Highlights of History from The Whitehorse Star

Published by The Whitehorse Star on December 31, 2009.

Dateline: May 19, 2024.

    Choosing the Yukon's top 10 stories of the year is, to a large extent, an arbitrary task. It's a mixture of our judgment, of the stories which have attracted considerable media coverage, or those with the most significant effects on the largest number of Yukoners.

    Here, then, are the Star's top 10 stories of 2009.

1

    As is further detailed elsewhere in today's Star, Premier Dennis Fentie weathers the gravest political crisis in his seven years in power - and the loss of a key cabinet minister - over the fate of the Yukon Energy Corp.

    The months-long drama begins June 8, after Willard Phelps, the corporation's chair, and three board members resign, complaining of secret activities and interference emanating from the premier's office.

    Before the year is out, Phelps has denounced Fentie as a "dictator" at a June 22 meeting at LePage Park; charged the premier with conducting secret negotiations for the energy corporation's sale; and called a Nov. 18 public meeting to explore the formation of a new political party to defeat the Yukon Party. More than 100 people attend, and volunteers continue to organize the new venture into 2010.

    The scandal sees Energy, Mines and Resources Minister Brad Cathers quit the cabinet and the Yukon Party caucus on Aug, 28, depriving the government of its majority, but other ministers spurn his invitation to follow suit. Former minister John Edzerza ends his wandering ways to rejoin the caucus on Oct, 22, restoring the government's majority.

    But the events take a harsh toll on the regime's popularity, with the Yukon Party plunging to only 25-per-cent support in a DataPath Systems poll conducted in the fall.

    Speaking to the Star on Nov. 3, Fentie apologizes for "failing in my ability to communicate" his intentions with regard to the energy corporation.

    Predictably, the government survives a Liberal non-confidence motion Nov. 25 in the legislature.

    The premier ends the year insisting his army of critics are wrong, and that he had not been negotiating the sale of the energy corporation's assets.

2

    Perhaps the most divisive issue of the year rears its head in February, as the Peel Watershed Planning Commission releases its first three land use options for an area covering 68,042 square kilometres, or 14 per cent of the Yukon.

    Those pushing for maximum wilderness protection say the watershed is one of the last pristine landscapes on the planet. Pro-industry supporters argue the region is rich in natural resources important to the world.

    A draft proposal taken from input on the first three options is released in April but only inflames the debate. Both the industry and conservation lobbies cry foul: industry insists far too much area is removed from development; protectionists counter that far too much is open to road access and potential development.

    Premier Dennis Fentie is accused of interfering in the process by forcing his parks branch to water down its submission to the commission. Three of the four affected first nations stand firm on their call for maximum wilderness protection.

    The release of the commission's final recommendation in November brings jubilation to the pro-conservation camp and forces the mining industry to declare war on the recommendation.

    The recommendation has been forwarded to the Yukon government and the first nations for a decision.

    Ultimately, Fentie and his cabinet members haye the final say as 97 per cent of the watershed is territorial Crown land. A decision will likely take months, or even years.

3

    The Yukon finally joins its sister territories in the billion-dollar club March 19 when Premier and Finance Minister Dennis Fentie tables a territorial budget worth $1.003 billion in spending projections.

    "As we face the challenges of the global economic downturn, our budget will make strategical investments in infrastructure and in people," Fentie tells the legislature. Some $763 million is devoted to a year of the government's operations and maintenance costs, while the remaining $240 million is dedicated to capital works projects around the territory. The budget spares Yukoners any tax increases.

4

    As a staking frenzy south of Dawson City that began in 2006 intensifies, Yukoners and Outside investors begin to ask themselves if they are on the track of the mother lode, the fabled deposit that produced the Klondike Gold Rush on the cusp of the 20th century. Dozens of mining companies stake thousands of claims.

    It's revealed that Dawson resident Shawn Ryan has combined 10 years of bushwacking and the latest high-tech data-gathering to discover a gold belt nine kilometres long near the junction of the Yukon and White rivers. "If you've done your science right, you know something's going to be in here, and you just keep banging the bush," Ryan says.

