Getting political North of 60

With five days left in the North, it occurs to me that I have been using this blog as a diary rather than a comment on the socio-political and economic experiences that I have been apart of. This is somewhat out of character for me. So, as my time winds down, here are a few things that I want to write before this place is a memory.

Housing: There is a housing crisis all over the North. In Whitehorse, the emergency homeless facilities are regularly full or near capacity. In 2011, 48% of the business community had employees that had difficulty with adequate and affordable housing (whoa!). For the past few years, the territory has seen the effects of a commodity-fueled mining rush and stimulus spending, as well as an astonishing shortage of housing lots. Whitehorse has near-zero vacancy rates (odd when you see so many homes for sale) that gave rise to high rents and outrageous housing prices (they went up 62% between 2005 and 2008).

In my opinion, the root-problem of the housing crisis can be found in incompetent city planning. With proper engineering, structures could be built vertically (above the current four storey maximum) to mitigate sprawl and environmental degradation. There is also a lot of land where new homes could be built and a number of derelict buildings that could be restored. With such severe winters, homelessness ought to not exist here and government has a fiduciary responsibility to ensure that the people have shelter.

Environment: Whitehorse calls itself the wilderness city and people are very active year round (from what I have been told, at least). There is a profound appreciation for the land and the elements, but also a certain willful ignorance with resources. The obvious thing to talk about here would be the resource extraction industry. I have a strong belief that we need mining (I like shiny things) and being able to utilize certain resources is often what pushes humanity into a new era of cultural evolution (ex. computers and internet). However, it needs to be done responsibly. I have learned from getting into conversations with pro and anti-mining locals that I do not have a solid enough knowledge base to say more than that.

The best example I can offer to explain my statement of willful resource ignorance is water. The territory’s water quality is greatly influenced by glaciers. Between 1958 and 2008, the total ice area in Yukon shrank by 22% that influences a decrease in stream flow. Over the last several decades, temperatures have increased while precipitation has slightly increased in winter (but has more often increased as rain and not snow) and decreased in summer. Higher water temperatures affect ecosystems, human health and the reliability of water systems. It is difficult for scientists to predict what will happen, but these issues seem to infrequently cross people’s minds up here. I suppose when you live with 40 below freezing, you would welcome warmer temperatures. On the flipside of that, last week it rained moderately heavy for about 20 minutes and parts of Whitehorse flooded, including the house I am staying in because of inadequate sewer infrastructure.

Racism. On the surface, this community appears to be open and accepting. Art on the exteriors of buildings gives the illusion of inclusivity and a seemingly accurate depiction of history. However, I have been walking down the street and overheard chilling comments and have been involved in conversations where blatant racial slurs, stereotypes and inaccuracies were stated as fact. I have been subjected to comments involving First Nations, had remarks directed against myself as a white southern female, and heard slurs against the Filipino community who are more-often part of a Federal work program that gives a path to citizenship. As an outsider, it has been difficult for me to effectively tackle such opinions with any sort of weight or force. I don’t want to give the impression that Whitehorse is worse (or better) than other places since racist attitudes are part of institutional structures of this country.

The North certainly has its problems, but it is a friendly place that is full of iconic Canadiana sights (see above picture), sounds and experiences. I highly recommend that if you're given the chance that you come and see one of the last frontiers that this country and our planet has left. It is an incredibly gorgeous place that has a total population smaller than a medium-sized city for a landmass larger than most countries.