General Enterprises (GE) president Doug Gonder says he’ll be in a pickle if the city does not reverse its decision to have him vacate the gravel pit he’s been working for several years.

Gonder said in an interview this week the gravel pit he’s working between the Alaska Highway and Ear Lake still has an estimated 1.2 million cubic metres of prime material remaining – the best material in Whitehorse.

A letter explaining his situation was sent to the city last week, and Gonder addressed city council at its meeting Monday.

The lease on the gravel pit expired in 2016, and Gonder has been working on year-to-year approvals since then. He was given the eviction notice last year.

The city has declined to put a new long-term lease in place, Gonder notes in his letter.

“The primary reason for the attempted renewal is that there remains extensive gravel resource on the property, one which would allow Norcon (a subsidiary) to continue operations for years to come,” says the letter to city council.

Gonder said with a shift in the Official Community Plan (OCP), the city’s preference is to maintain the area as green space.

In his letter, the company president writes it does not make sense to put green space over an industrial area.

He’s hoping with a new city council elected in October 2021, he can get the city to reconsider the eviction notice.

There’s been a lease on the gravel pit in place for decades, says his letter. GE took over the lease in 2010.

He says in his letter the lease states if the city terminates it, it’s obligated to identify alternate lands for a quarry, but has failed to do so.

Gonder said to haul out of the quarry on the McLean Lake Road would require him to buy gravel off the current lease holders, at a cost considerably higher than he can produce it for.

The gravel resource in the McLean Lake quarry is running out, he added.

Hauling from the quarry located near Kookatsoon Lake off the Carcross Road would increase the cost of gravel substantially – $60 a cubic metre – as it would be a two-hour round trip between the quarry and the Whistle Bend subdivision, he said.

Gonder said the future of the huge gravel resource known as the Stevens quarry at the north end of the city remains uncertain and unknown, as it has been for years now.

Stevens is one of the largest known gravel resources in the city, if not the largest, but the Yukon government has not made the land available.

GE has identified an area in the Steven’s quarry it would like to access but has not been able to, despite a positive recommendation from the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board.

Hauling from Stevens to Whistle Bend would make financial sense, but there is just no opportunity, he said.

Gonder told council Monday it makes no sense to haul from the Carcross Cutoff, doubling the cost of gravel and contributing to the escalating price of housing. There are, he said, quarry options much closer.

Home buyers are already struggling to get mortgage approvals because of the cost of housing, he said.

The city promotes the reduction of greenhouse gases, yet fails to see the most contributing factor: transportation, Gonder said.

The longer the truck haul, the more greenhouse gas emissions, he suggested.

Gonder said if he does have to stop quarrying his pit, he’d like to move to an area near the Utah Transfer. GE has spent a considerable amount of money proving up the resource at Utah, and already has a positive recommendation from the assessment board.

Gravel, said Gonder, is essential for making concrete, is essential for development, such as the brisk residential construction going on in Whistle Bend.

Gonder says he’s been standing in front of city council for 10 years now warning of a gravel shortage to come.

“We must fast-track a gravel source now, not later,” he writes, adding Utah could be one of the fast track options.

He writes his company applied to the city for Utah quarry approval, but was turned down by city council.

When a known gravel source is depleted, he writes, there is just not a hole in the ground left behind, but a groomed site ready for public use.

“I am hopeful with a new city council in place and a fresh vision that may differ from the past, we can all agree there’s no time left for studies: we, the builders of the city of Whitehorse, need action now.”

Coun. Kirk Cameron said he has heard from developers and industry in general regarding the continued supply of gravel, just as Gonder had pointed out at the beginning of the meeting.

There were also questions from council regarding the future of the Stevens quarry.

Acting city manager Jeff O’Farrell said its future has been raised by Mayor Laura Cabott and the territorial government regularly recently.

“I would say that gets raised at least every other week for the last couple of months,” O’Farrell told council. “There is no path forward at this stage.”

O’Farrell said the Stevens area is designated for gravel extraction under the OCP.

“There is an ongoing conversation between the city and the territorial government.”

Council does have a meeting scheduled for April 28 to discuss gravel supply in the city.

Energy, Mines and Resources Minister John Streicker said in an interview this morning there is no timeline for opening up the Stevens Quarry.

He said previous decisions from the assessment board on applications to move into Stevens resulted in a number of conditions.

A decision document by the previous Yukon Party government set out some 40 to 50 conditions that needed to be met before Stevens could be opened up, he said.

Streicker said those conditions call for planning work to be completed first, in partnership with the First Nation governments, the city and the community.

While there is no timeline to begin the planning work, the matter is under active discussion, he said.

“There is a lot of work that has to happen,” he said. “We are in conversation with other governments about that work.”

Streicker noted the former minister of EMR, Ranj Pillai, stated publicly it would take several years to complete the planning work.

When Stevens was proposed years and years ago, there was significant resistance expressed by surrounding residents, and a protest petition was circulated. Noise, truck traffic and dust concerns were raised.

Gonder suggested that resistance remains among a few loud or influential voices in the community that governments don’t want to face.

Late in the 2021 election campaign, Tracey Jacobs, the Liberal candidate for Lake Laberge, distributed written assurances to riding residents that a re-elected Liberal government would not authorize the opening of the Stevens deposit.