Beware criticizing
Yukon Party
Someone has finally said it!
Loren Maluorno, a Yukon Party riding president, nailed it in his November 3 letter-to-the-editor.
Yukon News editor Richard Mostyn has an agenda and he is not keeping quiet about it.
Mostyn has attacked the leaders of the Yukon Party with one journalistic blow after another.
He wrote about Premier Fentie’s little-known conviction, imprisonment and pardon for peddling heroin.
He wrote about Minister Archie Lang’s entry into cabinet while still owing a massive debt to the public purse.
Is Mostyn just self-righteous?
Mostyn has written about government contracts and positions being awarded to the friends of the Yukon Party leadership.
Who else does Mostyn think government favours should be awarded to?
I think Maluorno’s taunts of Mostyn got his message across. That is, criticism of the leadership of the Yukon Party and its methods will generate threats.
However, Mostyn is still writing scathing editorials and clearly he is not knuckling under to coercion.
In his case Maluorno has more work to do.
Nonetheless, I suspect others will now think twice about criticizing the Yukon Party leadership.
Perhaps that was the point all along.
Cully Robinson
Whitehorse
Frightening scenario
Re: mentally ill patient escapes Health department custody:
I’d like to point out that some people get stuck in hospitals against their will without ever going to court or being charged with anything.
I’d like you to think about how you’d feel if you were confined in a hospital ward and found out that your roommate (or any patient on the same ward) was sent there by the courts because of a senseless act of violence.
The system needs major reform!
Stewart Jamieson
Whitehorse
Generous Yukoners
Yukon Foundation would like to express its appreciation to the people of the Yukon for their support of the foundation over the past 26 years.
As a result of your generosity the foundation was able to provide $75,735.87 in scholarships to 101 Yukon students and $24,155.54 to 13 Yukon-based projects in 2006.
The foundation also distributed $50,125 in Alberta Centennial scholarships to 25 students from the territory.
In 26 years, the foundation has distributed in excess of $1 million to more than 1,000 students and projects.
It currently administers $3 million on behalf of Yukoners.
Yukon Foundation was established in 1980 and is the only trust in the Yukon to be administered under it’s own legislation — The Yukon Foundation Act.
Many recipients of funding from Yukon Foundation have returned to the territory to pursue their careers.
Others have achieved a high level of success Outside.
Yukoners have benefited locally from Foundation contributions to northern culture and history research and publishing, parks and trails being built, programs for the handicapped, children’s programs, public art works and many other varied causes and projects.
Members of the general public can help to support the foundation through bequests in their wills, life insurance policies and living gifts.
There are currently 90 individual funds being administered by Yukon Foundation.
Money from 10 new funds will be available for distribution in 2007.
You can also become annual individual or corporate patrons of the foundation. Details on how to become a part of Yukon Foundation can be found by talking to board members, the executive director or by accessing the website at www.yukonfoundation.com.
John Firth, chair, Yukon Foundation
Whitehorse
Top priority
Open letter to Archie Lang, Minister responsible for Yukon Energy:
Thank you for the fridge magnet.
Though I live off-grid, the advice on what to do during a power failure will be helpful to my friends who are Yukon Energy customers.
After last winter’s power failure, these tips will be assuring and helpful if there is a next time.
What should we do in the case of a disruption to our food supply?
I asked my local grocer this morning how long the food on his shelves would last if food trucks stop coming up the highway.
The thought had never occurred to him. He estimated two weeks.
While looking at the EMO website noted on my magnet, I noticed the Public Findings report on the September 11 emergency at Whitehorse International Airport.
It says, “World events are also creating a need to monitor potential new emergencies that may occur here in the Yukon.”
There are several world events that I can think of that could stop or slow food imports from outside the Yukon:
Disruption to the transportation of fossil fuels; disruption to the availability of fossil fuels; disruption to the food transportation system; water shortage; energy shortage; war; nuclear disaster, and one that will continue: climatic change reducing food production Outside. (For example, the great crop losses this summer in California were due to erratic weather.)
According the 2001 Census of Agriculture, there are 12,000 hectares under 170 farms in the Yukon. (Bear in mind that in the territories, the Census considers sled dogs and horses for outfitting or rigging as an agricultural activity.)
Farms here have more than 1,866 hectares under hay, but only 9.6 hectares under vegetables.
There are 818 horses and 334 breeding sled dogs.
In contrast, there are only 37 heifers, bulls and steer for beef and 15 pigs for pork.
Clearly, only a small fraction of food eaten in the Yukon is grown or grows in the Yukon.
May I suggest we increase the number of farms that grow food for people?
If we are to mitigate a dwindling or stopped food supply, increasing the growing of food locally while weaning ourselves from fossil fuel is the only way forward.
Most recently, the agriculture branch has helped several of us who grow food for people by offering the use of a mobile abattoir to improve slaughter on farms.
We availed of that, and are grateful. The welfare of our cattle is of great concern to us, and we were impressed with how very relaxed our herd was throughout the process.
The abattoir worked out to be economically feasible, too, with the per pound rate coming out at about 30 cents — comparable with the fee the butchers charge for cutting the carcasses for our customers.
There are many other ways in which you can encourage the growing of food for people in the Yukon.
We need so many more hectares under vegetables. We need to reduce and eliminate the use of petroleum and petroleum products on farms.
We need to know we will all eat in the future … Our future, right?
If in need of direction, check out the wonderful progress made by our circumpolar neighbours in Europe. There’s no need to re-invent the wheel here.
Please carefully consider food security in the Yukon, and let me know what your plan is.
I have room on my fridge for another magnet.
Heidi Marion, Wild Blue Yonder Family Farm, Tagish
