Highlights of History from The Whitehorse Star
Published by The Whitehorse Star on December 31, 2014.
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 2014.
1
The long-running Peel watershed saga. Justice Ron Veale of the Yukon Supreme Court rules against the Yukon government in a landmark court case over the future of the Peel River watershed. In his decision released Dec. 2, Veale finds the government did not show good faith nor honour while negotiating the Peel land use plan and therefore must largely adopt the land use plan recommended by the Peel planning commission. As a result, the government must accept wilderness protection and restricted surface access over 80 per cent of the watershed.
The land use plan developed by the Yukon government calling for 30 per cent wilderness protection and provisions for road and rail access throughout the region is rendered meaningless. The court action is filed last January by two First Nations and two environmental organizations, just days after the government adopts its own land use document.
Veale's decision brings jubilation among First Nations in general and Yukoners who supported and lobbied for maximum wilderness protection. The government formally files its widely anticipated appeal of the decision on Tuesday afternoon.
2
To frack or not to frack? Between June and September, hundreds of Yukoners in a dozen communities attend public hearings on the future of fracking in the territory. The sessions — on top of a petition bearing 6,500 signatures, numerous protests and at least one song — see near-unanimous resistance, expressed by residents in often vehement language. The emotions stirred by the prospect of fracking in the Yukon tie into those kicked up by the debate over the Peel River watershed and controversial amendments to federal environmental assessment laws.
In September, Whitehorse alone sees more than 200 people, including scores of registered speakers, assemble at the Kwanlin Dun Cultural Centre to voice their concerns in two public hearings.
The petition, many months in the making and fuelled by Yukoners Concerned About Oil and Gas, is tabled in the legislature last month, supposedly the largest in the territory's history.
This month, the all-party legislative committee on hydraulic fracturing, which hosts the hearings, successfully requests extending the deadline for its final report until Jan. 19. Committee chair Patti McLeod says the "entire committee has been working quite diligently" to complete it.
Hydraulic fracturing involves pumping pressurized water, sand and chemicals underground to release natural gas trapped within the shale rock. Since 2011, several major studies have suggested that over its entire life cycle, shale gas production is dirtier than coal because of the oversized greenhouse gas footprint left by leaking methane. Others argue that fracking is a much cleaner process than coal mining due to shale gas extraction's lower CO2 emissions.
3
City records three murders. On May 30, 69-year-old Allan Waugh is found dead in his home in the McIntyre subdivision. While the RCMP deem the death suspicious, no arrests have been made as the year ends.
Only a little more than a month after Waugh's body is found, another suspicious death occurs in Copper Ridge when Tanner Sinclair, 27, is stabbed on July 16. Michael McPherson is taken into custody and charged with second-degree murder after surrendering in B.C. As the year ends, he has yet to enter a plea.
On Dec. 8, 17-year-old Brandy Vittrekwa is found dead on a trail in the McIntyre subdivision. A suspect is in custody on unrelated matters, but no charges have been laid.
4
In the early-morning hours of Aug. 9, tragedy strikes when two young people die and another is seriously injured after a violent collision between a Honda Accord and a semi-truck at the Alaska Highway and Hamilton Boulevard extension. In the car are 20-year-old Brendan Kinney and 15-year-old Clare Cherepak, who are killed. Another passenger, 18-year-old Derrick Gibbons, is medevaced to Vancouver General Hospital.
The 15-year-old driver is taken to Whitehorse General Hospital in fair condition and is treated and released.
The Whitehorse RCMP say they continue to investigate the collision. The driver's name has not been released and no charges have been laid.
5
The lengthy saga of Michael Nehass continues to twist and turn through the courts and the correctional centre this year, attracting national publicity. Behind bars at WCC since December 2011, the 30-year-old inmate appears naked and shackled before a judge via video feed for a case management conference last January. He repeatedly alleges he was kept in solitary confinement for two years, a claim echoed in a complaint his father files with the Yukon Human Rights Commission but unconfirmed by the Justice department.
In May, Nehass is found unfit to stand trial by a Supreme Court judge due to his tenuous grip on reality — and subsequently deemed mentally fit again by the Yukon Review Board and a territorial court judge. Looking gaunt and thin in recent court appearances, Nehass now girds himself for a trial in March 2015 — after firing his lawyer this month. "I have a good case, but I am being inhumanely treated at WCC," Nehass tells the Yukon Supreme Court.
At a disability rights conference this month, Heather MacFadgen, the commission's executive director, describes him as a person with mental disabilities who has been "locked up for his behaviour" for a very long time.
In November, Supreme Court Justice Leigh Gower apologizes to Nehass for not removing him from the courtroom immediately upon realizing the inmate was naked during the video appearance from the jail in January.
Nehass faces eight charges in Yukon Supreme Court. These include assault, assault with a weapon, two counts of uttering threats, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, breaching his probation conditions, intimidation and forcible confinement, which date back to 2011 in Watson Lake. Nehass also faces charges in territorial court, laid during his time at the jail. He pleads guilty in November to five — attempting to break out of the jail, two counts of mischief, assaulting a guard and uttering threats — though he didn't agree with a statement of facts proposed by the Crown.