    Underworld Resources has optioned the so-called White Gold property from Ryan and his wife, Cathy Wood-Ryan. Company presidenet Adrian Fleming calls the area "a very nice gold discovery," adding a hardrock mine could be a reality by 2015.

    The territorial government's initial 2009 exploration forcast of $20 million to $30 million is revised upward to more than $50 million, Energy, Mines and Resources Minister Archie Lang announces in September.

5

    One of the first steamships to make the journey from Bennett, B.C. to the heart of the Klondike - Dawson City - is rediscovered at the bottom of Lake Laberge.

    The A. J. Goddard plied the waters of the Yukon River, carrying people and freight between Dawson and Whitehorse, for three years before she went down during a windstorm in October 1901.

    The sternwheeler lay at the bottom of the lake for 107 years before it is found by local history buff Doug Davidge in the summer of 2008.

    A year later, with help from the Canadian and National Geographic societies, he and a team of divers make 28 trips down to the perfectly preserved boat. Davidge and his fellow historians wait until the winter, when the Lake has begun to freeze, to announce their discovery so he ship can remain safe from scavengers - at least until the spring.

6

    It's announced May 29 that the Yukon will finally see its hydro grids linked, with the expansion of the Mayo Dam and the construction of the much talked-about power line connecting Stewart Crossing to Pelly Crossing.

    The figures involved are gargantuan by Yukon standards. Brian Jean, parliamentary secretary to Infrastructure Minister John Baird, visits Whitehorse to announce the federal government will contribute half the funding for the $142-million project. Construction work is expected to create between 300 and 350 jobs.

    Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Premier Dennis Fentie visit the dam on Aug. 21.

7

    In late September, Whitehorse RCMP make one of the biggest drug busts in Yukon history, netting $150,000 in cash, 1 1/5 kilos of cocaine, 1,300 Ecstasy pills and five suspected dealers.

    Police say the men are at the top of the drug food chain and lay charges of conspiracy to traffic cocaine and ecstasy.

    Dubbed Project Macer, the sting operation enlists the help of a dealer-turned-informant, who is later revealed in court to be a top-level dealer himself. Police say that over four months, the men have allegedly brought five kilos of cocaine into the territory.

    In April, during a checkstop near Watson Lake, the RCMP seize $94,000 they suspect is drug trade money.

8

    In September, a stray dog from Ross River becomes a hero after a two-year-old missing boy from Kamloops, B.C . is discovered with the canine. The toddler, named Kale, is reported missing by his parents, who were camping at Tay Creek. He had been gone more than 24 hours, beginning Sept. 3, when he is discovered.

    RCMP, Yukon Search and Rescue teams and volunteers from Ross River and Faro had searched the hills and creeks in the area near the campsite. It was heat-sensing radar on the RCMP helicopter that helped crews find the boy, who had kept warm by cuddling with the dog.

    The entire family leaves the Yukon with their new pet dog in tow.

9

    After avoiding the law for almost 20 years, Dudley Taylor is tried on charges he raped his former common-law wife's three children when the family lived in Whitehorse in the late 1980s. Taylor had fled the territory shortly after a 1990 preliminary hearing where the children - all under the age of 13 - described the abuses they suffered.

    At his trial, an aging Taylor says he didn't know the severity of the accusations against him and had planned to return to the Yukon to deal with the charges, but was arrested at his off-the-grid home in rural Washington State before he could come back on his own. He is found guilty by Supreme Court Justice Roland Haines and sentenced to seven years in a federal penitentiary.

10

    Trevor the dog becomes a household name after the shepherd-Rottweiler cross is saved from death row by a Yukon Supreme Court action. The pooch, accused of biting and aggressive behaviour after being rescued from a negligent owner, becomes the darling of animal lovers here and around the world as the Humane Society Yukon fights to get him back from the city pound.

    The dog essentially becomes a ward of the state and court orders defining how and where he must be kept begin piling up. To date, the City of Whitehorse has spent more than $25,000 on legal fees and staff hours associated with Trevor's case. The humane society has yet to find a suitable home for the dog.