It’s obvious that the self regulating ‘free’ market world economy doesn’t work, otherwise why would it be necessary for our government and others to artificially stimulate an economy that otherwise is subject to a failed system? 

Only a few short years ago our country enjoyed a surplus, now our finance minister is forecasting a deficit in the billions of dollars that may last decades. I’m no economist but I do know that someone, somewhere in the world has made off with a fortune. And it certainly is not the Canadian working man or woman.

How does this spending spree affect Yukon, in particular the communities? The frustration that we have I believe, is the inability to access federal funding earmarked for municipalities directly from the feds. We must rely on the good graces of our territorial government since all federal cash is filtered through finance. Although YTG does distribute funds among the communities it remains to be argued as to the criteria for the distribution of funds.

In Dawson’s case, the new budget doesn’t affect our existing waste water treatment project. We continue to work with YTG to satisfy a court order to build one. The money will obviously come from Canada and territorially since a town of 1400 doesn’t have 20 million plus for a project of this size and scope. Our main concern is passing on to the Dawson rate payer substantially more costs to an already expensive yearly water bill as a consequence of dramatically increased operation and maintenance expense for the new facility. I don’t think there is anything in the budget to address this ‘real world’ concern.

The bottom line is this; if the budget passes, how quickly will the communities gain access to the stimulus funding for infrastructure projects? What will the criteria be? In our case we have many pending projects of pressing urgency above and beyond the secondary sewage project.

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I’m referring to the latest obscenity perpetrated by our National Treasury Board. Last June an agreement was reached with the RCMP that included a 3.5 percent increase in salary in 2009. Now because our government has been caught with its pants down in the economic crunch it wants to roll back the agreement to 1.5 percent.

My question is this; why don’t our members of Parliament roll back their recent wage increase? Today the base salary for an MP is $155,400. MPs also get $22,000 or more yearly expenses to cover living costs while in Ottawa, and if that isn’t enough, each gets 64 free return airline tickets each year that can be used with partners and dependents. 

But wait, there’s more. If you happen to be a Minister you can add another $74,400 on top of the above mentioned salary. A committee chair can add more than $10,700. The leader of the opposition gets an extra $74,400 every year, etc., etc. 

Doesn’t seem to be much of an economic crisis in the salaries and benefits department for Parliament!

This is typical within the upper echelons of government most everywhere in Canada where dipping into the public purse is a delight for many a politician or policy maker. I don’t mean to paint everyone with the same brush since there are a few out there that give value for taxpayer money.

And we haven’t even mentioned the indexed pension that retired MPs and others get. Sweet!

Do you see the irony here? Who protects these well compensated parliamentarians while they stroll about the House of Commons in their silk suits? I’ll give you 3 guesses… the RCMP ensures that the hill is secure among many other security orientated duties that we aren’t even aware of. 

Beyond this obvious dichotomy shouldn’t we Canadians ensure that the RCMP be appropriately compensated for the work they do? Isn’t it an insult to an important part of our national identity that our own Treasury Board wants to turn the clock back on a well overdue raise for the most recognizable police force in the world? 

It’s an outrage. Here in the north we depend on the RCMP and the many services they provide, not to mention the fact that their lives are often on the line. While our parliamentarians are safely cloistered in the granite halls of Parliament an RCMP member is being shot at by a crazed drug addict in a crack house. 

Please visit www.callforbackup.ca and sign the petition. Do write your member of parliament and ask that perhaps he or she might consider giving back some of their generous salary so our Treasury Board will have a little more to work with.

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As far as the GST component is concerned we can clearly see the triple dipping taking place by our governments. In my mind it is a grievous burden to levy a sales tax on something that already includes a well defined tax structure within the final retail price. But all of this is another bone of contention for future debate.

Given that our Yukon fuel taxes are so low in comparison with the rest of Canada why are prices so high at the pumps outside of Whitehorse, in particular Dawson City? The cliché has always been that it’s the shipping and transportation costs that contribute to sometimes crippling prices for all kinds of commodities here. Is this really true?

Let’s look at a general comparison between Whitehorse and Dawson. First of all Whitehorse pump prices of around 84 cents per litre for unleaded regular are not that far off from the national average. But compare that with today’s price in Dawson; $1.31 per litre regular unleaded. A difference of 47¢ a litre or $1.78 per US gallon. Is that spread really a reflection of the extra overhead attributed to doing business in Dawson or is it exploitive pricing?