6
The Yukon has the worst economic performance of any province or territory in 2013, according to a November report from Statistics Canada. The gross domestic product (GDP) declines by nearly a full percentage point, resting in the range of $2.3 billion. New Brunswick is the only other jurisdiction to see contraction, with the GDP falling roughly half as far in percentage points as the territory's.
Liberal Leader Sandy Silver is quick to call out the government on the new numbers. He notes the disparity between them and the rosier predictions trumpeted by the Yukon Party last year. "Just over a year ago, the minister issued a news release patting the government on the back for its role in seeing the Yukon through yet another year of economic growth," Silver tells the legislature early last month. "There's only one problem with the minister's self-congratulations — he was incorrect, and the final numbers weren't yet in."
Economic Development Minister Currie Dixon replies that the StatsCan figures say "what many Yukoners already knew: 2013 was a difficult year for Yukon's economy. "We recognize that." Dixon cites the $1.3-billion 2014-15 territorial budget — the largest ever, as were numerous budgets before it — and predicts a rebound in residential construction for 2014.
The GDP contraction marks an end to nine consecutive years of economic growth under Yukon Party stewardship. Last fall, the government projected a GDP boost in 2014 of 8.8 per cent. That optimism had been questioned at the time by Rick Karp, president of the Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce, as well as the opposition parties.
George Marchewa, the "senior econometric analyst" at Economic Development, says the GDP drop is "normal, given the slowdown" last year. "Most of that is driven by the slowdown in the construction industry, both on the residential and non-residential side," he says this month. Mineral exploration is down significantly in 2013, he adds.
7
Construction begins in July on Yukon Energy's new backup generating plant powered by natural gas to be trucked into the Yukon from lower B.C. The generating plant and three large storage tanks for liquefied natural gas (LNG) continue to fire the anger of many opposed to the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing, either inside or outside the Yukon.
Many maintain their belief the LNG facility is part of a larger government plot to spur on a natural gas industry in the Yukon to supply the facility as well as others being contemplated by mining companies as an alternative to diesel generation. But Yukon Energy and the territorial government maintain natural gas is the best fuel choice for Yukoners because it's much less expensive than diesel fuel and its cleaner exhaust emissions are better for the environment.
The government provides its official approval of the project in July after receiving positive recommendations from both the Yukon Utilities Board and the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board.
The beginning of construction is two months behind the original schedule, and it's expected the plant won't be ready until next spring instead of late this month or early January.
8
Two inquests examine the deaths of Teresa Ann Sheunert and Mary Johnny, both of whom were treated at the Watson Lake Hospital before passing away in June and August 2012. Originally, one inquest to investigate both deaths is planned, but eventually it's announced two separate proceedings will be held.
Numerous recommendations come out of each inquest held. Juries conclude Johnny's death was a homocide while Scheunert's death is determined to be accidental, caused by mixed-drug toxicity.
9
The territory announces Dec. 18 that the new, 300-bed continuing care facility announced earlier in the year will be built in Whistle Bend. It will be one of the government's most ambitious capital projects ever. By far the largest extended care residence of its kind North of 60, the structure, initially lowballed at $126 million but expected to cost considerably more upon completion, would serve an aging Yukon population coping with mobility issues, a range of chronic cognitive and physical challenges, or dementia. The 59,000-sq.-metre (194,000-sq.-ft.) care centre housing 150 beds is slated to be finished by 2018.
Work on a second phase with room for 150 more beds will then begin, according to the Department of Highways and Public Works.
The sprawling structure is expected eventually to replace the beds at the Macaulay and Thomson Centre facilities.
Partnerships BC, a company owned by B.C.'s Finance ministry, is on board to help procure design-build bids following a request for proposals.
NDP Leader Liz Hanson questions "just assuming the private sector can do it better - that's not been proven." Hanson also doubts the turn toward centralized, institutional long-term care, as opposed to the home- or community-care route.
Health and Social Services currently runs three long-term care facilities in Whitehorse and one in Dawson City.
A report from June 2013 by Kobayashi + Zedda Architects notes the Yukon will need upwards of 320 new continuing care beds by 2021. The report projects a portion of the territory's population will grow from 3,400 people aged 65 years and older — more than 500 of whom are 80-plus — to more than 7,000 65-year-olds in 2036 — up to 3,400 of whom will be over 80.
Up to 550 beds will be needed in just over 20 years, and those are conservative estimates, the government says.
10
The city unveils - in its 2015 capital budget and provisional spending plan to 2017 - its $55-million project over three years to consolidate its operations and services into two main sites. One would see a large operational building constructed near the Public Service Building at Two Mile Hill and Range Road. Another smaller building is eyed for the Second Avenue property city hall sits on. The smaller building, to replace the downtown fire hall, will house services residents access every day, such as building permits.
While the entire project is expected to cost $55 million, city officials are promoting the project as a way to save on operational costs with energy savings and no more need to lease buildings in the city's core.
The current Municipal Services Building on Fourth Avenue will also be demolished.
