Whitehorse dam relicensing gets the OK, but with new terms and conditions

The Yukon and federal governments say Yukon Energy's licence for its Whitehorse hydroelectric dam should be renewed for another 25 years — but they've also laid out some new terms and conditions or revised some that were recommended by environmental assessors.

In a 66-page document issued this week, the decision bodies for the project — Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Transport Canada and the territorial government — agreed that the ongoing operation of the dam "will result in, or is likely to result in, significant adverse effects," primarily to chinook salmon, First Nations wellness, fish habitat, wetlands and heritage resources, among other things.

Yukon Energy submitted a proposal to the territory's assessment board in late 2023 to relicense the dam. Until then, the 67-year-old facility had never been scrutinized by the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board (YESAB), which did not exist when the facility's licence last came up for renewal in 2000.

The relicensing application came at a time when Yukon River chinook salmon stocks have been in steady and dramatic decline. First Nations and environmentalists argue that the dam, by obstructing access to upstream spawning grounds, or even killing fish with its turbines, is a significant part of the problem.

YESAB's report, issued earlier this year, acknowledges those concerns.

"Adverse effects stemming from the project are likely to further deteriorate the already serious state of Yukon River chinook salmon and are likely to have much longer lasting effects," the report states, adding that examples could include the extinction of the species, loss of First Nations' ceremonies and transfer of traditional knowledge.

Yukon Energy's current licence for the dam was set to expire next month. YESAB suggested the 25-year renewal be approved and made 39 recommendations, many of them focused on fish and wildlife, and Indigenous land use.

Those recommendations include coming up with plans to redesign the dam's fish ladder and how to make it more effective, developing a system to monitor fish passage at the Lewes control structure upstream, and that Yukon Energy launch a study into how the dam has long affected how First Nations people who use the land in the project area. 

In their decision this week, the federal and territorial governments accept most of the board's assessment, and its recommendations.

However, they also modified some of YESAB's recommended terms and conditions for the licence, "to ensure significant adverse project effects and adverse effects to Aboriginal and treaty rights are adequately mitigated."

"The terms and conditions related to chinook salmon recommended by the [YESAB] Designated Office did not go far enough to ensure that measures to reduce impacts to chinook salmon would in fact be implemented, especially in the short-term," the decision document reads.

"Additionally, multiple terms and conditions did not provide clear objectives for plans or monitoring, or specific timelines for the development and implementation of these items."

The governments altered the terms and conditions related to chinook and First Nation wellness to better address those concerns. Part of that includes a requirement to develop a traditional knowledge framework and to include traditional knowledge "within all plans and studies for the life of the project."

Yukon Energy must also provide a schedule for when some of its plans and projects related to chinook salmon and First Nation wellness will be developed and implemented.