A Re-cap of Day 3 at the Charrette

Here is the final in the series of guest blogs by a group of grade 11 students participating in our energy charrette. Today's entry is from Katie Peters.

With the end of the third day of the Yukon Energy Charrette, many solutions to our territory's energy challenges have been presented. Although the charrette itself is now over, this is only the beginning of a long process of deciding how to deal with the Yukon’s energy needs.

The growing population and requirements of various mines have resulted in a shortage of renewable energy. Over the past few days, options such as solar, wind, waste energy, diesel generation, hydro, geothermal, natural gas, bioenergy, nuclear plants, energy storage, and Demand Side Management (energy conservation) have been considered and debated. Though there seems to be no single solution and final decisions have yet to be made, Yukon Energy is well on its way in its search for answers, and the involvement of community members has been essential.

Today’s charrette session focused largely on how to keep the public engaged. Stuart Hickox, founder of the One Change organization, gave a presentation on increasing public awareness and ACTION! It is not possible for Yukon Energy to find the best possible energy solutions without public cooperation and support. In our afternoon group gathering, many ideas were brainstormed as to how the Corporation can move forward from this point and gain the community’s assistance. These included school presentations with active youth participation, annual/bi-annual public meetings, door-to-door education and involvement, development of an experiential learning game, and various other actions that would community members of all ages. Youth participation is particularly important, as they represent the Yukon’s energy future, and will one day be left in charge of the choices that are made now.

In my opinion, this week’s Yukon Energy Charrette has been a huge success and is a fantastic starting point in terms of facing our present and future energy challenges.