Open letter to Environment Minister Wade Istchenko:
On May 26 and 29, 2015 a group of concerned Yukoners submitted a complaint about the liquefied natural gas power generation plant in Whitehorse.
It has now been more than two weeks and we have not heard back from you.
When will we hear from you? And how will you tell us that, despite clear evidence that Yukon laws and regulations were not followed to obtain a building permit, your government didn’t have a predetermined outcome in mind - and that the whole public consultation wasn’t a farce?
One would have thought that over 900 comments to YESAB and many comments and presentations to the Yukon Utilities Board would have had at least some effect on the permitting outcome.
Even a comment from Environment Canada and the company Risknology from Texas were neglected.
Yet despite unaddressed issues regarding safety issues and pollution caused by LNG, this project is still getting an operating permit.
Minister, you have a legal obligation to care for the wellbeing of all Yukoners.
You are also legally obliged to respond immediately to our complaint, and to forward it to The Yukon Council on the Economy and the Environment for review of the complaint.
The legally mandated steps to assign a permit to the Whitehorse Diesel Conversion Project have not been fulfilled and therefore we demand an immediately stop to all activities on this project.
Honourable minister, we strongly believe that you cannot hide behind silence and ignore this complaint.
On behalf of a group of concerned Yukoners,
Werner Rhein Whitehorse