Lutak Dock engineers have released cost estimates showing some iterations of the design nearly doubling the borough’s available project funds.
The engineering firm Moffatt & Nichol has been tasked with doing the first round of designs on the dock rebuild, and assured the Haines Borough assembly in recent months it could do so within the roughly $24 million left in funding for the project.
Over the last two weeks, the firm has revealed to borough…
Haines Borough Police officers Max Marty and Max Jusi and Alaska State Trooper Josh Whitby killed a bear on Mt. Riley Road late Monday evening.
It’s not clear if it’s the bear that attacked Toni Smith Saturday morning. Whitby said they collected DNA from the bear and will send it up to Anchorage, where the Alaska Department of Fish and Game will compare the DNA with the DNA from Smith’s clothing.
Police have been monitoring a cache of food near the site of the attack. Whitby said Marty was at the attack site, when a young male bear came out of the woods.
According to Whitby, Marty tried to haze it away using a cracker round from a shotgun, or an explosive meant to scare off the bear without injuring it.
“Just like when using, in riot control and stuff – a rubber round – where you shoot matters. You can actually cause damage that’s going to create a wounded bear rather than essentially a really bad Charlie Horse, which is essentially what you’re looking for when you hit a bear with it,” Whitby said.
The bear charged Marty, prompting him to shoot it, Whitby said. Then, it ran into the woods and police and Whitby followed it.
Haines police sent a Nixle alert at about 7:17 p.m. warning of a wounded bear, asking residents to avoid Mt. Riley Road.
“[We]can’t just let an injured bear run around,” Whitby said.
Two additional shots were fired, killing the bear. Whitby did not specify who fired them.
Police sent another alert and reopened the road by 8:17 p.m.
The post Police kill bear on Mount Riley Road appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.
The doors of the governor’s office in the Alaska State Capitol is seen on Apr. 10, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
Alaska’s November election for governor will include one Democrat and three Republicans after a final-days shakeup that included a wild last-hour substitution on Monday, the deadline to make changes after August’s primary election.
Under Alaska’s unique elections system, all candidates for an office run against each other in the primary election. The top four candidates, regardless of political party, advance to the general election in November.
Former state Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, a Democrat from Sitka, finished August’s primary election with 22.5% of the vote, the most out of 16 candidates seeking to replace incumbent Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
The second-place finisher, Democratic candidate Tom Begich, withdrew from the race officially on Monday despite earning 20.8% of the vote.
That promoted Anchorage businesswoman Bernadette Wilson, a Republican, to the second spot on the November ballot. Wilson had 10.1% of the vote in the primary.
Begich’s withdrawal put former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson, a Republican, into the third spot for November. Bronson earned 8.1% of the primary vote.
The withdrawal would also have promoted Republican candidate and former Attorney General Treg Taylor into the fourth spot, but on Monday, Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom disqualified Taylor because of gaps in a legally required financial report.
That left Taylor’s lieutenant governor candidate, Republican businesswoman Candice English, to decide by 5 p.m. whether to withdraw or continue with another running mate.
English found one — Taylor’s wife, Jodi Taylor, who became English’s lieutenant governor candidate in a form filed less than an hour before the 5 p.m. deadline.
According to the Anchorage Press, which was on the scene in Anchorage, English told election workers, “I’m stepping up to governor.” She also told another visitor to the office: “It’s all for the good of the state. The state needs the right people in place. We can’t get it wrong.”
It was not immediately clear on Monday evening whether the substitution is legal. Jodi Taylor’s required personal financial disclosure form contains the same information as Treg Taylor’s, and state regulators found it inadequate.
State law gives Jodi Taylor 30 days to amend her report before a final determination on her candidacy.
In Alaska’s November general election, voters will rank the four candidates (and any write-in candidates) in order of preference.
When ballots are counted, the candidate with the fewest top rankings is eliminated, and any votes for them are redistributed to their voters’ second choices.
The process continues until only two candidates are left, and the person with the most votes wins.
Ranked choice voting reduces the chances that candidates from the same party will split available voters and improve the odds for a candidate from a different party, but the system does not eliminate that chance entirely.
Since 2022, when Alaska began using the current system, a significant number of voters have continued to rank just one candidate.
As a result, political parties have pressured lower-finishing primary candidates to withdraw ahead of the general election in order to consolidate support.
In the case of Alaska’s governor race, where governor and lieutenant governor run as a single ticket, that led to talks around consolidation, where a lower-finishing governor candidate takes the place of a lieutenant governor on a higher-finishing ticket.
That didn’t happen on the Republican side, but it did on the Democratic one.
Hours before the 5 p.m. deadline to withdraw, second-place finisher Tom Begich, a Democrat and former state senator, officially filed his paperwork to quit the race.
