Highlights of History from The Whitehorse Star

Published by The Whitehorse Star on December 31, 2013.

Dateline: May 16, 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 2013.

1

    The Yukon's mineral exploration and mining industry is staggered by tumbling world metal prices, triggering layoffs and a massive reduction in spending. The price of silver on Jan. 1 hovers at around $31 an ounce while gold is sitting at $1,700 an ounce. By Dec. 1, silver has lost a full third of its value and is just below $20, while gold has plummetted to $1,230.

    In the exploration sector, expenditures for 2013 are estimated at $45 million, a fraction of the record $300 million spent in 2011 and less than a third of the $150 million spent in 2012.

    Alexco Resource Corp. on June 3 announces the layoffs of approximately 30 per cent of its employees at the Bellekeno mine and mill in Keno City, citing the declining price of silver. Just over a month later, on July 17, the company releases the news of a full shutdown for a year or two, affecting 140-plus Alexco employees and underground contract miners.

    The Chinese-owned Yukon Zinc Corp. on June 27 issues a press release indicating it's cutting production at its Wolverine zinc-silver mine by 40 per cent, resulting in 30 per cent of its workforce being laid off. Three months later to the day, however, the company on Sept. 27 indicates light at the end of the tunnel with its decision to ramp production back up to 75 per cent of capacity, requiring 15 of the laid-off employees to return to work.

2

    The debate over fracking in the Yukon reaches the boiling point, particularly with Yukon Energy's plan to begin burning natural gas to power back-up generators. Allowing the publicly owned utility to make the switch from diesel generators will surely invite greater interest in the territory's natural gas fields, which can only be exploited economically through the practice of fracking, it's being argued.

    There is growing debate regarding the wisdom of burning natural gas over diesel fuel. Different organizations say emerging evidence suggests natural gas produces more toxic greenhouse gas emissions than diesel, when considering the life cycle of natural gas, from the well to the burner.

    Anti-fracking protests occur throughout the year. All 14 Yukon First Nations declare their traditional territories will be frack-free until it's proven hydraulic fracturing can be done without harming the environment.

    Premier Darrell Pasloski creates an all-party select committee on May 6 to study the risks and benefits of hydraulic fracturing. The committee is tasked with asking Yukoners what they think and researching the practice of hydraulic fracturing. The premier gives the six committee members a year to deliver their findings.

    The Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board conducts a hearing on Dec. 11 into Yukon Energy's plans to build a new plant for two new natural gas generators, with room for a third in the future. The plant will also include a storage facility for the liquefied natural gas the Crown corporation intends to truck up from Calgary. Those in attendance are more interested in denouncing hydraulic fracturing than they are about discussing specific details of the proposed plant.

    Chief Kristina Kane of the Ta'an Kwach'an Council announces that the Lake Laberge First Nation is pulling out of a proposed business deal to partner with Yukon Energy in its LNG project.

    The assessment board on July 15 recommends approval of the proposal by Yukon Electrical Company Ltd. to begin switching its six diesel generators in Watson Lake to hybrids that burn both natural gas and diesel.

    Yukon Electrical and Yukon Energy maintain burning natural gas instead of diesel results in cleaner air emissions and huge savings in the cost of buying fuel.

3

    Prompt, meaningful action from officials and better public education are needed to deal safely with oil-fired appliances in the territory, a coroner's inquest jury recommends Feb. 8. Its urgings come following a week's worth of testimony about the deaths of five people in a rented Centennial Street house in January 2012. The jury rules the deaths of four members of the Rusk family and their friend, Donald McNamee, from carbon monoxide poisoning had been accidental.

    A crumbling, unlined chimney, which was wrongly sized for the heating system, had led to ice, debris and soot building up and eventually trapping the deadly gas in the home, which did not have a carbon monoxide detector, experts testify, adding the proper precautions could have saved five lives.

    Expert technician Rod Corea had completed five reports for the Yukon government between 2007 and 2010 calling attention to dangerous problems with oil-fired appliances around the territory. During the inquest, he expresses his "outrage and frustration" at the five deaths. A week later, the government announces it will make the detectors mandatory in homes with oil-fired appliances with attached garages, and tighten the regulations governing those who can install and maintain oil-based heating systems.

4

    In March, the significant financial woes of the Mount Sima ski area become apparent when the hill's operators – the Great Northern Ski Society (GNSS) – approach the city for funding. A public debate ensues over whether tax dollars should be spent to fund a facility that's run by a society, used by an arguably smaller segment of the population and can easily close due to weather conditions than, say, the Canada Games Centre.

    The GNSS requests from the city approximately $400,000 in short-term funding along with a long-term funding arrangement that could be another $400,000 annually.

    Ultimately, the city says no; it simply doesn't have the cash to keep the hill afloat. The facility shuts down in July during its second year of summer adventure park operations. City council does, however, vote in favour of paying off the $190,000 debt on the quad chairlift and having title of the lift transferred to the city. In August, the territory also ponies up $198,000 to cover off debts to local creditors.

