News

WHITEHORSE—Four ideas from five Yukon innovators have been shortlisted for the 2017 Yukon Innovation Prize. The finalists will each receive $10,000 to further develop their idea and compete for the grand prize of $60,000.

WHITEHORSE—Two members of the Canadian Association of Research Ethics Boards (CAREB) will be at Yukon College next week to give a public talk on research ethics and provide training to the College’s Research Ethics Board (REB).

Dr. Sharon Freitag directs the research ethics office at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto and Dr. Rachel Zand directs the research ethics office at the University of Toronto.

“Training in research ethics sets the standards for responsible conduct in human research. It focusses researchers on the need to be accountable to the public and contribute to the good of society as a whole,” said Freitag. “While one might think that these principles are intuitive, history has shown us that continuous education and training is needed.”

Clint Sawicki, Interim Vice President Research at the College said research ethics has grown to encompass more than just clinical medical trials.

WHITEHORSE— Teslin will become a trendsetter this week, when the Yukon College campus there delivers a nine-day program teaching students how to harvest wood chips and install biomass boilers. By program’s end, those boilers will heat 10 buildings, including Teslin Community School, the Lands office, and a number of rental units.

“Many Yukon communities will look to Teslin in the future because they are going to be the leaders here for this type of technology,” said Stephen Mooney, Director of Cold Climate Innovation at the Yukon Research Centre, which is collaborating on the program with Teslin Tlingit Council (TTC) and the Government of Yukon’s Energy Solutions Centre (ESC). “Teslin is taking care of a resource that is renewable. This allows the community to be independent and in control of its energy needs.”

WHITEHORSE— Electrician apprentices no longer have to leave the territory to complete training.

For the first time since the program launched more than 20 years ago, the College is now offering level-four electrical – the final level required to gain Red Seal certification.

Jeff Wolosewich, Department Head at the Centre for Northern Innovation in Mining School of Trades, Technology and Mining, said that until now students had to travel Outside to complete the 12-week training.  

“Normally they go to Alberta to finish,” said Wolosewich. “Twelve weeks away in a new place can be hard if you have kids and a family.”

For JayJ Flynn, it would have been more than hard – it would have been impossible. 

Flynn’s partner is eight months pregnant with the couple’s first child. At the same time, he is completing his level four. Relocating to attend the Northern or Southern Alberta Institute of Technology was out of the question for him.

WHITEHORSE—Over 50 people from Alaska, Yukon, Northwest Territories and the lower 48 states will convene in Whitehorse for The Future of Arctic Entrepreneurship Symposium on Friday, March 3 and Saturday March 4.

Innovators, experts, community members, scholars and policy makers will share best-practice examples of current Arctic renewable energy projects. They will also devise funding and policy solutions that will help small Northern communities move away from diesel and towards renewable energy security.

“We want community members to learn more about the challenges and benefits of integrating different energy systems and then return to champion energy innovation in their community,” said Stephen Mooney, director, Cold Climate Innovation (CCI) at Yukon College.

WHITEHORSE— For three decades, students from across the Yukon and Stikine region of B.C. have gathered to present their scientific explorations. This year’s action will take place at Yukon College on Saturday, February 18.

The 10 schools represented include Holy Family, St. Elias in Haines Junction, Takhini Elementary, Christ the King, Del Van Gorder in Faro, Jack Hulland, Whitehorse Elementary, Home Educators, Kluane in Destruction Bay, and F.H. Collins.

The 76 projects on display were chosen from among 300 projects at individual school fairs to advance to this regional competition.  

Though the event features entries from grades four through 12, students from grade seven to 12 will compete for the chance to move on to the Canada-Wide Science Festival in Regina this spring.

Whitehorse – Cold Climate Innovation (CCI) of the Yukon Research Centre (YRC) and Government of Yukon’s department of Economic Development have launched the third annual Yukon Innovation Prize (YIP). Yukoners can win up to $70,000 for their innovative product or service relevant to health and wellness.

