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“I understand, yes, climate change is real. It’s happening. It’s happening on both sides of the border. Our contractors seem to be able to keep it open.”
Inuvik Boot Lake MLA Denny Rodgers says the Yukon needs to do a better job of keeping its stretch of Dempster Highway open to traffic.
In the legislature on Tuesday, Rodgers said the highway connecting Inuvik to the rest of Canada – which runs through the Yukon – was closed for 18 days in January and has been closed for a further nine days in February so far.
Rodgers said that’s depriving the Beaufort Delta of “groceries to building supplies, fuel and many other needed products,” as well as triggering a shift in the workforce that trucks goods to the region.
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“I spoke with trucking companies that service the region. Most drivers work on a contract basis and if the road is closed, there are no trips to make. The experienced drivers then go elsewhere,” Rodgers said, adding such a loss of experience has an impact.
“We’ve seen this year significantly more incidents of transport truck accidents on the Dempster Highway than we’ve seen in many, many years.”
Rodgers said the end result could be higher fees charged by trucking companies, which are likely to mean higher prices locally.
Even worse, he said, trucking firms may simply choose “not to run the highway at all.”
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Minister to contact Yukon over issue
The NWT government has had past disagreements with Beaufort Delta contractors over snow clearance on highways, though those involved say the arguments were patched up and everyone learned important lessons.
Rodgers was clear on Tuesday that he doesn’t think the NWT side of the Dempster Highway is the problem.
“On the Northwest Territories side, our model of maintaining the road by local contractors seems to be working,” he said.
“We have contractors that are local, have local knowledge, that have been out removing the snow quickly after snow storms to get the Dempster Highway open.
“We must work with our sister territories to ensure these costly closures are dealt with in a timely manner.”
Asked by Rodgers if he had met with his Yukon counterpart over the issue, infrastructure minister Vince McKay said the two territories had spoken about the Dempster in recent months. “We continue to work with the Yukon government,” he said.
Even so, the minister said he would push the Yukon side for more information.
“Our departments have been communicating and they are doing a bunch of work to the Dempster Highway, and there’s plans being developed on exactly what they’re going to do,” McKay said of the Yukon approach.
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“Unfortunately, I don’t have details on what their action plans are for maintaining the road during winter events and when there are winter storms or anything like that on the Yukon side.
“So I will reach out to the Government of Yukon to see if there’s an opportunity on how we can work together, and maybe some better communication on helping keep the Dempster Highway open for less impacts.”
In 2024, the Yukon government said it spends $7 million annually keeping its side of the highway open.
Last week, a Yukon Department of Highways and Public Works spokesperson told the CBC the territory ended up spending nearly $50 million last year on road maintenance alone, though it wasn’t clear how much of that involved the Dempster.
Roads like the Dempster, Alaska and North Klondike highways are “particularly vulnerable to thawing permafrost, flooding, erosion and other climate-related risks,” the broadcaster quoted spokesperson Antoine Goulet as saying.
Rodgers told the legislature there should be an opportunity for NWT contractors to offer the Yukon assistance on the other side of the border.
“This certainly adds to the discussion of building the Mackenzie Valley Highway,” he observed, referring to the NWT’s proposed all-season highway from the Dehcho to the Sahtu, which could eventually connect all the way through to Inuvik.
“Our own highway,” he said, “maintained solely by our own contractors, carrying products to service more of our communities.”
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