Why did we put the Yukon Party in power again, or did we really? I don’t think so. The majority of Yukon voters did not vote for the Yukon Party.
In this false majority representation system, they don’t govern with a real majority, but with arrogance and at that they seem to be very good. They use the word “consultation” and if they don’t like the outcome of any recommendations, they just dismiss everything and call for more balance, a word they don’t seem to understand at all.
Balance essentially means 50-50 or at least consensus in practical terms. When the recommendations of the Peel watershed commission came out, the Yukon Party MLAs dismissed these for not being balanced. They must have failed math class because even if we protect all of the Peel watershed à and we should à we still have a hell of a way to go to protect 50 per cent of the Yukon from heavy industrial development.
They are the ones with a hidden agenda. They are the ones who don’t want a moratorium on fracking and uranium mining à two industrial activities that should be totally banned from the Yukon for their brutally destructive effects on our ecosystems.
We don’t want to study this fact any further. It’s a no-brainer because the impacts of these activities are clearly evident through ecological destruction in other jurisdictions. This is very well known and documented all over the world.
Do they want to make us believe that these substances and practices all of a sudden behave differently when they are mined or blasted open in the Yukon? They are the ones who actually say that health and environmental concerns are paramount for their government. This is one of the biggest hypocritical remarks I have heard in a long time and typical for the lip service provided by the Yukon Party.
They are also the ones who are trying to block attempts for a Yukon-wide land use plan, despite the fact that many Yukoners, especially First Nations and conservationists, repeatedly have called for land use planning.
Land use planning is a logical attempt and makes total sense because it would provide certainty for industry as well as conservation. It consequently would give some of our unique ecosystem structures in the Yukon a true chance to survive as wilderness areas while giving opportunities for industrial development in other parts of the Yukon.
The Yukon’s natural resources aren’t just commodities. They mean stability in the future and yet they are mostly exported with heavy foreign investment and interests driving exploration.
When do we start to connect the dots? We have to look seriously at the mistakes of the past and get back to some basic ecological principles if we want a truly sustainable future.
Reiner Rembe
Watson Lake