Ex-minister recalls local developer’s roots

Trevor Harding's relationship with the Yukon began in 1986, when he came up to work in the mammoth lead-zinc mine in Faro for a summer.

Trevor Harding’s relationship with the Yukon began in 1986, when he came up to work in the mammoth lead-zinc mine in Faro for a summer.

It continued as Harding became involved with the local labour movement and eventually ended up as a cabinet minister under then-government leader Piers McDonald’s 1996-2000 NDP government.

These days, it’s evolved into more of a long-distance business relationship from Calgary as the vice-president of business development with Northern Vision Development.

Harding is in the city this week for the Opportunities North business conference being hosted by the Yukon Chamber of Commerce.

On Wednesday afternoon, he spent close to an hour addressing conference goers on how the company evolved from its beginnings just a few years ago.

“This company was built by people with a passion and a belief in the Yukon,” said Harding, who was a United Steelworkers of America official when he worked in Faro.

While Harding is among the founders of the company, it was MacDonald (the president, based in Whitehorse) and local realtor Darryl Weigand who got things going with an idea to build condos on the Whitehorse waterfront.

When McDonald brought the idea to Harding, showing an estimated eight per cent return, Harding said he thought McDonald was “out of his mind,” suggesting if if he wanted an eight-per-cent return, the money could simply be put in a GIC or some other form of investment.

A fishing trip with Harding’s business partner, Rich Thompson, and Myron Tetreault would change that. It was over discussions there that they decided to work with McDonald and others who were getting involved.

“It sounds a little bit like a Survivor episode, but we formed an alliance between Calgary and Whitehorse entrepreneurs and investors,” he told the conference. “And it was really a marriage of Calgary capital and know-how with local, on-the-ground entrepreneurs.”

Northern Vision Development now has holdings that include the High Country Inn and Gold Rush Inn hotels and the Yukon Centre Mall. It developed the Spook Creek Station on Quartz Road and has an apartment building among other interests. However, it wasn’t an easy sell to initial investors in 2004, Harding recalled.

They invited Premier Dennis Fentie down to give a presentation at the Petroleum Club in Calgary on the territory, and after Fentie’s spiel, got up to do their own on the new limited partnership being formed.

Northern Vision didn’t get one cheque out of that, but continued to move ahead showing officials were serious about the initiative and, at times providing information on the territory when prospective investors would say things like they had been to the Yukon before when they had visited Yellowknife.

Eventually, the possibility of a pipeline, national attention on things like northern sovereignty, increased interest in mining and the 2007 Canada Winter Games brought more investors to the table.

That has enabled Northern Vision to continue with its developments, which in turn gives the company more liquidity in moving forward with investors and developments.

“China’s a factor in this,” he said, pointing to the recent Chinese interest in the Yukon’s minerals.

Today, the company has investment dollars coming from sea-to-sea-to-sea, Harding noted. He pointed to the Inuvialuit in the Arctic as well as investors in Newfoundland on the Atlantic side and Vancouver investors on the Pacific side of the country.

“We’ve been trying to lead the way on development,” he said, noting the company also benefits from good relationships with first nations.

At the Spook Creek Station, for example, the Vuntut Development Corp. owns the site that houses the First Nations Bank of Canada.

“We want to do as much as possible with first nations,” he said.

While the company is moving forward with its developments, Harding noted there are a number of challenges it must meet in dealing with the rate of return it will get, given construction costs.

Like most businesses in western Canada, Northern Vision is also dealing with a limited labour force and other matters.

Many investors are also wondering what’s happening with the pipeline, or as Harding referred to it, “the 800-pound gorilla in the room.”

It’s important to maximize any benefit coming out of the development of the pipeline, he stressed.

The conference is set to continue today with a closing keynote speech by former prime minister Joe Clark tonight and a Yukon economic development
seminar through tomorrow.