Is the Yukon's ambitious plan to connect to B.C.'s power grid even a good idea?

It's big, bold and expensive: just the kind of project that would appear to meet the moment for Prime Minister Mark Carney's call for nation-building projects from Canada's premiers. 

Late last month, the Yukon and B.C governments signed a memorandum pledging to work together to study the idea of a 765-kilometre power line that would connect the territory to the rest of the North American power grid. Ottawa is putting up $40 million to help fund a feasibility study.

And earlier this week, Pillai lobbied both his fellow premiers and federal cabinet ministers for infrastructure money, including for the grid connection.

"A grid intertie between both the Yukon and British Columbia is something that is extremely expensive," Pillai acknowledged this week. "It's a major project, but it's a nation-building project." 

But is it a good idea?

A 2016 study put the cost of a line to Iskut, B.C., at $1.7 billion. The Yukon government admits the cost has only gone up since then, but one Whitehorse engineer says he's worried officials don't fully grasp how expensive the project would actually be.

John Maissan said a decade of inflation would put the cost at more than $2.1 billion today. But he said it makes more sense to calculate the growth in costs using the Handy Whitman Index, which specifically tracks the costs of electrical equipment and installation.

Using that index, Maissan said the cost is likely to top $3.2 billion and even that might be a conservative estimate. And unless Ottawa is willing to to foot the entire capital cost of the project, he said, Yukon consumers could be facing major rate hikes, on top of one already before the Yukon Utilities Board.

"I think right now, under present conditions, it just doesn't add up," Maissan said.

The idea, from the Yukon side, is to tap into B.C.'s grid for a new supply of electricity, mostly generated by B.C. Hydro. But Maissan said it's not even clear that B.C. would have the spare power to sell. 

"My understanding is their renewable energy is pretty much fully committed and any surplus they might have for whatever reason typically gets sold, I believe, into California, where the electricity rates are quite a bit higher," he said. 

The Vancouver Sun reported Wednesday that B.C. Energy Minister Adrian Dix issued a call for private-sector projects to add baseload power to the provincial energy grid as the government also plans to shut down natural gas power plants to help meet emissions targets. 

The province is also trying to fast-track major projects, including critical mineral mines, which will have major power requirements. The Yukon is trying to pitch itself as a major source of critical minerals, with Pillai touting "a potential of $200 billion in mineral production."

"It's about mining, it's about sustainable energy sources for the Yukon so there can be growth," he said. "There's going to be growth."