Begich had announced his intentions on Friday, saying he is now supporting the first-place finisher, former state Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, a fellow Democrat.
In a written statement, prerecorded video and interviews after the announcement, Begich said that withdrawing means Democratic support is consolidated around a single candidate.
That means more money for the Kreiss-Tomkins’ campaign and less chance of a split vote in November.
While Alaska uses ranked choice voting, which would allow voters to pick both Kreiss-Tomkins and Begich, results over the past four years show a significant number of voters decline to rank multiple candidates.
Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom on Monday declined to certify former Attorney General Treg Taylor as one of the four finalists in Alaska’s top-four primary election for governor.
Taylor, who finished fifth in the primary, was promoted to fourth after the withdrawal of the second-place finisher, Democratic candidate Tom Begich.
Dahlstrom’s decision, announced by email, came after the Alaska Public Offices Commission voted 4-1 to recommend Taylor’s disqualification for failing to complete a personal financial disclosure required by law.
Alaska’s incumbent U.S. Representative, Republican Nick Begich III, said he is endorsing Republican businesswoman Bernadette Wilson as his preference for Alaska’s next governor.
Begich is running for re-election this year; Wilson worked on his prior campaigns for U.S. House, and Begich had previously vowed to support the top-finishing Republican candidate.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders endorsed Wilson on Saturday, as did U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, the leading Republican candidate to become Florida’s next governor.
According to Monday’s certified results, 166,992 voters participated in the August primary election, the most since the 2022 primary, which coincided with a special general election following the death of U.S. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, earlier that year.
Excluding that race, turnout this year was the highest for a primary since 2014, when voters decided a high-profile referendum on whether or not to repeal an oilindustry tax cut.
In terms of the number of votes cast, the 2026 primary was the fourth-largest in state history; in terms of percentage turnout, it was the 18th largest since 1974.
A demonstrator holds a protest sign in support of Dan J. Sullivan of Petersburg after the Alaska Division of Elections issued a preliminary decision to remove the candidate from the ballot on June 12, 2026. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dan J. Sullivan is staying in the race for U.S. Senate, he said Monday, hours before the deadline to withdraw from November’s election.
The Petersburg Republican finished third in August’s primary election, with just 2.5% of the vote statewide. He’s come under intense scrutiny because he shares a party affiliation and a first and last name with incumbent U.S. Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, who is seeking re-election.
The state disqualified him from the ballot but the decision was overturned by the Alaska Supreme Court in June.
The incumbent senator finished second in the August primary with 41.4% of the vote.
Democratic candidate Mary Peltola finished first in the primary with 49.5% of the vote.
Fourth-place finisher David Leslie, a Democratic candidate running to the left of Peltola, withdrew from the race late Monday, putting fifth-place finisher Gerald Heikes, a Republican running to the right of Dan S. Sullivan, on the ballot for November with just 1.1% of the vote.
Dan J. Sullivan and Peltola have denied working together, but Dan S. Sullivan has repeatedly accused Dan J. Sullivan of running a “sham” campaign intended to confuse voters.
But preliminary results indicated little confusion among Alaska voters — most of Dan J. Sullivan’s votes came from Democratic-leaning districts.
In an emailed statement, Dan J. Sullivan said, “in the 3 months that I have been in this campaign, I have encountered obstacles that no other candidate in any of the other races has faced. Every time I took one step forward, roadblocks put me three steps back. It has been a time of extreme highs and lows. But with the support of family, friends and donors, I have persevered to this point. So, I am going to keep going and amplify the message that we need a different path forward.”
Dan J. Sullivan has previously said he was motivated by unhappiness with Sen. Dan Sullivan’s performance in office, and he reiterated that in Monday’s statement.
“The politics of division as practiced by the Senator have not solved the problems we face today, in Alaska and as a nation. Are you better off now than you were 12 years ago when the Senator was first elected?” he said.
Sen. Sullivan has been a vocal supporter of America’s war with Iran, something that Dan J. Sullivan calls “ill-conceived.”
He noted that Alaska ranks poorly in national ratings of childhood well-being and business climate.
“Gasoline, food, housing and medical costs seem to increase daily. No matter how many times Washington tells us all is well in America, most of us see that as an absurd fallacy. These issues are the daily decisions and hardships that Alaskans really care about and I want to make their voices heard between now and November,” Dan J. Sullivan said.
Under Alaska’s open primary system, all candidates for an office run against each other in the primary election. The top four candidates, regardless of political party, advance to the general election in November. There, voters rank the candidates in order of preference.
The candidate with the fewest top rankings is eliminated, and any votes for them are redistributed to their voters’ second choices.
The process continues until only two candidates are left, and the person with the most votes wins.
Ranked choice voting reduces the chances that candidates from the same party will split available voters and improve the odds for a candidate from a different party, but the system does not eliminate that chance entirely.
