US trade mission visits Whitehorse

American business owners gathered in Whitehorse last month, with the aim of seeing how they could serve the North.  

The trade mission took place from Sept. 18 to 20. It was organized by the American consulate in Vancouver, the Yukon First Nation Chamber of Commerce and the territorial department of economic development. Representatives from seven American companies met with government officials, local businesses and First Nations development corporations.  

U.S. consul Jim DeHart told the News the trip was organized to create opportunities for investment, commerce and trade between US companies and businesses in the Yukon, specifically Indigenous businesses.  

The trip is the third in a series of U.S. trade missions to the North, said DeHart. There were visits to Iqaluit and Yellowknife earlier this year.  

Most of the businesses represented focused on issues well-known to Yukoners. 

Arctic Trucks’ representative, Dan Clark, told the News from Edmonton his company’s vehicles are equipped for both off- and on-road driving.  

“Our vehicles are road legal, and we could actually use our trucks to get people from Whitehorse to their out-of-the-way sites without having to rely on off-highway vehicles or helicopters," said Clark.  

The trucks are also able to drive over deep snow, thanks to specialty tires which act like snowshoes when deflated, said Clark.   

Missouri-based HCI provides off-grid power, mostly to telecoms infrastructure, delegate Christian Ferguson told the News. 

They have worked to power the communications infrastructure in villages in Alaska, said Ferguson.  

The power unit is roughly the size of a sea can, said Ferguson, and can use solar panel or wind turbines if desired. It also includes battery storage and a back-up generator. Ferguson said the unit arrives in the community ready to use, and HCI will often work with local businesses to maintain the power unit.  

A different delegate, Innovus Power, provides larger applications of off-grid electricity by creating “micro-grids.” CEO Marc Hoffman said his company constructs self-contained mini-grids for places off-grid, including small communities and mining operations.  

The power can be generated by whatever resource is available in the area, said Hoffman. Examples included solar or wind power, but Hoffman also said the grid can also have oil or gas as secondary power sources.  

Once the cost of the grid installation is paid for, Hoffman said “the energy is free, and that can be that way for 20 to 25 years.”  

He said the northern communities using Innovus’s microgrid have gone years without an unplanned shutdown.  

Delegates became familiar with the Yukon’s electricity outage issues when a blackout happened during the trip, said Cocoon HVAC founder Allen Coggins, speaking to the News from Missouri. He said his heating system can help with power demand issues in the Yukon.  

His heating system uses electricity to heat up a thermal mass made of ceramic which acts like a hot rock in a sauna to warm up a dwelling. The same way a battery can store electricity, the hot rock will store heat, which people can draw upon during times of peak energy demand. It also reduces the reliance on oil and gas, said Coggins.  

“You guys have a much longer heating season than the States do, not to mention a lot colder,” said Coggins. “But until I catch a ride on that rocket ship, subarctic regions are the next best place for me to take my technology so that the way it can be proven, yes, we are a good and viable source to be used, not just on Mars, but on the moon and that kind of thing, hopefully, one day, to help an exploration of space.” 

Back on Earth, an environmental consultant was also among the delegates: unlike others, her business provides something a little less tactile.  

“We do climate science services, because tomorrow is different than yesterday,” said Ronni Wilcock of Two Bears Consulting. She spoke to the News from Anchorage, Ala. She said the Yukon has a lot in common with her home-state.  

“You're more similar to Alaska than Alaska to the lower 48,” she said.  

“The ecosystems that we're very comfortable with working in are very similar to the Yukon and so to me, it's just like a natural a natural expansion,” Wilcock said. 

Her consulting firm provides projections for how climate change can affect specific communities in the future. She said she has worked with many First Nations in Alaska. She said her work to help First Nations prepare for the future has helped them maintain their culture and lifestyle. For example, she said, she’s been able to identify that warmer temperatures may mean drying fish attract flies, or that a winter fishing ground will be more difficult to access.  

“The first step of their scientific method is observation,” said Wilcock. “If several people are observing a pattern, you should be able to capture that and then project that forward with different climates.”  

DeHart, the consul for the U.S., said the trip isn’t about creating a zero-sum trade-off with American businesses squeezing out locals. He said its goal is a collaboration which “grows the pie.”  

“We hope that the partnerships that could be created from this effort would expand economic opportunities in Yukon and particularly with First Nations businesses,” said DeHart. 

“This is very much a part of the U.S. national strategy for the Arctic region, where we are trying to connect communities across the Arctic,” said DeHart of the mission.   

Contact Talar Stockton at talar.stockton@yukon-news.com