Recently, while walking my prize Shih Tzu, I came across some land that had a White Pass sign on it and “Utah Yard.”
This area is an absolutely horrifying mess. There is iron, as well as scrap cable and cans littered all over the place.
As someone who watches an occasional documentary film and listens to CBC Radio One, I can tell you, where there is iron, there are also PCBs, lead and uranium.
I can only imagine the disgust a young, urban professional visiting from Toronto or New York would have viewing this pollution left from days when North Americans engaged in bestial activities such as mining, transportation, engineering and such.
Having seen the wonderful job the City of Whitehorse has done on the shipyards, I would hope the city would turn its sights to areas like these. I would recommend they be totally landscaped and large, high-price condos built immediately on these sites. If you build them, buyers will surely just appear.
Environmental impact of any development would be minimal because it would be labelled a “green project” or reclamation or something. Of course, they should also contain meditation areas, rock gardens and sculpture promoting peace and gender equality.
I would recommend contemporary Japanese-style architecture and design to ensure that these sites remain historically accurate to the gold rush era. Paths could be built too, enabling access for wheelchairs, mobility scooters and Segways.
Large, barbed-wire fences should be built ensuring the area is not exposed to noise pollution from dirt bikes, ATVs, snow machines or other amusement by troglodytes.
And all this would also mean we could build more roundabouts on the Alaska Highway as well - something every councillor loves in an area dominated by large trucks and 18-wheelers.
If we cannot keep our own backyard clean, how do we protect areas like the Peel?
Marc Leduc
Whitehorse