Since 2022, when Alaska began using the current system, a significant number of voters have continued to rank just one candidate.
As a result, political parties have pressured lower-finishing primary candidates to withdraw ahead of the general election in order to consolidate support.
Independent candidate Bill Hill, a former teacher and school superintendent from Bristol Bay, speaks at a U.S. House candidate forum held Aug. 27, 2026, by the Alaska Oil and Gas Association. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
This article has been updated as of 6 p.m. to include the withdrawal of another candidate.
Weeks after suspending his campaign, the leading Democrat in Alaska’s U.S. House race officially withdrew ahead of Monday’s 5 p.m. deadline.
That withdrawal triggered a sequence of events that put the eighth-place finisher, Libertarian candidate Jim McDermott, on the ballot in November.
Democrat Matt Schultz received 8.1% of the vote in the August primary, good enough for third, behind incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Nick Begich III and independent challenger Bill Hill.
Begich had 44.6% of the vote, and Hill had 32.5%, according to official results published Monday.
Hill, a fisherman and former superintendent from Bristol Bay, is a first-time candidate for federal office.
Under Alaska’s unique elections system, all candidates for an office run against each other in the primary election. The top four candidates, regardless of political party, advance to the general election in November. There, voters rank the candidates in order of preference.
The candidate with the fewest top rankings is eliminated, and any votes for them are redistributed to their voters’ second choices.
The process continues until only two candidates are left, and the person with the most votes wins.
If a top-four finisher withdraws, their spot is taken by the fifth-place finisher. If two top-four candidates withdraw, the sixth-place finisher also advances.
Schultz suspended his campaign on July 17 in order to consolidate opposition fundraising and voter support. His withdrawal was followed by that of other trailing candidates.
With Schultz’s withdrawal, fourth-place finisher Eric Hafner — a registered Democrat in federal prison who received 3.8% of the vote — moves to the third spot on November’s election ballot.
Two years ago, a state judge ruled that Hafner could remain a candidate even if he would be unable to serve his term due to his federal imprisonment.
Fifth-place finisher John Williams, a Democrat from Fairbanks who received 2.7% of the vote, withdrew from the race on Monday morning, he said by phone.
The sixth-place finisher, Republican candidate Clay Strickland, withdrew from the race before Monday, the Division of Elections said.
That left seventh-place finisher Yaquelin Reynoso, who received 1.8% of the vote in August’s primary.
Reynoso, who ran as a Democrat, does not appear on Alaska’s list of registered voters, didn’t answer a candidate survey and didn’t supply a phone number to the Alaska Division of Elections.
They also didn’t immediately respond to their listed email on Monday afternoon.
But sometime before 5 p.m. Alaska time on Monday, Reynoso also withdrew from the race, the Division of Elections said Monday evening.
That left the eighth-place primary finisher, Libertarian candidate Jim McDermott of Fairbanks, to advance to the November election as the fourth of four candidates despite earning just 1.2% of the primary vote among 15 candidates overall. A call to McDermott’s listed phone went directly to voicemail at 5:50 p.m. Monday.
Ranked choice voting reduces the chances that candidates from the same party will split available voters and improve the odds for a candidate from a different party, but the system does not eliminate that chance entirely.
Since 2022, when Alaska began using the current system, a significant number of voters have continued to rank just one candidate.
As a result, political parties have pressured lower-finishing primary candidates to withdraw ahead of the general election in order to consolidate support.
Williams, by phone from Fairbanks, said he talked with “a lot” of people from the Alaska Democratic Party and with Hill before making his decision.
“I’m going to step away because that’s the best thing for Alaska,” he said, not because of any particular request that he quit.
Williams said he supports Alaska’s ranked choice election system, and he said he was discouraged by the number of Democratic Party officials who appeared to be acting against democratic values — the idea that voters, not political parties, decide candidates.
“I almost put my heels in the sand but ultimately decided not to,” he said.
“If (Hill) wins, he wins. If he loses, it’s not going to be because of me,” Williams said.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with the withdrawal of Yaquelin Reynoso, which advances Jim McDermott to the final four candidates.
Green eelgrass appears at low tide in the vast wetlands of Izembek Lagoon, at the edge of Izembek Refuge on April 17, 2021. The refuge has one of hte world’s biggest eelgrass beds, making the area a globally site for migratory birds. (Photo by Kristine Sowl/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
Federal regulators have suspended a wetlands-fill permit allowing construction of a controversial road through an Alaska national wildlife refuge, but the on-the-ground result of that action is a subject of legal contention.
State officials say they still intend to start the work in coming weeks on the first part of the road that is planned to cross through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. But environmental groups and Native tribal governments who oppose the road argue that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Aug. 26 suspension of the wetlands-fill permit for the road project precludes work on any part of it.
