Yukon Chamber of Commerce - Archived Issues

Date: January 21, 2003

To: Yukon Chamber of Commerce Members

From: Sandy Babcock, Executive Director

Re: Support for the Yukon Placer Mining Industry

Last month the Chamber issued a press release expressing its dismay with the announcement by Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Robert Thibault to phase out the Yukon Placer Authorization and request he reverse his decision. To date, this has not happened. It is the position of the Chamber that this change to the way the placer industry is regulated will have a negative and far reaching impact on the Yukon economy.

Not only will placer operations close down, their families may be forced to leave the Territory in search of work and with them their business. Losses to the economy will include; fewer taxes for health and education, less retail spending, lower demands for new housing, less spending on leisure activities, fewer community volunteers and the list goes on.

The Chamber will be writing the Minister directly but we cannot do this alone, we need Yukoners to stand up and be counted. We urge you, as responsible business people committed to the well-being of the Yukon and its economy to write a letter or use the form letter we have attached to Minister Robert Thibault requesting him to reverse his decision. We also urge you to send a copy of your letter to the following;

HON. ROBERT NAULT
MINISTER, DEPARTMENT OF INDIAN AFFAIRS
& NORTHERN DEVELOPMENT
Fax: 819 953 4941

HON. RALPH GOODALE
MINISTER, DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS
AND GOVERNMENT SERVICES
Fax: 306 585 2280

HON. ARCHIE LANG, MLA
MINISTER, DEPARTMENT OF
ENERGY, MINES & RESOURCES
Fax: 867 393 6252

Honourable Robert Thibault, Minister
Department of Fisheries and Oceans
House of Commons, Parliament Buildings
Ottawa, Ontario

I am writing to express my opposition to your December 16, 2002 announcement to phase out the Yukon Placer Authorization (YPA) and regulate the placer industry under the habitat protection provisions of the Fisheries Act.

The YPA is a successful management solution that has effectively protected fish and fish habitat while still allowing the placer mining industry to operate. This cooperative management regime should be used as a progressive, cooperative and publicly supported model for other regulatory regimes across Canada that struggle to achieve consensus and their mandate rather than being thrown out in favour of unilateral Federal decision making.

Placer mining has been a cornerstone of the Yukon economy for over a hundred years. The Industry has demonstrated its willingness and ability to respond to such change as commodity prices, progressive mining techniques, new technology, respect and care for the land and environment, including fish and their habitat. However, the change you intend to make to the regulatory environment for the Placer Industry will severely impact not only the Industry but small businesses that service that Industry.

As a business person and concerned Yukoner, I am concerned with the manner and process that led you to your decision; I am concerned with the lack of any new, published scientific evidence that shows placer mining as regulated by the YPA, is in any way harmful to the Yukon fisheries; I am concerned with the disregard you have demonstrated with regards to the recommendations put forth by the Yukon Placer Committee, and finally; I am concerned that your unilateral decision to phase out the YPA will have a very negative effect on the placer industry and ultimately, my business.

Minister Thibault, I would urge you to reconsider this decision and talk to the stakeholders most affected by your decision – Yukoners.

OPEN LETTER

In this open letter to yourself we would like to draw to your attention the lack of professionalism in the conduct of some of your spokespersons at the local level here in the Yukon.

It is not the mandate of your ministry or its bureaucrats to call a press conference to either judge or ridicule private sector companies, groups, investors, or their management as in the case of AMT/Elsa/Keno Hill. DIAND senior employees badly damaged the potential for an active mine to be recommissioned here that would employ a work force, help the suppliers of goods and services remain in business, attract other resource based interests and, last but not least, engage outside financing that does not exist in the territory today. It is the latter of the above that is the most damning as this was a direct attempt to make AMT’s financing impossible.

There are many Yukon investors who have lost money on the public market over this disparaging assessment. There are regulations for everyday Canadians regarding the publishing of derogatory information when publicly traded companies are involved, at the least, we would expect our own Federal Government to respect these rules.

It is with great expectation that we look forward to the devolution of this part of Yukoners daily lives and we can assure you that every effort will be made to avoid any such abuse of office as stated above.

Our minister Scott Kent has expressed to you his dismay and displeasure in this regard and we wholeheartedly support him. Minister Kent has displayed much more professionalism than your officials to date and I am sure that with his help a sincere and honest attempt to repair this damage will be undertaken.

In light of recent letters and articles in the media surrounding the plans of the Workers’ Compensation Health & Safety Board of Directors (Board) questioning the ability of the Board to manage the fund and the recently announced Achieving Better Customer Service (ABCS) project, the Yukon Chamber of Commerce, and all community chambers of commerce in the territory announce there are fully supportive of the actions of the Board. Further, we will comment on several statements made by the Minister Responsible for the Worker’s Compensation Health & Safety Board that we believe to be incorrect or misleading.

