Cross-Border Collaboration a Highlight of Dunleavy/Pillai Discussion

Partnership Possibilities

Pillai said he had, just before the presentation, been on a joint phone call with other Canadian premiers (there are thirteen), and there is an opportunity to tie Yukon and northern Canada with the North American electrical grid—an opportunity that might extend to Alaska as well.

“We think that’s really important in the Yukon. We’ve looked at all the other opportunities… and now what we’re seeing is interest from Alaska and other provinces,” Pillai said.

Dunleavy raised the point that a major area of existing cooperation between Alaska and the Yukon is the Alaska Highway.

“We share costs in that; our share has dropped off in the last few years,” Dunleavy said. “But, as a result of our renewed discussions and the importance of Yukon and Alaska to each other, we’re going to be working with Yukon and making sure that we get more money into that highway, so that highway is in good shape… and it’s maintained. Because in many cases it’s mostly Alaskans who use a big portion of that highway.”

Dunleavy said Alaska’s isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic gave him time to think about the benefits of sharing across the border in times of difficulty.

“We want to be not just good neighbors, but we want to put our heads together to stave off and create things,” Dunleavy said. He’d like to see the cooperation go further, including a railroad route along the Alaska Highway corridor.

“Imagine a transportation corridor that goes through Alaska, goes through Yukon, goes down to through BC [British Columbia] and goes through Canada—a designated corridor that could have rail, could have pipelines, could have transmission lines where Alaska is no longer stranded, where the Yukon is no longer stranded in terms of energy systems,” Dunleavy said. “I think it would bode well for surviving successive administrations and elected officials, but it would also bode well for investment… I think it would lower costs for energy, I think it would broaden the possibilities for interconnectivity worldwide. I think we have a real opportunity to demonstrate between our two sovereigns, and bring in other sovereigns… into a northern North America Free Trade Zone.”

Pillai said Canada was pursuing use of the Alaska Highway corridor, but he noted that any work through Canada must be done with all parties at the table.

“It’s really about working with the First Nations governments on the Canada side… to figure out what goes through that economic route,” said Pillai. “As we get ready to look at the North American Free Trade Agreement… I think now is the opportunity for us. Maybe it’s the North that really is the driver, to make sure that as those chapters get reviewed, where do we go when it comes to Indigenous economic reconciliation, not just for the North but for North America? That becomes really the catalyst and the anchor point for us to be able to do things through the northwestern part of North America.”

The Importance of Salmon

The moderator, Andrew G. Smith, who is an intergovernmental relations officer in the Yukon government, asked Pillai about how cultures whose identity revolves in part around salmon are able to maintain ceremonial and cultural events when the focus of that ceremony, the salmon, is no longer present. He referred to the collapse of the salmon run up the Yukon River, resulting in a closed subsistence fishery.

In an emotional moment, Pillai related near-nightly visits he makes to the family’s fish camp, often with his youngest son. He said his two sons, whose grandfather is Tlingit from Southeast Alaska, have gone to fish camp many times but have never fished there.

“It’s really hard for them to be there with their mom and for her to talk about what it used to be like,” he said.

Dunleavy didn’t specifically address salmon, but pointed at past examples that Alaska and Yukon have worked together in the past to solve problems, and pledged to do so.

“A number of these things we’re talking about, I think we have some real opportunities to build upon, where all Alaskans and Yukoners can come together,” Dunleavy said.

“We’re determined to actually hammer out agreements. We’re determined to not just have understandings but joint investments on things like the highway, solving problems like the salmon, and like missing and murdered Indigenous women. Trafficking, for example, going across the border. All of these things are problems and we believe we will be able to effectuate them in a positive way,” Pillai said.