At issue is an 18.9-mile road that would link the isolated Alaska Peninsula community of King Cove to the military legacy, all-weather airport at Cold Bay. The road, as planned, would cut through an area of designated wilderness within the wildlife refuge.
The Corps in July issued a wetlands-fill permit to the state, a key permit needed for road construction. But on Aug. 18, U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason overturned a land trade that was necessary to allow construction of the road project. The state said it plans to appeal the decision.
“You are directed to stop any activities that were previously authorized by the suspended permit. . . . Any further work in these areas shall be considered a knowing, repeat, and flagrant violation of Federal law,” the Corps said in its letter following the ruling to the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities.
The permit suspension will give the Corps time to evaluate the full implications of Gleason’s decision on the land trade, the letter said.
There is disagreement about what the now-suspended permit covers, however.
The Department of Transportation and Public Facilities holds the position that the suspension should not interfere with this fall’s plans, and that it still has the right to build the first 2.8-mile section of the road, according to a department spokesperson
That portion of road is not subject to the wetlands-fill permit because it would not require disposal of fill into waters, state officials argue. And the area involved is outside of the disputed land trade, on land already owned by the King Cove Corporation, the community’s village Native corporation, state officials said.
“The State still plans to begin construction in September. The 2026 construction does not rely upon this permit, as it will not discharge fill into Waters of the U.S., including wetlands,” Justin Shelby, the Department of Transportation and Public Facility’s Central Region administrative operations manager, said by email.
Areas considered “Waters of the United States,” a legal term, are subject to certain Clean Water Act requirements.
Shelby pointed out that the state itself asked for the permit suspension. In the department’s request letter, the state argued suspension of the permit would reduce possible confusion in the ongoing litigation and allow the federal court “to consider all arguments raised by the plaintiffs without the perception of pressure from the State of Alaska’s need to rely on the permit authorizations.”
The environmental and Yukon-Kuskokwim tribal plaintiffs who have challenged both the land trade and the wetlands-fill permit, in contrast, argue that the entire road is covered by both authorizations, and that any construction now would be illegal.
Suspension of the permit was good news for road opponents, one of the plaintiff attorneys said.
“What a huge relief to see this permit pulled, because it was clear that Trump officials were ignoring the law with these destructive plans. A road would completely ravage Izembek’s globally important wetlands,” said Rebecca Noblin, Alaska legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The refuge is vital for migratory birds that Y-K Delta Tribes like Hooper Bay, Paimiut, and Chevak depend on for food. No administration should be allowed to ignore federal public land protections to push construction projects through crucial wildlife habitat.”
Tribes in those three villages have sued to block the land trade and overturn the Corps permit.
The Corps on Monday declined to comment on the opposing legal interpretations, citing policies on pending litigation. The Corps’ public affairs officer referred questions about the subject to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Department of Transportation and Public Facilities has mobilized equipment and materials to start building the initial 2.8-mile section. That portion of the road includes a bridge that is “the most complex and expensive feature of the entire road construction project,” according to a state Department of Law status report filed in federal court on Aug. 20.
The state expects an allocation of $18 million for the project during the current fiscal year, with nearly $16.4 million of that coming from federal funds and the remainder from a state match, according to the statewide transportation plan.
The Izembek road proposal has been debated for decades.
State officials argue that it is needed as a lifesaving access for the approximately 750 residents of King Cove. Environmentalists argue that it would harm globally important wetlands and would set a bad precedent for protected lands elsewhere in the nation.
The debate has also divided Native groups.
King Cove residents, largely Aleut and shareholders in the Aleut-owned corporation involved in the disputed land trade, have advocated for it. They say that flying in and out of the King Cove airport is dangerous in bad weather, while the nearby Cold Bay airport, with a runway extending over 10,000 feet, can accommodate jets providing safe air travel in most conditions.
Members of some Yup’ik tribal organizations on Western Alaska’s Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, however, argue that the road would do substantial damage to wetlands habitat for migratory birds that are important to traditional subsistence hunting.
The refuge’s lagoons support hundreds of thousands of migratory birds each year, including nearly the entire global population of Pacific black brant and more than half the world’s population of emperor geese.
NOTN-News of the North would like to extend condolences to the families of the deceased.
On August 31, 2026, at approximately 2:25 p.m., missing juveniles Leotis Phillips, 16, and Zoey Clark, 16, were located deceased in a wooded area above the 6800 block of Glacier Highway.
Preliminary information indicates that both juveniles died from gunshot wounds. A firearm was located at the scene. Their bodies will be sent to the Alaska State Medical Examiner’s Office in Anchorage for autopsy.
