Amateur astronomer asks city to dim lights

Photo by Whitehorse Star

A local amateur astronomer is calling on the city to dim the lights, and is questioning why Miles Canyon Road can’t stay open a little longer.

Dave Cartier addressed council at its meeting Monday night, arguing the city has a problem with light pollution.

“It’s not a type of pollution that people generally think about until it’s already an accomplished fact, but when you get too many electric lights ... you lose one of the beautiful things in nature,” he said.

Cartier recalled his days growing up in Whitehorse when one could sit downtown by the Yukon River and watch the northern lights and stars in the sky.

“You can no longer do that,” he said. “Whitehorse now has a huge hill of electric lights that can be seen from 100 kilometres away.”

Over the years, Cartier has seen artificial lighting become brighter and brighter around town, he said.

Most recently, the Hamilton Boulevard extension has made the situation worse, he added.

“It really doesn’t have to be that way,” he said.

Other communities, he continued, have installed shielded street lights and bylaws mandating their use in efforts to cut down on the impact of artificial lighting.

While there are a couple of examples of it around the city along First Avenue and at the Real Canadian Superstore, Cartier suggested the city should move forward with further actions to protect the view of the night sky for both amateur astronomers like himself or those who just enjoy checking out the stars at night.

“Even if communities don’t have a bylaw to mandate that, then municipalities can spend a little more money getting street lights that are shielded ... that force light downward,” he suggested.

He later noted that making changes to reduce lighting in the future can end up saving the city operational expenses on electricity bills.

“I think that as Whitehorse keeps getting bigger, you should consider that drowning out the night sky around town in a big bath of electric light is not exactly conducive to improving our living environment,” he said.

The situation had him also questioning why the city has to close off Miles Canyon Road each Oct. 1.

The view point on the road is one of the spots close to town where the night sky is visible without major interference from city lights.

“I’d like to know why that road is shut down every year like clock work on Oct. 1,” Cartier said, pointing out it was still passable up until early this month.

“I don’t see why, on Oct. 1 every year, that road has to be locked up.”

After his presentation, Coun. Florence Roberts asked director of operations Brian Crist why Miles Canyon Road isn’t in the city’s snow and ice policy as a maintained road.

“It’s constructed to a lesser standard than our main arterial route,” Crist said, pointing to the lack of guard rails on the narrow, winding route.

If the city were to get snow and ice, there could be a liability issue if the road wasn’t closed, he said.

Roberts then asked where the city is on testing the energy-efficient lights on Fourth Avenue, something Crist said he would have to look into further.

Another aspect that Cartier said he would look into was whether the shields for the street lights could be installed on existing lights. That question came forward by Coun. Betty Irwin.

Coun. Dave Austin was absent from Monday’s meeting.