Open letter to Resources Minister Brad Cathers and Premier Darrell Pasloski:
Happy Canada Water Week. Water is essential to life on our planet. Indeed, your bodies are more than 80 per cent water.
I have recently learned that, due to the nature of Yukon geology, any extraction of natural gas here will eventually require fracking. Fracking contaminates millions of litres of water per well.
It has been brought to my attention that there are two looming deadlines for public comments on the Energy, Mines and Resources website with respect to oil and gas development.
The first deadline, March 28, involves oil and gas rights for the Eagle Plain Basin. Given the potential consequences of this request for rights - millions of litres of water contaminated within the range of the Porcupine caribou herd - eight weeks of public comment is not enough time.
Please extend the deadline. Silence does not equal indifference from the public, it means we are leading busy lives and probably haven’t had the opportunity to learn and digest the facts.
The second deadline, May 8, requests feedback on a “draft of gas processing plant regulations.” I’d like to highlight the wording of this request. It implies that building liquefied natural gas (LNG) processing plants is inevitable. Do we even need regulations for processing plants?
Perhaps the first questions to pose to the Yukon people are, do we want to invest in natural gas as an energy option? Do we want an LNG processing plant across from Robert Service campground, beside the Yukon River, to process natural gas trucked up the highway or fracked in the Yukon? There are many rumours floating around and we don’t have the facts.
Regardless, you will receive further comments from me in short order.
By the way, Yukon Energy’s public meeting at the wind energy workshop on Tuesday was fabulous. Please provide more educational opportunities on our future energy options.
Jennifer Line
Whitehorse