavut, B.C. and Manitoba have all pitched Ottawa on cleverly branded “infrastructure corridors.”
We, on the other hand, continue to pitch individual “projects.” And not very compelling ones at that, but more on that later.
In short, Ottawa loves a corridor. And we don’t have one.
We’ve proposed a $4 billion project to connect the Yukon grid to B.C. However, per YIA Analysis Branch Report 007, we are already close to our territorial debt limit, Yukon Energy’s total assets are only $659 million, and enemies of the state on Facebook are already whining about power bill increases that will barely cover the current $350 million Yukon Energy upgrade.
We need the feds to write a ten-digit cheque.
However, YIA sources report federal Finance officials keep asking annoying questions like “Does B.C. even have spare electricity?” and “Why would we give you $4 billion when we know you’ll never approve a big power-using mine like Casino?”
Meanwhile, the villains in Yellowknife and Iqaluit have rebranded the boring-sounding Grays Bay Road to be the “Arctic Economic and Security Corridor.” It goes from Yellowknife through hydro projects and some saucy mining properties to proposed military and Arctic port facilities. They’ve got roads, mines, powerlines, ports, air fields and naval bases.
Manitoba is pushing the Churchill Corridor running from The Pas up to the port of Churchill. They have a railway, export facilities for critical minerals and wheat, airports, powerlines and roads.
B.C .has the Northwest Critical Conservation Corridor, an expansive concept which includes LNG export terminals on the Pacific coast as well as power lines up the Stewart-Cassiar highway to serve mines in BC’s Golden Triangle.
In a Machiavellian move, Victoria tacked the Yukon grid connect project onto this corridor to tap into the national obsession with all things “Arctic.” But everyone knows that being the last phase of someone else’s corridor means they’ll never get around to your project.
Making all this worse is the Canadian Forces Northern Operational Support Hub fiasco. Ottawa announced three hubs in the North, which has three territories, but none of the hubs are in the Yukon. This violates both the laws of mathematics and the traditions of Canadian politics where every region gets one of everything.
Meanwhile, the NWT is also attempting to outflank us on the Dempster Highway. The fingerprints of their operatives are all over October’s Globe story on the Mackenzie Valley Highway. The NWT somehow got them to inform the nation that the Mackenzie Valley Highway is a “more than 400-kilometre-long all-season route to permanently connect southern Canada to the Arctic Ocean.”
Of course, everyone knows it would be more than 700 kilometres from Wrigley to Fort Macpherson and that the Dempster Highway already connects southern Canada to the Arctic Ocean.
Once the NWT gets a road to Inuvik, the Dempster route will be toast and we’ll have one of Sarah Palin’s roads to nowhere.
Which brings me to my suggestion: a two-track strategy.
First, to keep our adversaries thinking we are snowshoeing up the wrong trail, continue talking about the BC grid connect project. It would be too embarrassing to stop now, and a good chunk of the $40 million the feds are giving us to study the project will make it into the bank accounts of Yukon consultants.
Second, immediately hire hotshot Ottawa lobbyists to rebrand the Dempster as a “the real Arctic Security corridor.”
The Dempster has a lot going for it. Not the quality of the roadbed or the lack of bridges over major rivers, of course, but it does actually exist. Unlike the Mackenzie Valley Highway extension or the Grays Bay road, which will be lucky to get finished by the mid-2030s if they even happen.
If the Inuvik Northern Operational Support Hub needs anything in the next ten years like, say, fuel, food or building supplies, then they will need the Dempster.
The Dempster has huge corridor potential. It has a road, which gives Ottawa a chance to spend money on things it loves such as climate-adapted roadbeds and Canadian steel bridges. It has an air element led by the Yukon’s secret weapon, Air North. The Yukon’s favourite airline already runs scheduled flights to Inuvik and would be a natural to ramp up service for Canadian Forces personnel, freight and medevac. It already has a fibre-optic cable, perfect for further satellite, cellular and drone capabilities.
There is also energy. To my knowledge, the Inuvialuit M-18 natural gas well in Inuvik is the only indigenous-owned gas well in Canada. With an upgraded Dempster, you could ship Inuvialuit LNG and the synthetic diesel/heating oil they plan to make to Yukon communities. If Yukon First Nations decide to emulate the Inuvialuit along the Dempster’s gas fields, this improved infrastructure will help.
Unlike the BC grid connect, the Dempster Corridor has a strong national-interest case to make. Notably for the military, who would value an improved Dempster route to supply their growing base in Inuvik. If we play our cards right, we might even get bridges to replace the ferries. It does seem odd to have a forward base for cutting edge F-35 fighter jets in Inuvik, but to be unable to drive fuel and parts to it in between ferry and ice-bridge season.
We even have a pre-approved budget to pay for the lobbyists. We promised to match the federal $40 million to advance the grid connect with $13 million of our transfer payment money. I suggest not spending this on the grid connect, but redefining the Northwest Critical Conservation Corridor to go via Dawson City all the way to Tuktoyaktuk.
That way we can say the Dempster Corridor is a critical national-security extension of the Northwest Critical Conservation Corridor, and then spend the $13 million on it.
Thank you for allowing me to take your attention away from the Kusawa campground crisis. In fact, I have an idea there too: the penalty for anyone caught gaming the Kusawa reservation system should be two weeks of winter hard labour at a grader station on the Dempster Economic and Security Corridor.
Keith Halliday is a Yukon economist and a winner of the Canadian Community Newspaper Award for Outstanding Columnist. The audiobook version of his most recent book Moonshadows, a Yukon-noir thriller, has just been released.