In January 2020, we launched a draft of our 10-Year Renewable Electricity Plan. Between then and October 2020, we hosted more than 35 COVID-Safe meetings with First Nations, municipal and territorial/provincial governments, local advisory councils, electricity stakeholders and Yukoners, including youth, to share information and gather feedback about the plan. We also collected comments about the plan through an online and paper form.
Thank you to everyone who shared their views with us. Below are key themes that we heard from you, and how we will address them. A full copy of the What We Heard Report can be found in the Related Documents section at the bottom of this page.
Over the next year, we will start to have project-specific discussions with First Nations governments, development corporations and Citizens, municipal governments, local interest groups and residents in each project area. We will also continue our efforts to get government grant funding for each of the projects.
We look forward to seeing and hearing from you again and to working together to create a clean, reliable and affordable electricity future in Yukon. In the meantime, if you’d like to reach us, please email us communications@yec.yk.ca.
What We Heard Themes and Actions - December 2020
| Key themes |
How input is being addressed |
| Impact on rates |
- We’ve developed a federal funding strategy to mitigate the impact of the plan of rates.
- We’re executing the plan with the support of the Yukon Development Corporation, Yukon government and First Nations partners.
- We’re building a longer-term rate forecast model and will assess multiple scenarios in 2021.
|
| Alternative plan |
- We’ll identify and regularly monitor critical milestones for each project to assess progress.
- If required, we’ll re-evaluate alternative projects when we develop future resource plans.
|
| Environmental impacts |
- We’ll complete environmental assessments, studies and mitigation plans as part of each project’s project plan.
|
| Reliance on British Columbia |
- The projects we identified in the plan are the most cost-effective solutions to address the specific needs of Yukon.
- We’ll make opportunities to maximize benefits to Yukoners a priority during the negotiation of Electricity Purchase Agreement, contracts, Benefits Agreements with First Nations, and through project contracting and procurement for the projects we own.
- We’ll continue to engage the BC government and project area stakeholders about our plans.
|
| Other resources (nuclear, geothermal, wind) |
- We’ll continue to support Yukon government’s Independent Power Production Policy and Standing Offer Program. Through that, we will purchase renewable electricity from third-party solar and wind projects included in the program.
- Geothermal and wind technologies were considered in the development of the plan. Geothermal is not at a place right now commercially that we felt we could include it in the plan. But, we will keep our eye on it. Wind does not provide us with the dependable capacity we need in this plan, but we will buy wind power from proponents in Yukon government’s Standing Offer Program and look to it as a potential resource in case more energy than we forecasted is needed in the future.
- We’ll continue to monitor and evaluate geothermal and nuclear in future resource plans.
|
| Forecasting models/potential for new mines |
- We’ll continue to update load forecasts (residential/commercial use, and mining activity) as part of future resource plans
- Answers to specific questions we received are addressed in section 4.2 of the technical report.
|
| Timelines of projects |
- We’ll provide annual updates on the progress of the projects in the 10-Year Renewable Electricity Plan to the public and key stakeholders.
|
| Energy literacy |
- We’ll continue to look for opportunities to build and deliver programs that increase energy literacy across the Yukon.
|