Alaska Yukon Relations

For those who live outside of the Yukon, you may not know what our economy is like, and how wildly things swing on little events. Even many of our own population don't quite understand this fact, as they are insulated from direct effects, having jobs with large corporations, (phone, electrical) or government. (not to say that all government employees are oblivious)

There have been many events in the past year that have sparked somewhat of a 'renewed positive outlook' amongst business owners, and workers in the private sector.

A few of the most recent events that have been publicized are:

Unemployment hitting all time lows in the territory. The raw facts are here in a PDF file for August , supplied by the Yukon Bureau of Statistics on this page. Or the dumbed down version in our local newspaper here for the month of September.

Mining exploration on the rise, with numbers that have not been seen in the last decade. As reported here via the communist Broadcasting corporation.

Now I won't get into the number crunching of these things, less I get smacked for bad form by either of my good friends, Scott or Gerry. What I can see, as a small business owner is that there is more traffic through my door, from the related mining industries. Therefore I know that there is an element of truth to these figures.

You are then asking, what does this have to do with Alaska, Yukon relations? This is where we dive slightly into politics.

The Premier of the Yukon, Dennis Fentie, has a difficult balancing act to play. In order to promote growth in a number of ways, for the Yukon, he must work closely with our neighbor to the west, which is Alaska. There are many common interests, such as pipelines and railways in the works. Those are items that Governor Murkowski and Dennis Fentie seem to agree on. On the other side, the issue of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is something that they do not see eye to eye on. Or at least that is what we are led to believe.

The natives in the northern Yukon are dead set against any development in this area, worried about negative effects on the porcupine caribou herd. And although I believe that there position is faulty, I am not an expert in the field and may not be able to defend credibly my belief. It does not matter, for Dennis Fentie he can not afford politically to take anything but the side of the northern natives. A position that I must note, is the most popular here in the Yukon, or so it would seem.

To the point. It worries me to see what is happening, knowing that in an instant we could lose economic benefits that would assist my business in prospering, and possibly giving me a good nights sleep.

Now there is an active lobby on the other side of the border, and if they gain steam it could derail all that is going on. The add on this page has the local media in tithers, and has even hit the (Canadian) national news.

I wait to hear Dennis Fentie's response!