Here’s a simple way of calculating the retail cost of fuel. The New York Mercantile Exchange sets the daily wholesale price for gasoline. As of last Friday it worked out to approximately 36¢ per litre in Canadian funds. Now add the markup, in Ontario it’s about 14¢ per litre, let’s be generous and for the sake of argument determine that the margin for Yukon will be more than double, let’s make it 30¢ giving us a new total of 66¢ per litre. Now add the total excise taxes of 16.2 cents for a total of 82.2 cents per litre at the pumps (excluding the 5% gst). Now that’s pretty close to the current Whitehorse prices but wildly out of whack with Dawson.

The tanker trucks that bring fuel to Dawson can each carry 37,500 litres or more . If we multiply that quantity by the 47¢ per litre extra that the gas station in Dawson charges compared to Whitehorse we are looking at $17,625 added to the value of the contents of one tanker truck between Whitehorse and Dawson. Or a B-Train tanker can carry 63,000 litres for an added value of $29,610. How’s that for a windfall profit for a shipping distance of only 300 miles?

As Dawsonites we really need to wrap our heads around this and not take it lying down. I’m sure the suppliers will have every excuse in the book to justify their predatory pricing practices.

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The Utilities Board in their wisdom have recognized the positive financial impact of Sherwood Copper as a new customer of hydro energy and have elected to share this infusion of money with all domestic consumers of electricity in the Yukon by not accepting the punishing rate changes as put forward by the applicants.

To them I say thank you.

Yukoners are at the mercy of global factors that influence prices of essential goods and services. At least we have some direct influence on some of our own resources, namely the cost of electricity from a domestic consumer’s point of view.

I haven’t read all the documentation available but it is certainly easier than ever to keep oneself informed. Here’s the Yukon Utilities Board website.

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Thanks to Culture and Tourism Minister Taylor for recognizing the benefits of supporting our cultural industries.

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Click on thumbnail to see the Municipal Grant Chart showing distribution for all communities.

This is certainly moving in the right direction even though the AYC has suggested that granting to our communities should also be indexed to reflect the cost of living. Nevertheless, kudos to government.

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On Friday 24th we had a workshop in City Cambers led by Economic Development consultant Kim Hardy (pictured) from Whitehorse. I could only attend the morning session since I had to get ready for AYC in Mayo the following day. The objectives that were covered were; 1.Review the project and identify expected outcomes. 2. Reflect on the involvement of the City of Dawson in community economic development in the past. 3. Examine the City’s impact on local economic development. 4. Recognize new opportunities and issues that the city of Dawson can address. 5. Brainstorm for ideas for how the City could better enable local economic development.

I realize there are factions in town that feel that municipal government has no place in this kind of initiative. I vehemently disagree. We have an obligation to help an environment that enables economic growth within the context of an official community plan.

We look forward to receiving Kim’s report.

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Not a good indicator for Dawson.

Another poor indicator for our town is the recent Territorial budget. Remember the election brochure that the Yukon Party had circulating last fall? In it there was a list of accomplishments with a big green tick mark beside each. One of those supposed achievements was the completion of a brand new health care facility in Dawson. Not only is there no such facility there is no mention of one for us in the new budget.

Folks, where is our new health care facility that was promised by our previous MLA when he was the Minister of Health? What is our current MLA’s position on this?

Is our ailing recreation centre addressed in the budget? No. Another issue left to dangle in suspended animation by the Yukon Government despite promises to the contrary.

Dawsonites always make the best of a poor situation and will continue to do so. If one asks why businesses are closing and services are shrinking then look no further than our Yukon Government’s apparent lack of resolve on some important municipal issues.

Please take a moment to call (867)633-7947 or write to your MLA for an answer to these questions… steve.nordick@gov.yk.ca

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It seems this kiva outfit is on the ‘up and up’; it certainly is an amazing concept that individuals in our bloated North American culture have an opportunity to actually help someone build their business anywhere in the world with a few clicks of the mouse.

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Another deserving group in attendance was the Percy DeWolf Race Committee, a testament to the kind of tough fabric Dawsonites are made of! Council happily contributed $1200 to their upcoming annual race.

I think Council would agree that how we respond to funding requests is an important issue. At the moment we have no policy in place to fairly distribute budgeted amounts to the many deserving community groups that might apply for assistance. Policy review, in general is something that will require a lot of work. In the interim, Council might be forced to look at putting a moratorium on funding requests until a fair policy is in place.

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