Energy, Mines and Resources Minister John Streicker is calling a proposal by the Yukon Party to rely more heavily on fossil-fuel generation of electricity “impractical.”

Streicker was responding to a statement Feb. 9 from Yukon Party MLA Geraldine Van Bibber.

She said her party is continuing to hear from Yukoners “who are facing record-setting electricity bills that the rising cost of electricity is putting their personal finances into bad shape.

“Under the Liberals, the cost of living has been rising, and their misguided electrical policies are making it too expensive to live in our beautiful territory,” she said.

During an interview on Feb. 18, Streicker acknowledged that many people are feeling the bite of their electrical bills this winter.

December and January were brutally cold, he noted, particularly early January. That drove demand up to record levels on several days.

The subject was a hot one on social media as well earlier this month.

“I live in a TINY trailer and my electric bill was 1000 dollars for one month, doesn’t matter where you live,” one person posted.

“When the revenue guarantee rider is 40 per cent or so of the usage, your bill goes from $500 to $700 and then add on the other crap and suddenly, it’s as much as a mortgage payment,” another person wrote.

A third said, “Costs will continue to climb as everything is going electric. Usage up, costs up! Simple ... YTG is adamant that electric is the way to go, demonizing fossil fuel consumption, but not looking at the bigger picture.

“How do we keep the generators going ... fossil fuel. No new dams, no great advances in geothermal, solar, well good for part of the year ... we need a mini nuke ... they work, they create stable power, they are used in a variety of settings from military ships to cities ... but alas, we live in the ‘dark’ ages.”

The main point Streicker said he wants to convey to Yukoners unhappy with their electrical bills is that the actual rate they pay for electricity hasn’t gone up.

Streicker also said he understood that the current electrical bill had an extra week carried over, affecting the amounts.

He defended the government’s efforts to switch the Yukon more toward renewable energy than traditional fossil-fuel based sources.

“We don’t want to invest in fossil fuels. We want to have more renewables. Does it makes sense to rely more on diesel to generate energy? That feels disingenuous to me, and we don’t want to go that way.”

Streicker added that he is also concerned about the steep rise in price to consumers for gasoline and diesel.

Those prices have risen nearly 20 cents a litre in the last month or so, Streicker said, and that kind of sticker shock is what the government wants to avoid.

“We need to work to prevent shocks like this to the system,” he said, without going into specifics.

Streicker also wanted to remind people of the various programs the government has introduced to refit and retrofit homes to make them more energy-efficient as one of the best ways to cope with rising electrical bills.

Van Bibber, however, takes a different position.

“During the 2021 territorial election campaign, the Yukon Party saw this looming electricity crisis and promised to freeze electrical rates for two years to unravel this government’s Kathleen Wynne-like electrical policy that has resulted in shocking rate swings,” she said, in reference to Ontario’s former Liberal premier.

“The Liberals’ continued policies are driving up the cost of electricity, the cost of heating our homes, and the cost of necessities like groceries,” Van Bibber said.

“The comments from the minister last fall demonstrate how out of touch the Liberal government is and their lack of solutions to the real costs and challenges Yukoners are struggling with day to day,” she added.