http://www.cityofdawson.com/forum/ Dawson City Citizen's Forum en Reply from georgiaf, 20.11.2008, 13:29

> What's this about paving Front Street?
> And why was I not informed?
> Goodness.
> A lady goes to Finland for a month and folks start changing the old town.

Allie, what is it that you think will happen if a small, heavily trafficked section of the road is paved?

I think people need to consider that it is possible to maintain the integrity and historical interest of Dawson while still making life here for locals(many of whom do not make their living in the tourist industry) more convienient and in this case, vehicle friendly.

I am not trying to make an argument for paving the roads, I am just sort of confused at the argument that everything must stay the exact same here forever in order for this to be place of interest for tourists.

Additionally, if people are concerned about the attractivness of town, perhaps they should turn their attention to the lack of green space...and derelict buildings aren't helping either.]]> http://www.cityofdawson.com/forum/forum_entry.php?id=3369 Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:29:26 GMT Reply from Dan Davidson, 05.11.2008, 09:35

> Well, agreed, and I did say the paving itself was minor, the road needs
> fixing.

++++++++++

According to John Van Every, in a letter to council, Front Street WAS paved from 1976 until the flood of 1979, after which the pavement was pretty much destroyed by drainage ditches and was finally replaced with BST surfacing.]]> http://www.cityofdawson.com/forum/forum_entry.php?id=3368 Wed, 05 Nov 2008 09:35:37 GMT Reply from foreverN5, 04.11.2008, 09:38

Well, agreed, and I did say the paving itself was minor, the road needs fixing. I certainly wouldn't leave for that.

However, if you can't make a living to support your family then you don't have a choice about leaving town. Unless you're into the EI thing. A quick visit to the Outreach board right now is telling. And it's only early November.]]> http://www.cityofdawson.com/forum/forum_entry.php?id=3367 Tue, 04 Nov 2008 09:38:45 GMT Reply from mildred, 04.11.2008, 05:35

seriously paving the streets is a pretty pathetic thing to get all riled up about. Perhaps leaving town because Ohhhh I don't know....the city is dumping sewage in the water might seem like a more important issue.]]> http://www.cityofdawson.com/forum/forum_entry.php?id=3366 Tue, 04 Nov 2008 05:35:41 GMT Reply from foreverN5, 02.11.2008, 10:52

Allie,

Putting Front St aside, which is relatively minor and can be minimized with a little surface coloring, understand that your MLA is part of a significant contingent in Dawson that does not see the benefits of preserving the heritage of the town.

It beats me that they can't see that this is the basis of Dawson tourism.

It is sad, and I for one will be leaving town if we continue down this path of self-destruction as there will be no business for me.

Maybe you could stand for election?]]> http://www.cityofdawson.com/forum/forum_entry.php?id=3365 Sun, 02 Nov 2008 10:52:34 GMT Post by allie, 30.10.2008, 06:44

What's this about paving Front Street?
And why was I not informed?
Goodness.
A lady goes to Finland for a month and folks start changing the old town.]]> http://www.cityofdawson.com/forum/forum_entry.php?id=3364 Thu, 30 Oct 2008 06:44:51 GMT Reply from Aedes, 11.10.2008, 10:26

The Lots of Latitude Mobile Veterinary Clinic is coming back to Dawson City on October 23rd.

To make appointments, please email carolynne@lotsoflatitude.ca or phone 867 333 9211.