Next of kin has been notified. The investigation remains ongoing, and no additional information is available at this time.
The Juneau School District plans to make support and counseling services available to students and staff affected by this tragedy.
The Juneau Police Department extends its condolences to the families, friends, classmates, and others affected by this loss.
Haines resident Toni Smith is receiving treatment in a Juneau hospital after she was attacked by a bear early Saturday morning.
Smith had been walking her dog when she encountered the bear on Mt. Riley Road, between the intersection with FAA Road and the steep incline commonly known as the sledding hill.
After the attack, Smith was able to walk back to her home, and from there called 911 at 6:23 a.m.
The Haines Volunteer Fire Department responded and took her by ambulance to the Haines SEARHC clinic. A medevac service attempted to fly Smith to Juneau Saturday but was unable to land in Haines due to weather, said Haines fire chief Zak Overmyer.
Weather cleared on Sunday and Smith was flown to a Juneau hospital Sunday afternoon.
Family member Sherri Maust said Smith underwent surgery to clean and stitch wounds, and would likely be staying in the hospital “for some time” for more treatment.
Maust posted an online fundraiser to cover Smith’s medical bills and work missed during her ongoing hospital stay. As of Monday afternoon, more than $14,000 had been raised.
Maust said she and the rest of her family have been “grateful and awed by the love and support pouring in” from the community.
The post Haines bear attack victim identified, family establishes fundraiser appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.
By: Corinne Smith, Alaska Beacon
The Alaska Supreme Court issued a fast-tracked ruling on Thursday, affirming a lower court’s decision that the Alaska Division of Elections’ language for an elections overhaul ballot measure is “true and impartial,” but ordered the division to make one additional change.
The Court issued the ruling days after hearing oral arguments from two groups of plaintiffs on opposing sides of the current ranked-choice voting system. The groups appealed a lower court’s ruling issued in June, challenging the language of Ballot Measure 2 as unclear, politically partisan and containing omissions they sought to change.
Ballot Measure 2, which will appear on the ballot as 24ESEG, would repeal the state’s current ranked choice voting and open primary systems, as well as repeal campaign disclosure rules enacted by voters in 2020.
The Supreme Court ruling Thursday affirmed a Superior Court’s finding that the Alaska Division of Elections’ fulfilled its legal duty in preparing the ballot measure title and summary in a “true and impartial” manner.
But the justices identified one omission: the division must add language that explains if the measure is approved, and nonpartisan, open primaries are eliminated, candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor would run for election separately.
Currently, candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor run together on a combined ticket in the primary election. The top-four vote getters in the open primary advance to the ranked choice general election.
A spokesperson for the Alaska Department of Law, which defended the division and its ballot measure language in court, said by email Friday they welcomed the ruling and would make the change.
“We are pleased that the Alaska Supreme Court rejected nearly all the challenges to the lieutenant governor’s true and impartial ballot summary,” said Sam Curtis, an information officer. He called the court’s directive a small change.
“The State had considered this a minor detail that did not need to be in a ballot summary, but the Court disagreed,” he said. “The Office of the Lieutenant Governor will issue a revised summary soon.”
The revised language is expected to be published by the division before a ballot printing deadline of Sep. 2.
Both groups of plaintiffs that filed appeals in court expressed mixed reactions, saying they were “disappointed” but “appreciated” the court’s decision.
One group of plaintiffs that also sponsored the ballot measure, called the “Repeal Now” campaign, filed a lawsuit challenging the language in court. Among a series of language changes requested, they had argued for language to explain the governor and lieutenant governor would run separately. Their attorney Julie Pack said by email Thursday they maintained concerns.
“We’re disappointed that the summary will continue to incorrectly state that open primaries would end with Ballot Measure 2,” Pack wrote. “Primaries would remain defaulted at open following Ballot Measure 2’s passage, just like they previously were.”
The group argued, in part, that if approved Alaskans would still vote in “open primaries.”
But the ballot measure language states “the act would get rid of open party primaries.” That’s because if voters approve the measure, the elections system would revert to a partisan primary system in which political parties establish rules governing which candidates may appear on their ballot and which voters may participate.
Voters in the primary would no longer be able to vote for candidates of any party running for statewide and federal offices, as they currently do.
The issue is of particular concern to another group of plaintiffs that filed suit in court, represented by attorney Scott Kendall, who was one of the primary sponsors of the 2020 ballot implementing the current ranked-choice voting system.
He argued the current language on the ballot measure related to how the primaries would change is incomplete.
“Our specific request was that it be made more clear that each political party will have the power to not only close their primaries, but to close them and make it unlawful for undeclareds and nonpartisans to vote,” Kendall said in an interview Friday. “There’s some language in the ballot measure that gestures at that, but I don’t think it really makes it clear.”
