Open letter to Energy Minister Brad Cathers and Premier Darrell Pasloski;
The Utilities Consumers’ Group read with interest various articles declaring that your government blessed the new mine at Eagle Gold in the Dublin Gulch, Mayo district.
We also noted that the mining company, Victoria Gold, is seeking to hook up to our power grid to get cheap energy.
One article states that the Pasloski government is looking at alternatives to hooking Eagle up to the grid, rather than having Yukon ratepayers foot this risk. We hope this is not gossip!
At the same time, the manager of Victoria Gold states that they cannot provide their own power source under the present regulatory conditions. Where do they get this from? Minto’s owners provided their own electrical power by diesel generation until they got cheap power connections from Yukon Energy. So how is Victoria Gold now different?
How long are we going to leave it to these Outside mining companies or David Morrison of Yukon Energy to dictate our energy policies? The mining companies, of course, want cheap power sources at our expense and Yukon Energy wants the corporate monies to be gained from providing power to these guys.
The losers: all Yukon ratepayers who are forced to pay for the burning of all the extra diesel or liquefied natural gas (our new saviour) to provide this energy. If the mining companies connect to the grid, they get the same benefits as all the rest of us Yukoners from all the infrastructure that “we” have already invested in. Yukon Energy conveniently calls this “blending of rates” and then tells their regulator that the mines are paying more than their fair share.
If you believe this crock, then someone is twisting your shorts! If your government has the desire to subsidize mining, do it through the legislature, not through Yukon electrical ratepayers.
Roger Rondeau
Utilities Consumers’ Group