Please note that the clinic will be held in the Firehall this time.]]> http://www.cityofdawson.com/forum/forum_entry.php?id=3363 Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:26:06 GMT Post by sebastian, 29.09.2008, 16:01

In this election, some people are considering voting strategically; that is rather than voting for the party/candidate that they would prefer, they will vote for someone less bad than the one they most fear. This is especially true for the "Anybody but the Conservatives" crowd. There is even a website that analyses each riding and reccomends whom to vote for so the Tories don't win.
http://www.voteforenvironment.ca
Strategic voting bothers me, likely reflecting my idealistic side, so I am comforted to discover that Yukon is considered a:
" You Choose: This is a safe Liberal seat with little chance of the Conservatives winning. Vote with your heart."]]> http://www.cityofdawson.com/forum/forum_entry.php?id=3362 Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:01:12 GMT Post by holly and kirsten, 26.09.2008, 11:42

Hello our friends,
We miss you. If you miss us too, you can at least follow us.
www.welovelife.ca
We hope that the fish arrived in time and there was a moose for everybody.
We keep exploring before we come home to the only home in the world.
Lots of love from Holly, Kirsten, Ben, Joey & Pongo]]> http://www.cityofdawson.com/forum/forum_entry.php?id=3361 Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:42:52 GMT Post by homer, 18.09.2008, 17:26

Can a new RTC save the day?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Can a new RTC save the day?
Posted Sep 17th 2008 5:40PM by Joseph Lazzaro
Filed under: Forecasts, Politics, Housing, Federal Reserve

A friend and colleague of yours truly, economist David H. Wang, frequently speaks with family and friends from his native China. One of the observations he's been hearing recently goes like this: "Strange, new form of pure capitalism you have in the United States that bails-out every company."

Well, as Wang pointed out, it's not every company, and in point of actual fact, the United States is a mixed capitalist system -- private sector-based, but with a social welfare safety net.

Still, the reality is that had the U.S. Federal Reserve not offered an $85 billion loan to American International Group (NYSE: AIG), given AIG's counterparty, pension, investment fund and related relationships, "the global financial system would have frozen-up," or "experienced a level of stress we haven't seen since the stock market crash of 1929," Wang said.

The Fed's action was the 'Greenspan Doctrine squared:' AIG was not only 'too big to fail,' it was 'too interconnected to fail.' So one can see why Fed Chair Ben Bernanke and U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson put in motion another 'loan of epic size' for a private company.

Now what?

AIG will not be the last rescue. And Wednesday's 449-point drop in the Dow to 10,609.66 does not nearly represent the bottom for the world's most widely-followed stock market index, but it can represent 'the end of the beginning,' to use a Winston Churchill phrase.

The end of the beginning, that is, if the United States deploys a solution that will begin to wind down the bad bonds / stock run / collateral call / company bankruptcy problem that is spreading the problem by resurrecting the Resolution Trust Corporation, or a variant.

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Massachusetts, who will hold hearings on the subject this week, The Washington Post reported Tuesday, was laughed at sixth months ago when he talked-up redeploying the RTC, or a new, modified agency to buy the bad assets and/or the mortgages / bonds associated with them. Few lawmakers are laughing now. The RTC can buy distressed debt at fair market value and help keep hundreds of thousands of citizens in their homes, and in the process preserve businesses, and perhaps, whole local economies.

Would it be better to let the free market run its course? Can the private sector handle it? According to U.S. Rep. Frank's research and analysis, there's not a great deal of private sector interest in the distressed bonds/notes. "The private sector won't even go to a fire sale," to U.S. Rep. Frank told Bloomberg News Tuesday.

Housing Sector / Economic Analysis: The view from here is that a revived, modified Resolution Trust Corporation looks like a logical next step in ending the financial crisis. More than likely, this financial swoon will not end until the troubled bonds are removed from the system -- and that means buying, warehousing and managing the troubled bonds. These measures will increase liquidity and help stabilize home prices -- two big steps on the road to financial market normalcy and economic recovery.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Government Assistance
New RTC? No Thanks.
Liz Moyer, 09.18.08, 6:00 AM ET


In Washington, clamor grows for a new Federal agency to deal with bad bank debt. But unless the U.S. Treasury is going under, there's no need. Except for politics.

Given the sorry state of the financial markets, politicians are clamoring for the recreation of a throwback to the 1980s savings and loan crisis: an entity like the Resolution Trust Corp. to help relieve banks of their toxic assets.

The bigger question is why?