    As the GNSS moves toward dissolving its board and selling off its equipment, the Friends of Mount Sima is formed with a goal of getting the hill operating again for the 2013/2014 ski season. A pledge campaign to secure the sale of season passes should the hill open begins in earnest with approximately 800 passes being pledged by the end of the campaign. A commitment from Softball Yukon for $70,000 in funding and a $50,000 bridge loan further help the cause.

    It's announced on Oct. 22 by the Friends of Mount Sima the hill will open for the winter season.

    On Dec. 20, the lift fires up for the approximately 400 skiers and snowboarders who take in opening day.

5

    Norman LaRue is found guilty July 3, of first-degree murder, which carries a mandatory life sentence with no eligibility for parole for 25 years. The verdict follows a three-month trial over whether LaRue, 31, and former girlfriend Christina Asp, 35, committed what a judge calls the "brutal and senseless" killing of 63-year-old Gordon Seybold in his Ibex Valley home on March 26, 2008.

    Much of the trial centred around an extensive RCMP undercover operation — Project Monsoon — and secretly recorded conversations between LaRue, Asp and officers posing as powerful criminals. In one of the recordings, LaRue, a convicted sex offender from Kamloops, B.C., tells an officer he beat Seybold with a baseball bat, slit his throat from ear to ear and lit his home on fire.

    Seybold's body was found in the charred remains on the day of the murder, leading to the duo's arrest on Aug. 4, 2009, 16 months after his death. Asp was convicted of second-degree murder in 2012.

6

    A broiling controversy of Vanier Catholic Secondary School's same-sex policy ignites in late 2012 with a letter sent to the Star, raising furor in the community and dominating news pages throughout 2013. The story of a bullied lesbian student fuels the debate which culminates in a well-attended public meeting and an airing of opposing views.

    The Department of Education commits to developing a new policy. Then-Education minister Scott Kent sends a public letter to Catholic Bishop Gary Gordon mandating that the policy must align with human rights laws. A draft of the new policy is released in September and a period of public consultation begins and ends.

    As 2014 approaches, the Catholic school community is awaiting the release of the finalized policy.

7

    The Yukon government takes serious flack this year for its handling of the F.H. Collins Secondary School reconstruction project. In March, the government announces it is abandoning the original $3.5-million design for the high school after the project is tendered and bids come in over-budget. The government opts instead for a pre-designed model imported from Alberta.

    The Yukon News discovers through an access to information request that the government likely knew the bids for the original design would come in over-budget after it added geothermal heat and a temporary gym to the design, providing fuel for the opposition during the fall session of the legislature.

    The project is re-tendered after the ready-made design is slightly altered and the deadline is extended after an addendum is made to the tender. The successful bidder will be revealed in January.

8

    The deaths of two women after treatment at Watson Lake's hospital in 2012 dominates question period during the fall legislative session after the family of Teresa Scheunert reveals the chief coroner wrote two reports investigating the death of their mother and sister. In October, the NDP and the family call for a public inquiry, and the issue receives significant media attention. The chief coroner schedules an inquest into Scheunert's and Mary Johnny's deaths for the spring 2014.

    A patient safety review of Scheunert's treatment raises further questions about her death when the coroner's concluded cause of death is challenged. A patient safety review is not undertaken into Johnny's death – and the Yukon Hospital Corp. refuses to explain why.

    The fall session closes with the release of a health care needs assessment report for the new hospitals in Watson Lake and Dawson City – a report the Auditor General of Canada says should have been completed before the hospitals were authorized for construction. The auditor found in his February report that the hospital corporation is not able to demonstrate that the new hospitals were the most effective way to meet health care needs in the communities.

    Health Minister Doug Graham announces the new community hospitals will implement collaborative care models, as the assessment recommends. Such an approach often includes the provision of mental health, behavioural health and substance abuse counselling in primary care.

9

    Premier Darrell Pasloski and his Yukon Party government spend another year absorbing a barrage of criticism over their handling of the Peel River watershed matter Even the Yukon Land Use Planning Council jumps into the fray in its April 7 letter to the government and several First Nations suggesting there is a public perception the premier and company have hijacked the planning process for the Peel.

    A research paper released in October by students at the University of Saskatchewan says it was the government's handling of the issue which is responsible for the breakdown in the process, resulting in a serious loss of public trust.

    Pasloski announces on April 23 that while the work of finalizing a land use plan for the Peel continues, the freeze on staking mineral claims inside the watershed will be extended to today. Another extension to this coming Jan. 21 is announced by the premier on Dec. 23, and Environment Minister Currie says he is confident a land use plan will be in place before the fifth extension to the staking freeze expires.

10

    "Oh, my God, I just want to scream!" That's the reaction Krista Pickett expresses to the Star on Nov. 4, shortly after learning she and eight other Yukoners, most of them Faro residents, will share a $25-million windfall from a Lotto Max draw.

    "Trips to Disneyland are definitely happening," says the 25-year-old mother of three young children. The ticket had been purchased at the Discovery Store in Faro. The lucky victors later travel to the Western Canada Lottery Corp.'s offices to go through the formalities necessary to confirm their big win.