Corporate emissions from the City of Whitehorse have increased by 40 per cent since 2015, falling far short of a goal to reduce them by 10 per cent from 2014 levels this year, according to a new emissions report.

“This result highlights that the current staffing levels, prioritization, and project funding approach have not been sufficient to make progress on [greenhouse gas] emissions reductions,” says the report, which quantifies the city’s corporate emissions between 2015 and 2019. (The city defines corporate emissions as “those that the local government creates through its activities (and which it has control over) such as local government building operations, recreation centres, vehicle fleets, and utility services.”)

“To get the city back on track as a leader in sustainability and climate action, a renewed focus is required.”

While the city’s fleet of light vehicles and heavy equipment has historically been the largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions, that changed in 2019, when the city reached “a new high,” producing 7,023 tonnes of carbon dioxide — mostly attributable to a large, multi-purpose recreational facility, the report says.

Opened in 2005, the Canada Games Centre now relies heavily on fossil fuels for heating purposes instead of electricity, making it responsible for the bulk of the city’s emissions. Yukon Energy, the territory’s utility, doesn’t have enough capacity to provide electricity to the centre, according to the report. As a result, the city’s emissions from oil, gas and diesel fuel climbed “significantly” between 2016 and 2018.

“In the past, the city benefited from Yukon Energy’s secondary sales program which allowed the [Canada Games Centre] to access discounted electricity rates to run an electric boiler when Yukon Energy had excess hydroelectric capacity,” the report says.

This program, which provides businesses with hydroelectricity instead of fossil fuels to heat their facilities, wasn’t offered in 2019 because there was lower than normal snowpack and inflows at all three of Yukon Energy’s hydro plants, a company spokesperson said in an email to The Narwhal.

Generally speaking, energy demand in the territory has increased, which has effectively eaten into the city’s renewable energy supply, Cody Reaume, an environmental coordinator with the city, told The Narwhal. 

The reasons behind that growth are linked to more electrical heat being used and more mining activity, he said. An increase in population is another factor, Reaume added.  Between 2015 and 2019, the number of Whitehorse residents increased from 29,325 to 32,302, according to the report.

Canada Games Centre now top emitter in Whitehorse

Using more fossil fuels can be blamed, in large part, on the centre, which burned oil for more than 4.3 million kilowatt hours between 2015 and 2019, the report states. During the same period, the entire city’s oil usage increased by roughly the same amount to keep up with growing energy demand.

The report shows that in 2015, the centre produced 482 tonnes of carbon. Four years later that figure had increased exponentially, totalling 1,856 tonnes in 2019. 

The Canada Games Centre is largely responsible for a dramatic increase in the city of Whitehorse’s corporate emissions. Photo: Julien Gignac / The Narwhal

Emissions from the city’s fleet of vehicles and heavy equipment, the second largest emitter, remained relatively consistent between 2015 and 2019, hovering around 1,200 tonnes of emissions, the dataset shows.

The details also reveal the city spent most of its money on electricity in 2019. Of the $5 million spent on energy that year, 62 per cent was earmarked for electricity, with heating oil, gasoline and diesel accounting for 36 per cent. Two per cent of the budget was spent on propane.

‘This is not a one-off,’ city councillor says

The bottom line is that the city’s carbon footprint is growing, said Steve Roddick, a city councillor who requested that the emissions report be made public.

“Even if we can increase the efficiency of the buildings and retrofit older buildings, if the footprint is growing, we’re not really going to shrink our emissions,” he said. “It’s not so much about increasing efficiency — that’s part of it — but you also have to fuel switch in tandem with that and make commitments that allow you to do that.”

The city is at the whims of weather patterns: if a cold winter strikes, that will drive up energy use — and emissions. That makes the status quo unsustainable if the city wants to reduce its output of emissions, Roddick added.

To brace for electricity demand this winter, Yukon Energy is already planning to rent 17 diesel generators, up from nine last year.

Report comes on the heels of the Yukon government releasing its climate change strategy

Last month, the Yukon government released its anticipated climate change strategy, which aspires to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the territory by 30 per cent below 2010 levels by 2030.

Ninety per cent of the territory’s electricity is already derived from renewable energy sources  — primarily through hydroelectricity. The territory wants to get that figure up  to 97 per cent.