The Resolution Trust Corp. came to life in 1989 after the failure of the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp., then the thrift industry's version of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC). In the thick of the savings and loan debacle, FSLIC was swamped by the collapse of 296 thrifts in a short span of time. It too failed.

So Congress put together the RTC, funded it with $50 billion, and tasked it with taking on the assets of failed thrifts and working them off. The RTC lasted until 1995, and required additional injections of capital, ultimately totaling more than $100 billion.

It did serve its purpose, however expensive. In its six-year life, the RTC worked with 727 failed thrifts, totaling some $394 billion of assets.

In recent days, lawmakers and some current and former regulators proposed to create a new RTC that could help alleviate stress for banks still dealing with the credit crisis.

"I think we need to create an institution or a mechanism of a super-trustee to handle incredibly large institutions which may be allowed to fail and how those assets get managed and handled in an expeditious way," Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.) said Tuesday. "If we don't do that, we'll just go from one failure to another."

One proposed twist on the old version of the RTC is to allow a new entity to take on assets of otherwise healthy banks, freeing the healthy banks to regenerate. The RTC handled assets of thrifts that failed.

The idea has gained urgency since the bankruptcy filing of Lehman Brothers, the government's $85 billion emergency loan to American International Group and the steep sell-off in shares of remaining independent investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley Wednesday.

Lehman went under Sunday night after failing to find a buyer for itself or unloading its assets into a separately capitalized "bad" bank.

Some don't think an RTC is needed, however. "The banking industry has the resources to pay the bills," says Bert Ely, a bank regulation consultant in Alexandria, Va. "There's nothing that a new RTC would bring to the table."

The FDIC already exists, for starters, with a $45 billion insurance fund even after the failure of IndyMac Bancorp earlier this summer. Back during the savings and loan crisis, the FDIC handled the failure of 1,911 banks, totaling $703 billion of assets, and didn't succumb to failure like the FSLIC. Bank failures are expected to rise but not anywhere near 1990 levels.

Concerns that the FDIC will run out of insurance funds to cover deposits are overblown, many say. For starters, the insurance fund isn't a separate account, as many imagine it to be. It is part of the Treasury Department's general fund and has been since the Johnson administration.

As William Isaac, a former FDIC commissioner, notes, the Treasury has been spending the FDIC "deposit fund" on missiles, school lunches, water projects and the like. Any money the FDIC uses for a bank failure is charged against the current federal budget, regardless of whether money will be recovered down the road.

The "fund" is funded by premiums (or taxes, rather) banks pay into it. Current FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair has said in recent weeks she could raise these contributions. She could also borrow bridge financing from the Treasury to cover for the time lapse between a bank failure and the sale of its assets.

Doesn't that sound familiar? AIG got a lifeline from the Federal Reserve late Tuesday in the form of $85 billion in loans that will be backed by its own assets. The Treasury said Wednesday it was issuing securities to assist the Fed. Last month, the Treasury used its authority to take Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into conservatorship, with a promise to inject as much as $200 billion between the two.

A new RTC isn't really needed, except perhaps for image polishing on Capitol Hill. The Treasury isn't going anywhere.]]> http://www.cityofdawson.com/forum/forum_entry.php?id=3360 Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:26:00 GMT Reply from Brent McDonald, 09.09.2008, 21:11

His loss then!

The debate should still go ahead without him. If it doesn't go ahead, that would be much worse than a threatened boycott.

This illustrates very clearly Mr Harpers intentions for a majority government. Another democratically elected dictator!

Lets hope it is another minority government.

On another note, It really peeves me that the only reason there is an election at this time is because Harper thinks he can get a majority. He should have finished his term. It should only be the majority opposition who can force an election. I'm quite sure if Harper had a current majority, he wouldn't be calling an election at this time. What a waste of time and money.]]> http://www.cityofdawson.com/forum/forum_entry.php?id=3359 Tue, 09 Sep 2008 21:11:02 GMT Post by John, 09.09.2008, 09:45

Elizabeth May and the Green Party possess the necessary credentials to participate in televised debates with the other political parties. I could only shake my head when it was reported that Stephen Harper will boycott the debates if the Green Party is allowed in.