Innovators first compete for one of four $10,000 prizes which is then used to further develop their idea and provide evidence of its technical and economic viability. The four finalists then submit their refined plans to compete for the grand prize of $60,000 in additional funding to bring their innovation towards commercialization.

WHITEHORSE— Not everyone reads a 20-page report on climate change with the same enthusiasm they reserve for a new Harry Potter book, but some do.

Meagan Grabowski, a researcher with the Northern Climate ExChange at Yukon College, wanted to know why.

With funding from the Northwest Boreal Landscape Conservation Cooperative, Grabowski and her supervisor, Yukon College adjunct Doug Clark, spent the last year studying community uptake of climate change adaptation research in Yukon.

The pair will present their findings at an hour-long talk, beginning at the College at 10 a.m. on Friday Feb 3. The talk takes place in the North Boardroom at the Yukon Research Centre.

Grabowski’s research involved reviewing Climate Change Adaptation plans from Mayo, Whitehorse, Atlin, and a draft plan from Champagne and Aishihik First Nations.

WHITEHORSE— When it comes to Yukon minerals, most people think of gold. That’s not the case for Elliott Merkley, a second-year student in the Geological Technology program at Yukon College.

Merkley’s interest in mineral processing and aggregates (processing the rocks required to recover gold or build highways, for example) is what helped make him the first-ever Yukon College recipient of an annual scholarship offered by the Canadian Mineral Processors BC/Yukon branch.

Merkley, who moved to Whitehorse for the program from London, Ontario, says he’ll use the $1,800 prize to pay for his last semester of school, which he’s currently completing.

This is the second year in the scholarship’s history that it has been awarded to both a senior-level and a junior-level student.

The senior scholarship is generally given to an undergraduate student in the later years of a four-year degree. The junior is given to a student starting out in the field.

WATSON LAKE—The Anglican Church Thrift Store in Watson Lake will be one-half larger when it reopens this spring. The 780 square foot store has a 480 square foot addition. The construction was done entirely by students in the Skills for Employment Carpentry program run by the town’s Yukon College community campus.

“We are extremely happy with the end result. The store was getting far too crowded,” said Jenny Skelton, one of the four women who staff the store on a volunteer basis. “The students worked very well together and did a great job.”

“The Thrift Store is used by everybody in the community whether to donate or select items.”

Skelton noted that the original building was also constructed by community campus students back in 1990. The Thrift store has operated in the community since 1970. The students also added a changing room to the store.

WHITEHORSE—Mark Preston is a Tlingit visual artist, but his most recent work can almost be read as a poem. 

“It brings in a kind of Japanese philosophy, like a haiku,” said Preston of White Space, the show opening this month at The Hilltop Bistro at Yukon College. “You don’t have to tell the whole story. If you place the words right, then the whole story unveils itself to you.”

White Space consists of a series of small wooden panels. Each is debossed with a single abstract representation of a traditional image. Each is painted pure white. From a distance, the panels look blank. Up close, the carvings become clear.

“I think people are too distracted by textures and colours and sounds,” said Preston. “I take away all the distractions so what you’re left with is a sort of subtle image.”

WHITEHORSE—Two permafrost core samples taken from alongside the Alaska Highway in Yukon will be part of a new Arctic gallery at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa.

While permafrost cores have travelled south for research purposes many times, this will be the first time in Canada that permafrost cores will be publicly displayed in a museum.

“We wanted visitors to the Arctic gallery to learn about ways in which the changing climate is affecting Canada’s North and the risk to highways and buildings from thawing permafrost,” said Caroline Lanthier, Senior Content Developer for the Arctic gallery, Canadian Museum of Nature.

“The timing of the museum’s request was fortuitous as my colleague and I had been devising a way to display permafrost cores, both for research purposes and public viewing,” said Dr. Fabrice Calmels, permafrost researcher.