Conservationists, Yukon First Nation say decision on Whitehorse dam could help salmon

Some Yukoners say there's a lot the territorial and federal governments have done right with a recent decision of theirs on the Whitehorse dam.

Earlier this month, the governments waved the project through and onto the licensing phase — which is in the purview of the Yukon Water Board — but subject to a raft of new provisions, many of which deal with salmon, First Nations' land use and, connected to those, vested rights. The board is responsible for issuing water licences. 

And it's those changes that some take as a sign of progress — correcting what the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board either missed or fell short of in its evaluation of the project.

Yukon Energy has been working to relicense the dam for some time. The company is seeking a 20-year licence from the regulator. It initally proposed a 25-year licence, but that changed when Yukon Energy and Premier Ranj Pillai, Kwanlin Dün First Nation and Ta'an Kwäch'än Council signed an agreement for a 20-year term instead. Carcross/Tagish First Nation did not sign that agreement.

"Hopefully this will be a turning point for the facility and things can be done better going into this new license, whatever length that might be," said Catherine Ford-Lammers, a Carcross/Tagish First Nation citizen and the nation's lead on the file.

"I think the evaluation report, when it came out, was definitely lacking those hard concrete mitigations. It was a bit disappointing," Ford-Lammers said. 

"Hopefully, all the parties can come together and I guess agree on the best mitigations regardless of costs or any of that sort of engineering plans and just really help to bring those salmon back."

Among other things, the governments are requiring Yukon Energy to immediately improve fish passage — including downstream passage — to reduce fish getting sucked into, for example, the turbines and killed until long-term plans are in place. Otherwise, they are calling on the company to develop a Traditional Knowledge framework and to create an annual monitoring program to determine fish passage and mortality rates.

Elizabeth MacDonald, vice chair of the Yukon Salmon Sub-committee, said the decision could help lead to fewer salmon killed by the dam.

As reported by CBC News, roughly one-third of year-old wild smolts swimming through the dam could be killed.

"If Yukon Energy can alter the way the turbines are operated or put exclusions in for juvenile fish or give them another route that's safer, then we could decrease that mortality -- the less deaths, the more that are gonna survive, which is better for the population," MacDonald said. 

Asked whether there are any shortcomings with the decision, MacDonald said impacts of the hatchery on wild salmon aren't spelled out. That's an issue the sub-committee advocated to have included in the project assessment.

"And the hatchery has helped maintain the population, but maybe hasn't kept them as wild as we'd like to see," she said, noting that wild fish are more adapted to their environments.

"There's a lot of evidence around decreased success of the offspring, but also maybe smaller fish," MacDonald said. "We wanted to try and avoid those. And one way to do that is by decreasing the hatchery involvement in the program."

Sebastian Jones, wildlife analyst with the Yukon Conservation Society, said decision bodies usually water down assessments. In this case, the reverse is true, he said. 

Jones credits the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) with remaining unmoveable during a crucial time for the salmon.

"I am pleased that the federal decision body, primarily DFO, was not swayed by local political considerations and stood up for salmon and its habitat," Jones said in an email.

In August, Kwanlin Dün First Nation and Ta'an Kwäch'än Council endorsed a long-term licence, saying in a letter the needs for electricity are too great to delay. 

Jones told CBC News recently the project should have been assessed by, if not the executive committee, a panel review, owing to the complexity of the project and vast implications.

Yukon Energy seeks stopgap 

Yukon Energy's current operating licence expires May 31. With that, the company is up against the clock and in the middle of a regulatory process far outside of its control. 

That's why it's applied for a 60-day licence — a stopgap, in a bid to keep the dam running and your lights on. 

In its application, it appears Yukon Energy doubts the long-term licence will be relicensed in time. 

The company says the 60-day licence would ensure operations won't be disrupted, while freeing up more time to address outstanding concerns.

If approved by the water board, Yukon Energy would be allowed to run the dam from June 1st to July 30th. The application doesn't deviate from the way the company currently operates the dam. 

"No such renewable alternative is available in the Yukon, and in the near term, existing capacity would need to be replaced with new thermal generation capacity to maintain dependable winter supply, which would take about two years to assess and permit," the application states.

Yukon Energy presents a hypothetical scenario where the dam is taken offline and replaced with fossil fuel plants. The application states in this instance greenhouse gas emissions would greatly impact the territory's climate change goals — that is reducing emissions by 45 per cent by the end of the decade. Emissions would increase by 192 kilotonnes of CO2 per year, equivalent to a 30 per cent increase over the territory's total emissions in 2020, the application states.

Ford-Lammers calls the prospect of a short-term licence disappointing and a double standard.

"We've been saying throughout this whole process for the past three years that they should be seeking a short term licence," she said.

The Carcross/Tagish First Nation wants to see no longer than a 10-year licence granted by the regulator.

Ford-Lammers said this would ensure safeguards for salmon are quickly delivered. 

"This time that we're in with climate change and so many unknowns. It just doesn't seem that we should be going with long term water use licenses anymore," Ford-Lammers said.

The Yukon Water Board has launched a public engagement period on the relicensing project. That process closes on May 16.