I assume his reasons reflect some kind of conspiratorial belief whereby he contends that the Greens and the Liberals are in cahoots with one another, meaning that the Liberals will occupy two debating chairs rather than just the one.

Even if this was true an intellect worthy of a Prime Minister should welcome as many opportunities as possible to advance his ideas for Canadians instead of threatening to run away and hide from the debate when confronted by an additional opponent.

Free and open debate is the foundation of democracy. Any attempt to stifle the voice of a political opponent smacks of techniques used by some lesser governments in the world, ones that Canada has always striven to raise up by illustrating the benefits of democratic process.]]> http://www.cityofdawson.com/forum/forum_entry.php?id=3358 Tue, 09 Sep 2008 09:45:36 GMT Post by sebastian, 28.08.2008, 15:53

DAWSON ADAPTING TO CLIMATE CHANGE

August 2008 Project Update

This update is part of the Dawson Adapting To Climate Change project. It is to keep the community informed about what has happened so far and to give notice of upcoming events.



1. CAVIAR Research Continues

The Community Adaptation and Vulnerability in Arctic Regions (CAVIAR) Dawson Project is examining ways in which Dawson can most effectively adapt to environmental, social, and economic change. CAVIAR is part of the International Polar Year, a series of over 200 research projects taking place in high latitude regions around the world throughout 2007-2008. The CAVIAR Dawson Project includes field work incorporating community workshops and interviews at both the household and government department levels to develop a database of perceptions of and exposure to stresses, responses and capacity.

This summer, three graduate students from Ryerson University, as well as Sebastian Jones and Cholena Smart, conducted interviews in and around Dawson. The project leader is Professor Frank Duerden, from Ryerson University. Over forty in-depth interviews were done to determine how institutions, economic sectors and households in the Dawson region have responded to stress and change.

These results form a core part of the Dawson Climate Change Adaptation Plan. Thank you to those who generously provided their time for these interviews. The information you provided is key to developing an appropriate adapation plan for the Dawson City area.

2. Climate Change models now online

There is now an online tool for those interested in climate change projections for the Yukon. Thanks to the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium a regional analysis tool has been developed. It can provide projections for the Yukon on temperature and precipitation until the 2080's.

Follow this link: http://pacificclimate.org/tools/regionalanalysis/
and be sure to read the instructions on how to manipulate the data. Be sure to also check out the specific climate impact projections for the Dawson region. The Dawson specific climate projections for temperature and precipitation were done as part of the Dawson Climate Change Adaptation Project.

3. Planning For The Fall

Future stages of the Dawson Adapting To Climate Change project will include technical workshops to be held in late October. These workshops will be aimed at those within the greater Dawson area who make decisions or represent interests that should consider climate impacts. Participants will include those with knowledge relating to municipal issues, lands decisions, emergency response, and representatives from various industrial and commercial sectors such as placer mining and tourism. Invitation to these workshops will be sent out in October.

The results from these workshops, combined with the results from the CAVIAR interviews, will form the basis of the Dawson Climate Change Adaptation Plan. At the Fall workshops, a synthesis of information collected so far will be presented. There will be a facilitated planning exercise to identify/review vulnerable areas and assign priority to these. From this a range of adaptation options can be developed. The Plan aims to show how to build capacity within the greater Dawson region, and identify areas where capacity has to be increased and specific adaptation actions need to be taken.

The Draft Dawson Climate Change Adaptation Plan will be presented to the greater Dawson community at what is anticipated will be a community feast in early 2009. This will be an opportunity to gather community feedback, and modify the Plan based on what the community wants. As planning for both the workshops and community presentation starts to come together, dates and locations will be advertised. Watch this space for the 'when and where' of these exciting events.