Overall Kendall said the group is grateful to the court and division for rejecting language proposed by Repeal Now he called “radical changes.”
“We’re very, very grateful that the court correctly rejected those baseless edits,” he said.
Kendall said the Supreme Court’s added change is “a good one.”
“It wasn’t so much about what’s good policy, bad policy. It was when a voter steps into the booth and picks up the pen, are they equipped with full knowledge of what their yes or no vote means?”
Ballot Measure 2 as currently proposed by the Alaska Division of Elections:
An Act Restoring Political Party Primaries, Ending Ranked Choice-General Elections, and Repealing Recent Campaign Finance Laws
This Act would get rid of open primary elections, where all candidates appear on one ballot. It would also get rid of ranked-choice general elections. It would bring back political party primaries and single-choice general elections. It would also repeal certain campaign finance rules that were added by a 2020 ballot measure.
Elections would occur as they did before open primaries and ranked choice elections. In the primary election, voters would choose a party’s ballot, unless prohibited by the party’s bylaws. They would only vote for candidates on that ballot. The winning candidates from each primary would be the party’s nominee. In the general election, voters would vote for only one candidate in each race. Party petitions, special runoff elections, and other processes would return.
This act would repeal campaign finance rules that were passed in 2020. It would remove the limits on donations to joint campaigns for governor and lieutenant governor. It would remove limits and disclosure rules under current law, including for digital ads, out-of-state donations, undisclosed donations and the true source of donations. It would change the meaning of a campaign expenditure and remove some fines.
Should this initiative become law?
Correction: This story has been updated to clarify that if approved, the ballot measure would enact a partisan primary system where political parties establish rules governing which candidates may appear on their ballot and which voters may participate.
This story was first published by ICT.
The salmon and the ooligan that spawn in the Unuk and Stikine rivers have no say in the expansion of mining operations in British Columbia. Neither do the Alaskan tribes that live on the same rivers.
The power lies across the border in Canada, where the mining companies and the provincial, federal and Tahltan Nation authorities have joined forces in a modern-day gold rush to expand the Red Chris Mine at the headwaters of the Stikine River. Plans are also underway to restart the idled Eskay Creek Mine on the Unuk River.
The investment of a half-billion Canadian dollars supporting the expansion of the Red Chris mine by Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government has heightened an international conflict between the Native peoples and others in southeastern Alaska and the First Nations people in Canada who support the project.
Seven tribal nations could be affected by the Eskay Creek Mine, and the Red Chris expansions poses similar threats, according to officials with the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission, or SEITC, a collective of 14 Haida, Tlingit and Tsimshian nations that have united to uphold stewardship over the lands, waters and sacred sites in their territories.
“The expansion of Red Chris means more risk in the headwaters of a river that has sustained our people since time immemorial, “ said SEITC President Esther Aaltseen Reese, Eagle Tsaagweidí (Killerwhale) from Ḵéex̱ʼ Kwáan (Kake), who lives down river of the Red Chris Mine.
“We are salmon people,” Reese told ICT. “The Stikine is part of who we are. We are already seeing contamination from Red Chris entering waters that feed the Stikine, yet British Columbia approved a major expansion without consulting the tribal nations downstream whose ways of life are on the line.”
The Tahltan Nation, which has agreements in place for both mining projects, did not respond to questions about the project posed by ICT via email.
In November 2025, the SEITC filed a judicial review in the British Columbia supreme court to force “meaningful consultation” with Alaskan tribes on mining projects in the headwaters of the Unuk, Stikine and Taku rivers.
“There is no legal or moral basis for B.C. to exclude our tribes who have deep ancestral ties and relationships to land and territory on both sides of the border,” Reese said in a statement issued at the time. “We deserve a seat at the table when decisions are made upstream that could obliterate our way of life.”
Canada’s Ministry of Environment and Parks responded to ICT questions in a written statement.
“We are not expediting projects at the expense of meeting our consultation obligations or compromising our high standards of environmental protection — we are finding opportunities that can do both in our processes,” according to the statement.
In regards to concerns from Alaskan tribes, officials said, “The matter of consultation with Alaska tribes for the environmental assessment of the Eskay Creek project near the B.C./Alaska border is currently before the courts, we are not able to comment.”
The Unuk and Stikine rivers are part of the transboundary watershed, a collection of rivers, streams and tributaries that also include the Taku and Salmon rivers that flow south from British Columbia into Alaska and then on to the Pacific Ocean.
The watershed is crucial spawning grounds for salmon and other fish, and provides sustenance to Indigenous people and others along the rivers.
Cindy Wagner, Haida/Tsimshian, is concerned that the rapid expansion of mining in Canada will have significant environmental impacts on the transboundary watersheds in Alaska.
