Whitehorse Daily Star

PM, four ministers set for northern foray

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will begin his annual tour of the North in Whitehorse tomorrow,

By Christopher Reynolds on August 20, 2014

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will begin his annual tour of the North in Whitehorse tomorrow, unveiling a rough itinerary that will take him to five communities across all three territories between Thursday and next Tuesday.

The pan-northern trip – Harper’s ninth consecutive – reflects the Conservative government’s renewed emphasis on infrastructure, resource development and Arctic sovereignty as well as agriculture.

Fresh from meetings with supporters and business leaders east of Vancouver, Harper plans to kick off his time in Whitehorse with an announcement concerning northern science and research at Yukon College at 10:30 a.m. Thursday.

The federal government is contributing $5.6 million over five years to the college’s Centre for Northern Innovation in Mining, announced last August.

A $100-million, seven-year geo-mapping program for energy and minerals was also launched one year ago.

Unofficially, the Prime Minister’s work in Whitehorse will begin at 7 a.m., when a portion of the Millennium Trail near the SS Klondike National Historic Site will be closed off for two hours of filming.

The city’s supervisor of outreach and events confirmed Parks Canada and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had requested the closure for film work the federal department is doing at sites across the country.

In 2012, the Harper government found 638 Parks positions were “surplus,” yielding — along with other rollbacks — more than $50 million in savings since then.

The recent reduction in tourist services at the SS Klondike was a direct result of the move from guided tours to “self-guided visitor activities” that has cut local jobs around the country but saved the government $2 million annually.

A mid-day trail hike tomorrow precedes an evening reception hosted by the Yukon Conservative Association.

Roughly 3,000 invitations were sent out to the party faithful, though all residents can register for the event at an undisclosed property.

Attendees can park at the old Shell station on the Alaska Highway before being shuttled to the mystery ranch for the “Summer Reception” between 5:30 and 8 p.m.

On Friday morning, Harper will fly to Fort Smith, N.W.T., in a Bombardier Airbus operated by the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF).

The visit is expected to include announcements about developing agriculture in the North.

“During the prime minister’s ninth annual northern tour, the prime minister will build on our record in the North, showcasing the science, technology and research that is transforming the North, improving living standards and creating jobs as he travels to Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut,” Harper spokesman Jason MacDonald wrote in an email.

The federal government has invested $200 million in the Dempster Highway extension from Inuvik to the Arctic coast in Tuktoyaktuk.

Construction on the all-season road, “complet(ing) Canada’s road network from coast to coast to coast,” began in December 2013, the Prime Minister’s Office stated.

Harper has not made any guarantees surrounding cash for airport upgrades.

Of 65 airports across the North, only 10 are paved. Dawson City has been seeking renovations for years so that newer, larger planes can land on a strip that now hosts a only a gravel runway, inhospitable to jets.

After Whitehorse, Harper plans to hit at least three communities in Nunavut: Cambridge Bay, Pond Inlet and Iqaluit. Harper also plans to take part in the military’s Operation Nanook exercise aboard a naval vessel.

Over the past seven years, the government has poured more than $7 billion into modernizing the RCAF’s air transport fleet and purchasing Arctic patrol ships “to exercise our sovereignty in the North,” the PMO said.

The Conservatives’ northern focus includes an Arctic training centre for the military — opened last year — a $1.3-billion polar ice breaker, set for completion in 2021 — and a $130-million deep-water docking and fuelling facility, beginning next month.

Four federal ministers are accompanying the Prime Minister: Bernard Valcourt, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development; Leona Aglukkaq, Environment, CanNOR, Arctic Council; James Moore, Industry; Ed Holder, Minister of State for Science and Technology.

Harper’s trip comes as the federal government is being sued over funding for a land-use plan that would guide resource development in Nunavut.

The Nunavut Planning Commission has filed a lawsuit in Federal Court, accusing Ottawa of trying to interfere in the plan’s development and to block its final steps.

The Nunavut Planning Commission was created out of the 1993 Nunavut Land Claim Agreement. The commission was charged with designing legally binding plans that would lay out which lands would be protected, which would be open for development and how they would be managed to encourage local control and economic progress.

Valcourt’s office says the government has provided $3 million a year to the commission for the last 18 years.

– With files from Steve Lambert of The Canadian Press.

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Comments (2)

Up 7 Down 1

CIRC on Aug 22, 2014 at 1:18 pm

What a terrible waste of money. Did you see how huge the aircraft is they fly around in? Kind of excessive. Why can't they use a smaller more cost effective means of transportation? Mr.Harper is visiting Northern Communities for the 20th time? Like why can't he appear by telephone? Or teleconference. Everyone is complaining about taxes.

Up 11 Down 0

yukon56 on Aug 21, 2014 at 7:07 pm

Our invisible MP surfaces on his masters arm

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