I would say no. I think things are stretched as far as they can be, plus some. Everybody in the north is resilient. If you throw us in the dirt, we'll always find a way to get it done, but if we are burdened with a form of carbon tax, that revenue has to go back into supporting greener technology or some realistic alternative for residential and commercial use.
One of the reasons it costs so much for transportation in the north is that our airports are aging. They don't support newer airplanes. In many communities, the only way to get consumables in and out is by air. There's a reason we're still flying around 60-year-old jets that burn tons and tons of gas and even in some airports, you can't get in with a jet.
As for the main economic drivers with the three operating diamond mines, they're producing their own solar and wind power. They're building their own roads. They're doing what they can, and then to throw on a carbon tax.... For one operating mine alone, from what I understand, over 10 years, it's going to add an additional $13 million in operating expenses to their mine. They can't pass that on to the customer. The pie is the same size no matter how you slice it, so if you're going to start chipping away at it, they're going to.... They need to manage their business as best they can too, so the other option is to start pumping more rock through the mill, get it out as quick as you can, and shut the lights off as quick as you can.
There's another project close to Yellowknife that's near to becoming a reality. Their biggest challenge right now is a sustainable electrical energy source. The grid here right now won't support it. They need about 50 megawatts of power. Wind or solar energy doesn't give them the initial bump they need when they turn the switch on for all their big electric motors. There's a tremendous amount of untapped hydro power in the region. Just south of the lake, the Taltson hydro project could quite easily be tapped into the North Slave grid through about 300 or so kilometres of new line. That would instantly give that project the electrical power they need, plus it would take a lot of the communities downstream off diesel and give an additional backup source for Yellowknife.