Wagner, assistant executive director of the SEITC, and her husband, Louis Wagner Jr., live downstream of the Eskay Creek Mine on the Annette Islands Reserve in Alaska on the Unuk River, where she has lived and fished all her life.
She has seen first hand the impact of mining on the Unuk.
The Eskay Creek Mine operated from 1994 to 2008, and the ooligan fishery on the river was closed in 2001. In recent years, ooligan, a small fish also known as eulachon, have begun to return, along with salmon and mackerel.
But she fears that could change with the reopening now underway of the Eskay Creek Mine on a much-larger scale. The mine received its Environmental Assessment Certificate in January.
“This is all for the Unuk River,” Wagner told ICT. “It’s a major salmon river, an ooligan spawning river, a mackerel spawning river, and vital to southeast Alaska.”
Reese says her people are concerned about a possible overflow or dam breach at the tailings ponds that collect the mining byproducts. In 2014, a breach at the Mount Polley copper and gold mine tailings dam resulted in billions of liters of wastewater spilling into the waterways. The mine is owned by Imperial Metals, which also owns a share of the Red Chris mine.
“Contamination or a failure at Red Chris could travel downstream, across the border, and through one of the most intact salmon systems left in the world,” Reese said. “The cumulative impacts of multiple large mines only magnify that risk.”
Tribes on the American side of the border have been living with the impact of mining for decades and fighting, to no avail, to stop expansion, local officials said.
On June 19, however, the province of British Columbia approved the transition of the Red Chris mine from an open-pit mine to a block cave mine that would largely be underground. On July 2, the Canadian government approved the funding support.
The Tahltan Nation in British Columbia has signed on with Red Chris mine’s owners and operators, Newmont Corporation and Imperial Metals, according to a statement from the companies.
The outlook is not as rosy downstream. The Annette Islands Reserve of the Metlakatla Alaska Native Community is Alaska’s only reservation, with other Native lands transferred to Alaska Native Corporations under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, or ANCSA.
The reserve sits on the pristine Alexander Archipelago about 250 miles south of Juneau.
Wagner has lived off the Unuk River for most of her life, and in recent years has been defending Alaska’s waterways against mining development in Canada.
“I have always been fishing, even as a child,” she said. “My parents brought us out, all four of us, on a little 35-foot boat … I met my husband. The first time I helped him was down on his brother’s boat. He was selling ooligan and he didn’t have anyone to help him, and so I helped him.”
Wagner and her husband have always watched the waters of the Unuk River, and taken note of how clean and deep they were, and how the fish changed in appearance and in number. Then, in 1999, after the Eskay Creek Mine began operating, they noticed that industrial waste was piling up in the low part of the river.
“We are way up this river,” Wagner said. “How does a rusted-up oil drum get this far? How does all this plastic and old tarps and old pallets get up here? This looks to be an important part where the moose stepped into the river to get across, and it’s blocked with junk.”
The fish noticed, too, she said.
“In about 2001, we started noticing the ooligan bypassing the Unuk River,” she said.
Ooligan are different from mackerel and salmon, which return to the waters where they were spawned. Ooligan go to where the water is best, she said.
The Unuk River was beginning to recover after the Eskay Creek Mine shut down in 2008, Wagner said, when a mining boom began on the Canadian side, in an area in northwest British Columbia called the “Golden Triangle.”
By 2022, just two mines were in operation, BruceJack and Red Chris. But four mines were proposed, seven were under development and seven more exploration projects were underway, mostly to dig for gold, according to a provincial report on mines. The ore extracted from the ground is processed to pull out the valuable gold and copper that it can contain.
Guy Archibald, executive director of the transboundary commission and a self-described “reformed miner,” said the transition from an open-pit mine to a block cave mine at Red Chris will mean a dramatic escalation involving hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, a controversial method also used for extracting natural gas.
Archibald said the SEITC member nations “upholding their sovereign rights and defending the transboundary Stikine, Taku and Unuk Rivers from rapidly expanding mining development occurring in the Canadian headwaters.”
An environmental chemist, Archibald has been with the commission since its inception in 2014. Before that, he worked in the uranium industry in southeastern Utah and the oil shale industry in western Colorado in the 1970s and 1980s, he said.
Archibald explained the process behind a block cave mine.
“They’ve mined out the ore body that’s closest to the surface, and in order to go deeper, they’re going to have to access it underground,” he said. “They’re going to drive a ramp underneath the ore body, and then … they’re going to fracture the ore body pretty much the same as they do hydraulic fracturing, fracking for natural gas.”
The crumbled ore falls into the ramp and is carted above ground, he said.
“They’re going to just start scooping it out from the bottom as this cavity, this cave, just naturally collapses in,” he said. “It’s just going to turn into a big crater in the earth, and that’s block cave mining.”
