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Documents black out $12 million investor

A secret sugar daddy has handed $12 million to the Yukon Energy Corporation to expand the Mayo dam and extend transmission lines.

A secret sugar daddy has handed $12 million to the Yukon Energy Corporation to expand the Mayo dam and extend transmission lines.

This week, the public utility tabled its financial agreement with Ottawa outlining funding for the $160 million Mayo B project.

Ottawa is pledging $71 million, the Yukon government is providing $22 million, and the joint funding between Yukon Energy and the Na-Cho Nyak Dun First Nation is $37 million over the next three years, according to the document.

But the identity of a $12-million investor is redacted in several places throughout the document.

Neither the Yukon government nor Yukon Energy have disclosed the investor’s name.

The document was not blacked out by an elected official or by any political staff, said cabinet spokesperson Emily Younker.

Yukon Energy president David Morrison was in Vancouver Friday and was not available for comment, said Yukon Energy spokesperson Janet Patterson.

The document outlines the conditions of Ottawa’s contribution, including a joint communication strategy.

“Canada and the (Yukon Energy Corporation) will collaborate on preparing products for those activities to ensure open, transparent, proactive and effective communications with Canadians,” says the document.

“This transparency and accountability will be achieved through appropriate and consistent public communications activities,” it says.

The News had been requesting a copy of the agreement for two months.

Officials in the federal Infrastructure Department initially OK’d the release, but Yukon Energy ignored repeated requests for a copy.

The secrecy follows a bumpy summer for Premier Dennis Fentie, who was accused of lying about and hiding secret negotiations with Alberta-based ATCO from the public and his cabinet.

Fentie allegedly sought an investment for the Mayo B project from ATCO in early 2008, according to former Yukon Energy chair Willard Phelps.

ATCO returned with a proposal to buy up Yukon Energy in October 2008.

Fentie asked Energy, Mines and Resources Department officials to consider the bid for several months.

Half of the Yukon Energy board of directors, including Phelps, resigned en masse on June 8 this year after finding out Fentie had considered the proposal without informing them or his cabinet ministers.

Former Energy, Mines and Resources Minister Brad Cathers resigned on August 28, alleging Fentie tried to make him lie about the ATCO proposal.

After that, Fentie publicly took responsibility for “mishandling the communications” on the ATCO scandal.

“It was a mistake; there’s no reasoning behind mistakes,” said Fentie, citing his failure to communicate to Cathers and the public about the talks.

Fentie has repeatedly denied requests for interviews on his handling of Yukon Energy and wasn’t available for comment on Friday.

He was in meetings all day with the federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and his provincial counterparts, said Younker.

Contact James Munson at

jamesm@yukon-news.com