But the strategy notes that only roughly 24 per cent of all energy in Yukon right now comes from renewables when heating is factored in, as well as diesel-fuelled electricity in off-grid communities. 

The City of Whitehorse itself has also pledged to do more to limit emissions after declaring a climate emergency this time last year. The emergency resulted in the creation of an energy management position, which spurred the creation of the city’s recent emissions report.

But the data shows the city is a long way away from reaching its internal goal of reducing corporate emissions by 25 per cent below 2014 levels in the next decade.

Roddick said this goal isn’t realistic. 

“We need [emissions] to be going down and they’re going up,” he said. “We are not doing what we need to do to meet that target. We are really focused on the short-term costs and not thinking about the long-term costs of failing to act.”

But the silver lining is that the city now has data to show where more work is needed, Reaume said — a key ingredient to making the necessary changes to meet targets.

“In the past, I think there’s been some uncertainty over exactly what tasks or what projects need to be implemented and I think having this data really makes that clear for us, so that we can understand exactly what we need to do.”

The Yukon government’s plan to add more renewable energy to the grid will help lower greenhouse gas emissions across the territory, including Whitehorse, Reaume said. 

“It creates options for organizations and citizens to go green.”

Editor’s note Thursday, October 15, 2020 at 10:24 a.m. PST: This article was updated to correct an error. The Canada Games Centre was opened in 2005 and not built in 2011 as previously stated.

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There’s more time to spare these days. Perhaps boredom is sinking in and people are craving company. For some, that comes in the form of foxes.

It’s not uncommon to spot them in Whitehorse walking along roofs and slinking around in search of food or an old leather boot to bat around. Every now and again, though, people feed the foxes. And instances of this chargeable offence are on the rise these days — a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a district conservation officer with the Yukon government.

“People are at home more often and I can see them wanting to connect with something, anything,” Dave Bakica told The Narwhal. “It passes the time, and if they feed a fox in the backyard, of course they’re going to return more.”

Foxes are also much more present right now. Not only is the territory getting more hours of sunlight everyday, but it’s the animals’ denning season. Bakica said there are three known dens in downtown Whitehorse alone, one of which has at least six kits in it.

The Yukon government is telling Yukoners to stop feeding the foxes.

“There are some people that can’t help themselves,” Bakica said.

‘It’s not a healthy ecosystem to have foxes underneath my shed’

With the availability of food scraps and the odd hand-out, foxes are more likely to visit populated areas, becoming more comfortable with the local people. This introduces human-animal conflict, Bakica said. 

Numerous issues can occur when foxes frequent urban areas: there’s a greater chance of them being struck by cars and foxes have been known to den beneath buildings, creating tunnels that can cause structural issues. Then there are the diseases such as rabies that foxes can transmit to pets, Bakica said.

 “The problem is now the dens aren’t in the greenbelt beside houses, they’re under houses. It’s not a healthy ecosystem to have foxes underneath my shed.”

Bakica said there have been reports in the past of people taking fox control into their own hands, noting one incident where someone set up a crude, makeshift trap. “The fox ended up running around with a snare around its middle,” he said. 

It’s not only a human versus animal battle, however. Feeding foxes — and the issues that come with that — also has the potential to pit person against person. 

“Typically, problems don’t happen to the people who are feeding them. It happens to their neighbours,” Bakica said. 

The Yukon government fines people $100 for feeding foxes. Depending on the severity, fox-feeding violations can wind up in court.

Are there really more foxes in Whitehorse?

In an email to The Narwhal, an Environment Yukon spokesperson said the number of foxes in the territory isn’t available, because monitoring hasn’t been completed.

But the number of foxes in Whitehorse right now isn’t unusual, Bakica said — anecdotally speaking, their numbers have been steadily increasing for the past six years. 

He said one reason behind this could be because of the pecking order of predators. Wolves have been known to prey on coyotes, while coyotes have gone after foxes. If there are fewer coyotes around, this could drive up the number of foxes. 

Coyotes and foxes also rely on similar types of food, so one of them could be out-eating their competitor, for instance,  Bakica said. But there are many factors that could influence the fox population. 

“It’s not in a vacuum,” he added.

The health of foxes is a delicate balance, Bakica said. Feeding them as a form of entertainment likely doesn’t bode well for foxes — or people.

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