Yukon Energy puts focus on salmon as it seeks new 25-year licence for Whitehorse dam

Like his ancestors, John LaVallee has lived near the shores of Lake Laberge in the Yukon his whole life. For the last seven years, he has not cast his salmon nets.

The feeling he ascribes to that? Pain.

"They're taking away our way of life," said the Ta'an Kwäch'än citizen. "That's really upsetting. It takes away my rights."

LaVallee is talking about the impact of Yukon Energy's hydroelectric dam in Whitehorse, upstream from Lake Laberge on the Yukon River, and the effect the dam has had over the years on salmon populations.

Now, the dam could be on the verge of change.

How to protect salmon appears to be a central theme of Yukon Energy's current proposal to renew the dam's 25-year operating licence that expires next year.

In late December, Yukon Energy submitted the proposal to the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board (YESAB), which didn't exist in 2000 when Yukon Energy last renewed its operating licence for the dam. At the time, the Kwanlin Dün First Nation, Carcross/Tagish First Nations and the Ta'an Kwäch'än Council had yet to negotiate their seminal treaties, which paved the way toward the creation of YESAB.

Built in 1958, the Whitehorse dam is a crucial piece of infrastructure for the territory, generating enough power to supply on-grid residents with roughly 80 per cent of their electricity during the summer. With that, it's a mainstay to meeting the Yukon government's aspirations to reduce the territory's emissions by 45 per cent this decade.

The licensing proposal states the First Nations were not consulted before or as the dam was being built, nor were they accommodated. Construction of the facility inundated traditional fish camps, prime berry-picking patches, hunting grounds, historic travel routes and more, according to the document.

Then there are the salmon.

"[There was] a significant decline in the formerly reliable salmon migration and the associated salmon harvest," the proposal states.

This time around, Yukon Energy worked with local First Nations on its licence renewal proposal. According to the document, it's an attempt to "build a better path forward … based on reconciliation, respect, trust, collaboration, and accountability."

"Yukon Energy has heard [from the First Nations] that understanding and mitigating potential project effects on salmon are the priority," it reads.

The three affected First Nations declined comment for this story.