4 Resources Are Available

The Dawson Northern Climate ExChange office (located in the Dawson Yukon College Campus building) is the place to go for questions about this project or for more information. General climate change information as well as specific project information is regularly posted on the website: http://www.taiga.net/nce/adaptation/dawson.html. Temperature and precipitation projections for the Dawson region are available on the webiste. Other reports (e.g. the Draft Plan) will be posted there as they become available. Paper copies are available by request.

The Northern Climate ExChange also has an extensive resource library with a large selection of books, DVDs and periodicals dealing with all manner of climate change issues. The library can be searched on-line at www.yukon.taiga.net/nce/library/. All items can be borrowed free of charge.

Should anyone have questions, please do ask.

Sebastian Jones
Dawson Adaptation Coordinator
Northern Climate ExChange

Tel: 867-993-4401
Email: sjones@yukoncollege.yk.ca

The Northern Climate ExChange Dawson City office is on the second floor of the Dawson City Yukon College building.

5 Staff changes at the Northern Climate ExChange

Ryan Hennessey will be moving in to the Community Adaptation Project Manager position at the Northern Climate ExChange. He will be replacing Lewis Rifkind who is taking up a position with the Yukon Conservation Society. Ryan has lots of experience in Climate Change Adaptation, having previously worked with the Canadian Climate Impacts and Adaptation Research Network in Nova Scotia. His contact information is as follows:

Ryan Hennessey
Community Adaptation Project Manager
Northern Climate ExChange

Tel: 867-668-8874
Email: rhennessey@yukoncollege.yk.ca

Jen Turner, the Coordinator of Northern Climate ExChange is moving to Victoria, British Columbia for a position with the B.C. Government, Climate Change Section. The Coordinator position will be posted soon. For information contact Clint Sawicki, Manager of the Northern Research Institute (867-668-8772).

The Northern Climate ExChange main office is in Whitehorse at Yukon College. It is behind the main campus building, in an A-frame type building hooked up to a wind-turbine and some solar panels. And don't forget to check out the Northern Climate ExChange website at www.taiga.net/nce.

6 Permafrost research taking place in and around Dawson

There are two permafrost projects underway; the first is a partnership between Professor Chris Burn and the City of Dawson.

Chris Burn's project out of Carleton University has installed a series of electrical sensors in various locations around town that measure the ground temperature at half metre intervals. The results are recorded monthly and track the seasonal change in the ground under Dawson and shows how close the ground is to melting in the permafrost areas. In many spots, the frozen ground is less than half a degree below freezing. Interestingly, the coolest ground is at the hockey rink.

The second project is being done by Professor Toni Lewkowicz out of the University of Ottawa. It aims to build a map of the southern half of the Yukon that will show how likely any particular piece of ground is to have permafrost. The map is divided into 30m by 30m squares, each square is assessed for a number of factors including elevation, vegetation, climate, the direction the land slopes and where on the landscape it is (such as on a summit or a valley etc). When this map is complete, Yukoners can find out how likely a particular piece of ground is to have permafrost, and projected changes to the likelihood of permafrost with the changing climate.]]> http://www.cityofdawson.com/forum/forum_entry.php?id=3357 Thu, 28 Aug 2008 15:53:54 GMT Reply from hopegirl, 25.07.2008, 09:14

Carolynne and her friendly dog are seeking accomodations during her visit from August 18-21.

She will be bringing an assistant who will be in need of a room also.

Please give her a shout if you have a clean and comfortable room or two that you can spare for a few days.

Email carolynne@lotsoflatitude.ca or phone 333 9211
(email is preferred).]]> http://www.cityofdawson.com/forum/forum_entry.php?id=3356 Fri, 25 Jul 2008 09:14:53 GMT Post by Aedes, 23.07.2008, 20:15

Lots of Latitude Mobile Vet (Carolynne Fujda, DVM) is coming to
Dawson City August 19-21.

Email carolynne@lotsoflatitude.ca or phone 333 9211
to make an appointment (email is preferred).

Thank you to Dr. John Overell for the use of his clinic space!]]> http://www.cityofdawson.com/forum/forum_entry.php?id=3355 Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:15:15 GMT