Keith Halliday

4 weeks ago | yukon-news.com | Keith Halliday

Placer mining is one of the few economic hedges the Yukon has during the U.S. trade war, yet the Yukon government is not renewing permits for many mines. Gold prices have soared to over US$3,350 per ounce, up from an already high level of US$2,000 per ounce in early 2024. The Yukon can do placer mining itself. It is a 125-year-old industry with established know-how. Yukon placer miners do not require U.S. technology, investment or market access.

1 month ago | yukon-news.com | Keith Halliday

There’s a paradox at the heart of the real estate market. It feels like the epitome of the free-market economy, with a culture of deal-making, house-flipping and entrepreneurial zest. But housing is also one of the most highly regulated markets. Think of zoning, thousand-page building codes and mortgage stress tests. In the Yukon, governments own most of the land and control development.

1 month ago | yukon-news.com | Keith Halliday

A single Wyatt cartoon is worth a thousand column words. Last Friday’s edition had a smoking jetliner labelled “Yukon Liberals” headed for a crash on Mount Election, with the Captain/Premier parachuting to safety while shouting “Surprise!” to the passengers. The trajectory of that jetliner captured a growing  sense of unease. In my conversations with regular Yukoners from across the political spectrum, many seem worried about the territorial government.

1 month ago | yukon-news.com | Keith Halliday

The DJs at the Kopper King played disco and the lines at the Yukon Theatre stretched around the block for the new science fiction phenomenon Star Wars. The Yukon News was still the new newspaper in town and its headlines were about oil embargos and geopolitical crises. Oil had just started flowing through the recently completed pipeline from the North Slope to Valdez and onto the tankers headed to Bellingham, Washington.

2 months ago | yukon-news.com | Keith Halliday

Yukoners live in harmony with majestic annual cycles of cosmic abundance, such as the annual migration of the Porcupine caribou herd, the return of the salmon to Haines, and the territorial capital budget. Like the eagles in Haines, government contractors perch expectantly around the Yukon legislature at a certain time of year for the annual running of the projects. Will it be a big year? How much will be chum, coho or chinook (think schools, highways or power lines)?