The Yukon government wants to know who might be interested in building and operating a fibre optic line along the South Klondike Highway to Alaska.

It wants to learn who might have the capacity to do so.

The government issued a call this morning for an expression of interest in the project, though it emphasizes it’s simply an expression of interest that does not give rise to any obligations.

It asks interested parties to describe their background and ability to build and operate the fibre optic line. It asks for their credentials in negotiating bandwidth lease agreements.

The call for submissions notes the government would consider providing $11.2 million to assist with capital costs, as well as a 10-year exclusive lease to the company to operate and maintain the fibre link.

The government is pursuing two options to provide a backup system or redundancy to the main fibre line coming up the Alaska Highway, which is owned and operated by Northwestel Inc.

There is the South Klondike option to Skagway with a tie-in to the recently completed underwater fibre cable running along the bottom of the Lynn Canal between Juneau and Skagway.

There is the option of going up the Dempster Highway to tie in with the recently completed fibre link running up the N.W.T.’s MacKenzie Valley to Inuvik.

The former Yukon Party government committed to the Dempster Highway option in 2015 when the construction estimate was $32 million.

But with the estimate eventually ballooning to $60 million – give or take 30 per cent – along with the December 2016 change in government to the Liberals, the Alaska link was put back on the table.

While the capital cost of the Alaska option is estimated to be much lower at $15 million, it’s expected the operating costs could be much higher.

Premier Sandy Silver has committed to choosing one or the other based on a business case, in the interest of what he’d described as providing much-needed redundancy for Yukoners.

Steve Sorochan of the Department of Economic Development said today the expression of interest is meant to inform the analysis of the two options by learning more about who can provide the Alaska link and for how much.

“It is really about understanding if somebody can make that work,” the department’s director of technology and telecommunications development told the Star.

Interested parties have until Aug. 24 to file their submissions.

The Yukon government has also applied to a federal fund to improve connectivity to assist with the capital cost.

Sorochan expects to hear from the federal fund before October.