We publicly acknowledge our support for all members of the Board and specifically, the employer representatives sitting as board members for their ongoing and difficult job of being representatives of their stakeholders – the Yukon private sector. In the course of the last two years, this Board has managed to resolve CL-35, the “loss of earnings” policy, put in place a new investment policy, complete 3 year business and strategic plans, complete a Governance Handbook, complete the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations and resolve many old, outstanding claims which, due to their complexity, were difficult. They have consistently consulted with the business community at various public and advisory committee meetings on issues that pertain to WCB. It is our informed opinion the employer and employee representatives have managed the administration of the board and the fund in a responsible manner and they take their fiduciary responsibility very seriously.

Regarding, the ABCS project, we understand this undertaking by the Board to be the development of an action and implementation plan that will respond to the issues and recommendations previously identified from a number of reports and reviews. We have heard comments that this project is to purchase new computers. Yes, that will probably be a major component as new hardware may be required to support new software applications. We acknowledge this undertaking will require a considerable amount of money and as the project advances, we will expect the Board to keep us fully apprised of the project and the expenditures it will require. Acquiring the right tools will enable the Board and the staff to do the job we expect them to do and therefore, we are supportive of the project.

The Minister Responsible for WCB made some comments earlier this week through the media, that, in our opinion, are confusing, unfounded and misleading, and it is in that respect, we find ourselves in a position to lend our intelligence to a disturbing situation we see emerging.

We find it disturbing that the Minister continues to imply that she is accountable to the general public on issues that pertain to WCB. It is our belief that through her actions, the Minister views the WCB fund as taxpayers’ money and this is creating a great deal of confusion. The WCB is not a public fund and as such, the Minister should refrain from such misleading statements as “…I am also an elected member of the government, and it is this capacity that I raise serious concerns about the board’s recent decision to spend $4 million on an internal review. We have received many complaints from Yukoners since the review was announced this month.” The Yukon Chamber of Commerce with a cumulative membership of over 900 members, has not received any calls, either for or against this project to date from either the employer community, or the Minister herself. For the Minister to make statements such as these or announcing she is considering firing the Board before she has gathered any facts or surveyed the actual stakeholders of the fund are, in our opinion reckless and irresponsible.

The Minister refers to the Auditor General’s report and criticizes the Board for moving forward on this project before the results of the Special Examination are known. The Board has stated their plan is flexible enough to accommodate any recommendations the Auditor General may make. It should be noted the Minister made a commitment last winter that she would step back from any governance issues until the Auditor Generals’ report is released. Given the report is not anticipated to be released until September, (not November as the Minister previously stated), we question her actions of late.

The Minister stated in an interview in the July 29^th Monday edition of the Whitehorse Star, that the Board’s spending patterns were disturbing given they have been running in a deficit position the past two years. We find these comments misleading and they need to be clarified. Prior to the 1990’s, due to lack of sufficient actuarial data, the Board of the day was required to be particularly fiscally conservative and this resulted in employers paying more in assessments than was necessary to cover the liabilities. In 1998, it was discovered there was more than $42 million dollars in the fund than was required and this generated the surplus that created the transition fund. This was deliberate deficit budgeting, approved by the stakeholders, to draw down that surplus, not reckless spending.

The Minister claims YTG is responsible for keeping assessment rates down and goes on further to state that if YTG were to opt out of WCB, that premiums would rise. Analysis of prior years financial statements for the Board would indicate otherwise and it behooves us to understand how the Minister came to this conclusion.

In closing, we confirm the Board of Directors for the WCB has the confidence of the Yukon Chamber of Commerce to continue with its’ sound management practices of the WCB.

Kudos to Minister Scott Kent for standing up for Yukoners! In a recent letter to federal Minister Herb Dhaliwal, Yukon’s Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources Scott Kent made it crystal clear to Ottawa that an Alaska Highway pipeline project not only benefits the US, but Canada as well. He further goes on to educate the federal Minister of the benefits that such a project would bring in the development of the Yukon’s oil and gas industry, and yes, that the Yukon has “Canadian” gas too.

The Yukon Chamber of Commerce (Chamber) has long been a supporter of development of an oil and gas industry in the Yukon, formalizing that support at the 1999 Annual General Meeting in Haines Junction. The Chamber recognizes that if the Yukon is to successfully develop an oil and gas industry, it must attract interest and investment from those involved in the industry. One of the key components to the successful and timely development of Yukon natural gas resources is a transportation system to deliver the product to market.

The federal government has officially stated they are route neutral, however, the Chamber has concerns they appear to favour the Mackenzie Valley route. Mr. Kent put it very succinctly when he said, “Canada must be ready to review, permit and regulate any and all northern pipeline proposals as they come forward.” The Chamber joins Minister Kent in accepting no more and no less!