The practice is not new, but in the past, miners would use drilling. With this project, they’ll use fracking.
“Block cave mining has been around for a long time,” Archibald said. “The only difference I see with the way Red Chris is doing it is by doing the hydraulic fracturing from the surface, drilling down and then pumping high pressure water into the ore body to break it up.”
The introduction of fracking to the block cave operation is a major concern to the SEITC. Officials say the mine can’t contain its current tailings, which already end up in the groundwater.
“The studies have been showing the tailings dam leaks into the groundwater 26 percent of its volume every year,” Archibald said. “Those tailings have to be constantly covered with water so that they don’t oxidize and turn acidic. We already have downstream pollution problems in groundwater and surface water…Using more water to frack this ore body is not going to help that situation.”
The Red Chris mine operation is a joint venture partnership between the Newmont Corporation, which owns 70 percent, and Imperial Metals, which owns 30 percent.
The Red Chris was one of 18 major projects named by Canada’s Major Projects Office, the new federal department created by the Carney government to push forward his “Build Canada Strong” strategy. The half-billion-dollar investment may be just the beginning.
“With the authorizations granted by the province and the support of the Tahltan Nation, the stage has been set for the development of Red Chris into a Block Cave mine,” Imperial President Brian Kynoch said, following the approval of the British Columbia government. “These approvals are a critical step in advancing a final investment decision by the joint venture partnership.”
Newmont officials welcomed the news in a statement promising that the project would not only increase Canada’s copper production by an estimated 15 percent but that the infrastructure could be a hub for mining for decades.
“The project is expected to extend the life of the current Red Chris mine by approximately 14 years and sets the foundation for decades of potential additional mining,” Newmont stated. “It represents a significant opportunity to create long-term value for Newmont’s shareholders, strengthen critical mineral supply chains, and deliver long-term benefits for local communities, Indigenous partners, British Columbia, and Canada.”
Canada’s Major Projects office is promoting both production and Indigenous participation, stating that the project was “developed in close collaboration with the Tahltan Nation, whose Traditional Territory overlaps directly with the mine site” and that “the project supports reconciliation while strengthening Canada’s role as a reliable supplier of critical minerals.”
Provincial leaders have changed the laws, however, to eliminate participation of U.S. tribes when it comes to environmental impacts. The province passed Bill 15 in April to amend the dispute resolution processes in British Columbia’s Environmental Assessment Act to limit participation of tribes in the U.S. and exclude them as “participating Indigenous nations.”
Archibald says the moves have raised concerns for taxpayers as well.
“Subsidizing the Red Chris just furthers the privatization of profit while transferring the risk on to the taxpayer,” he said. “If Newmont and Imperial Metals can’t afford their own infrastructure, what assurance do we have that adequate funds will be available for long-term tailings management, closure, and cleanup to protect the Stikine River for hundreds of years into the future?”
The Eskay Creek Mine, owned by Skeena Gold + Silver, is an open-pit gold and silver mine that is being redeveloped with a projected 12-year mine life.
In approving the mine’s expansion, British Columbia Premier David Eby hailed the relationship with First Nations.
“Today marks success for yet another multibillion-dollar investment in our province that will deliver prosperity, jobs and stability for all British Columbians, achieved in true partnership with the Tahltan,” Eby said in a Jan. 27, 2026, press release. “Congratulations to all who were involved in this important work. Those who want to end our work with First Nations would not have delivered these thousands of jobs, period. Following their advice would leave us poorer, tied up in court and in a place of uncertainty.
Kerry Carlick, president of the Tahltan Central Government, issued a statement in the same press release.
“This is a hugely important day,” Carlick said. “TCG’s decision to consent to the Eskay Creek Project reflects a historic, precedent-setting process that affirms Tahltan Nation’s authority over development in our Territory, recognized by the Province and Skeena Gold + Silver.”
When asked to comment regarding concerns of Indigenous Alaskans about environmental concerns, a spokesperson for Skeena Gold + Silver responded that they had answered those concerns.
“We have already addressed many questions regarding concerns from the Alaskan groups, as we were going through our permitting process,” Galena Maleger, the vice president of investor relations told ICT in an email. “There is a significant amount of information available online as to how Eskay Creek is adhering to the highest standards in environmental management.”
Downstream on the Unuk River, Wagner and her husband are already seeing more and more boats hauling material north to the dam site. They can only imagine the size of the massive project based on the garbage that piles up in the river.
Wagner has a message for the Tahltan Nation whose members will profit from the two mines.
“I think they should be more aware of what’s coming down the river, because it’s not staying up there on their territory,” Wagner said. “It’s coming down on my territory, my tribe’s territory, all southeast territory, and we have to deal with it.”
This story was originally published by ICT, formerly Indian Country Today.
