Open letter to Premier Darrell Pasloski:
According to the 2010 report “The Real Wealth of the Mackenzie Region” by Mark Anielski and Sara Wilson, the Mackenzie watershed, which includes the Peel region, provides about 13.5 times more societal economic value than the gross domestic product generated by natural capital extraction industries.
That societal economic value is the ecological goods and services that are provided by nature which includes carbon storage, water filtration, water supply, caribou and moose habitat, and cultural values. The natural capital extraction industries include fossil fuel.
As you know very well our addiction to fossil fuel is creating havoc with the environment and climate. And natural gas extraction is causing real problems with overuse of water and the pollution of water systems. The method of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas is causing even greater greenhouse impacts on the climate.
With an already entrenched dependency on fossil fuel, the world needs to preserve its last remaining wildernesses of which we in the Yukon have a responsibility to maintain.
We as Yukoners need to take the road to a renewable energy future and ban further fossil fuel extraction. From the Yukon government perspective this ban should start with the Peel watershed.
My recommendation to you is to accept Peel Watershed Planning Commission’s final recommended plan, with the exception of imposing a full ban on any fossil fuel extraction within the Peel watershed.
J.P. Pinard
Whitehorse